Alex Walker vs. Curren Price

I've been trying to figure out just what is going on in the SD-26 special election. I am trying to learn more about Alex's opponents, especially Curren Price who seems to be receiving all of the endorsement. So, I set up a Google Alert on Price's name. This is the result today.

Google Web Alert for: "Curren Price"
Curren D. Price, Jr. - Assemblyman for the 51st District of California
City Councilman Curren D. Price, Jr., is committed to the improvement of District 51 in the City of Inglewood, Gardena, Hawthorne, Lawndale, Del Aire, ...

However, following the link brings you to a page that says...

Account Suspended!!
If you are seeing this page, it means your hosting account has been suspended.

Please read below for possible causes and remedies:

It looks to me as if Price is going for the Cheap Price. If only he would have done that in the Assembly. Not the best way for Curren to start off his campaign. Some how it does not look like he has it all together.

The politics of racial unity

I wonder if we have seen a tipping point in the political expression of race in America. At one level, there is the very fact that Barack Obama is now the President of these United States. As he remarked himself, 60 years ago his father would not have been served at many eating places in America. One commentator said that he grew up knowing, really knowing that no black child would ever become President. Now, his grand children will never think that way again.

At another level, though, was the way that Obama asked America to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. So many in my county have celebrated the day by taking a train to San Francisco and participating in celebration event there. This year was no exception. A Santa Clara County Green blogged about the 24th annual Freedom Train.

At the end of the train ride in San Francisco until 2 years ago used to be a march from the Caltrain station at 4th and Townsend to the SF Civic Center. The official line was that with the election of Obama the dream has now been 'realized'. Setting aside the debatability of what I take to be a vast overstatement of today's reality (ie. does an election of yet another Duopoly candidate to lead the Amurikkkan Empire, biracial or not really fully 'realize' Dr. King's dream -- No, I certainly don't think so -- one of our guides on the Freedom Train intimated that the politically impolite reality was that paying for the police to line the march and to seal off the route was too expensive at this time for the volunteer organization NorCalMLK to be able to pull off.

Let me contrast that perception to the reality that Obama had issued a call to celebrate the day by turning it into a National Day of Service, volunteering to help your community as a way of honoring not only the Dream of Dr. King, but also the knowledge that this dream can only be achieved by hard work.

To me, this feels like we have taken step beyond the old politics of racial divide and identity. Alex Walker was right to question the need for any people of color caucus.

The ground is shifting and we had better learn to dance to a new tune.

Special Election Opportunity: Alex Walker for State Senate

I am more than happy to post that my co-author here, Alex Walker, has tossed his hat into the ring for the Sate Senate Seat (26th SD) vacated by Mark Ridley-Thomas. I want everyone to know that Alex is a wonderful, very Green Black man. He will bring a breath of fresh air to a campaign and a district that has been under a cloud of political smog for far too long.

Check out Alex through his campaign site and/or his facebook group.

More importantly, figure out just where and how you can help elect the first Green State Senator in California's history.

Politics as Usual

Earlier today I read a comment from Alex on a post at GreenCommons. In it, he published a 2004 letter from Donna Warren, a letter that revealed the passion that Warren has for her beliefs and one which, I am sure, Alex is in full agreement.

Wish we had more people in the party who could deliver a message as well as Alex and Donna have done.

Donna was firing back at the Congressional Black Caucus for their attacks on Ralph Nader and Peter Camejo during the 2004 Presidential election. Donna was pretty blunt.

In 2000, Congressman Julian Dixon sold me out like a $2 dollar whore when, as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee, he announced the CIA was not complicit in the destruction of the inner cities by crack cocaine. I’m tired of being sold out like a $2 dollar whore by Black people living the good life as my representative in our nation’s capitol.

Recently, I come across a new site, called the Courage Campaign. They have lofty goals, clearly stated.

The Courage Campaign was created to revitalize the California dream from outside the political system. We are progressives who activate and enable the grassroots and organized leadership to take on the problems that have held back our state for the past 30 years.

We have three main objectives:

1. To create a permanent field organizing presence. We have built a statewide voter file and user interface tools that our friends and allies can use at little or no cost to them in an ongoing campaign to encourage and enable actions and engagement.
2. To create channels of communication and coordination among progressive groups in California. We have formed The Courage Coalition, a statewide alliance of diverse organizations ranging from the Sierra Club to Justice For Janitors to build capacity, assets and support.
3. To fight for good government. As a start, we've written The Truth In Initiatives Act which calls for massive new disclosure in the initiative process that will pave the way for broader reform in the future. We are working to pass it through the California legislature but will qualify it as a ballot initiative if necessary.

Yet, when I did though all of this, it appears to be just another front for the Democratic Party, like moveon.org or DFA. The reason that I bring this up is the profile of one of the "bloggers" at Courage Campaign.

Elliott Petty, Blogger. Elliott is a dynamic young community organizer dedicated to empowering his community through grassroots organizing for social and economic justice. A devout follower of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Caesar Chavez and Marcus Garvey, Elliott Petty is earnestly guided by the principles of Justice, Integrity and Self-Determination. After stopping Wal-Mart from taking over Inglewood, CA in 2004, Elliott continues to advocate for core democratic principles including living wages, access to health care, responsible economic development and local job creation. He is also president of New Frontier Young Democratic Club.

Elliott sounds very much like he has the values that Donna Warren was talking about, but he also could be just another Democratic hack.

So why bother to write this? Well, as everyone looks at coalitions for social / political change, it pays to make sure that you know with whom you are dealing and that everyone is clear about your objectives.