Brenda Konkel, a Wisconsin Green incumbent, started it. She reminded us that Wisconsin is just to the north of Illinois before welcoming the rest of us to the Midwest.

  

Malik Ramin started softly and quietly, talking about the twenty year struggle we've been through to get to this point. He reminded us of the Vietnam War, when many of the older people in the room first became aware of the problems in our political system. He ended by thundering about how important it is to support our presidential nominee, which ever candidate we choose.

     

David Cobb, the Green Party's Presidential Nominee in 2004, reminded us that in 2004 it was the Green Party that contested the fraudulent elections in Ohio. The Democrats and Republicans were complicit in the problem, so we had to do it. He pointed out that by being a growing grassroots threat to the incumbent partys, we are already making the American political system more honest. "It takes green to run the Green Party" Cobb continued. He asked everybody in the room to contribute. Then he asked everybody listening live on C-SPAN to visit gp.org and donate online or mail in a check.

David Cobb got the first standing ovation of the meeting.

  

The moderator came on and said that the rest of the time before lunch would be taken up with the final pleas for our votes from the presidential candidates. They would all get the same amount of time, and would be presented in alphabetical order. After lunch we will vote on the matter. Then he started the timer on Jesse Johnson's speech. After a few seconds former Senator Mike Gravel came on the screen behind the podium.

  

The Senator explained that he couldn't be with us in person because of a recent operation. He urged us to vote for Jesse, the kind of Candidate that America needs to solve her problems.

What I remember most of Jesse's speech is the part where he got us all to sing that old Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young song that went "Find the cost of freedom, buried in the ground. Mother Earth will swallow you, lay your body down."

  

Cynthia introduced her VP candidate, Rosa Clemente

  

Kent Mesplay said we must all be Dog Soldiers for the environment.

  

Kat told us that she plans to run for (city council? County Supervisor?) back in San Antonio, Texas after this race.

     

Pamela Elizondo was by the food line with this sign. I remembered her as the Green Candidate in California's 1st Congressional District, the one where Carol Wollman is now our Candidate. She said that the Registrar had pulled some sort of shenanigan during ballot access time that had kept her off this year.