I started the day by going to the workshop titled "From Austerity to Prosperity: The Green New Deal and the Green Economy." I got there about half way through it, so they were already on Q&A when I got there.

  

After it was over I found out I was sitting next to a candidate for State Assembly in South Carolina. Click her picture above to see her flier.

In the next workshop block I went to the one titled "A Low-Carbon, Green Diet: Food and the Environment presented by Mary Rooker". It was fascinating. Basically the format was a go round, where each of us had our situation discussed briefly. Some were experienced vegetarians that talked about tricks for getting the word out. Things like "take a great home made vegan dish to your next potluck." Others talked about tentative steps towards vegetarianism they were taking. Mary gave out a very thoughtful set of handouts, which you can read by clicking here.

I used my moment to say that the idea I hear going around that "a vegetarian diet can do more to trim your carbon footprint than anything else" is a myth. Going car free can have a bigger impact on your carbon footprint. Mary explained that the myth was based on the true statement that "not driving a car today doesn't save as much energy as not eating meat today." Living car free has a much bigger impact on your carbon footprint than that.

        

I think Ursula is running for Congress in New York. Her shirts featuring the feminism key value were popular. She told me that she got the shirts she used at the Salvation Army shop.

  

After lunch I went to the "Green Party Peace Action Committee Meeting." Turns out that the group hadn't been active for a while. This lawyer had decided to resurrect it, so she put the name on the workshop list and passed around a sign up sheet at the meeting. Not sure where it's going from here. I've this feeling that if I suggest anything on the email list I'll be the one implementing it. Seems to me the peace caucus is a "somebody's got to do it" thing for Greens. Still thinking about what to volunteer to do for/with them.

Talking to a vendor I learned that the agreement with the hotel for the convention over the weekend precluded vending there, so this day was the only opportunity to table that he had.

In the next workshop block I went to the one titled "Achieving Equal Access in an Age of Political Discrimination presented by Oliver Hall, Center for Competitive Democracy."

Turns out that Oliver Hall has worked with Ralph Nader on a bunch of ballot access cases and stuff like that. After listening to the guy for a while it was very clear to me that the framework around our elections is very structured to keep the status quo in place, however the rest of us would like to see it. However, there was one quote from a Judge that he found so important he wrote it on the board before the talk and read it to us live during the presentation.

  

"The framers understood the Elections Clause as a grant of authority to issue procedural regulations and not as a source of power to dictate electoral outcomes, to favor or disfavor a class of candidates, or to evade important constitutional restraints." Hall's hopes for a better future rest on that kind of thinking. He needs candidates doing battle in the electoral arena as the raw material for case law developments. They are still grinding through the appeals courts with a couple of Ralph Nader cases.

  

I had dinner on my own at a vegetarian restaurant named "House of Kush." They served delicious soul food. Collard greens, cornbread, beans, and "vegetarian chicken" type stuff. On the way from there to the party I saw this green tracks test. All I could think was "what a concept"!