I was the not-so-tight-rope artist and juggler Evan from Heaven for 20 years. I entertained 400,000 on Boulder's mall, but the City banned me and others from 1982-1985, in spite of a petition (see below) of 4000 fans -and Boulder and Constitutional law. I became homeless.
So I went to Aspen and Key West, and then Mexico & Guatemala. I started building a house on a Mayan artist friend's land, but abandoned it when 3 other Mayan friends were killed by the Guatemalan Army -with U.S.-supplied M-16s.
I returned to Boulder, depressed. I read in Howard Zinn's "People's History of the U.S." that polls showed by 1975 that 65% of Americans were opposed to all foreign military aid. I realized if WE had a vote on it, my friends would still be alive -along with millions world-wide. That we'd never have been banned in Boulder. And the world would be a better place.
I spearheaded Boulder's 1993 Voting by Phone ballot initiative, thinking it the technology to make citizens voting directly on the laws practical. We made the CBS Evening News, the Wall St. Journal, etc.
With a dishonest City Council attacking our initiative we were defeated 59-41%. I started Vote.org in 1995 to promote citizen power via better and national ballot initiatives.
I soon got a call from Jared Polis, a Princeton student who'd enabled student Voting by Web. We've been friends ever since. We both love Mexico as well as democracy. I drag Jared hiking once or twice a year.
Jared became the wealthiest and most philanthropic person in Boulder and is now our Congressman! He said on radio that he's going to introduce a bill for national ballot initiatives later this year.
In 2000 I devoted Vote.org to Sen. Mike Gravel's project for better and national initiatives. I took the initiative to solicit endorsements from prominent people. Howard Zinn became one of the first, along with Patch Adams, Pete Seeger, Daniel Ellsberg, Julia Butterfly Hill, "Granny D," Michael Lerner, Ralph Nader etc. See the complete list.
Posts
5 comments:
Could you post this on Dailykos? Maybe even add a bit about getting Pete Seeger to endorse it and just a bit more about your life and why you support initiatives, if you feel like it. You could try posting it on OpEdNews and other places like that, too.
Ross
Here's what I posted on DailyKos:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/4/6/717118/-Co-determination-beats-representative-or-direct-democracy!
Your KOS article is right on.
Evan: I became 'acquainted' with you on facebook through my partner, who first knew you 'back in the day' on the Mall, and during your exile from it.
I have been paying attention to your posts on facebook and, I will admit, have trouble keeping up with all the issues. I don't consider myself to be terribly politically literate, because, frankly, the system seems just too flawed (how can a person stay informed without devoting a prohibitive amount of energy to a process where the players lie and the rules change constantly?). But it doesn't take a genius to recognize that things just aren't 'working' very well.
The invitation to 'regain paradise' from Back To the Garden catches my eye, because it is with a fair amount of romanticism that I view my world as such: the Garden it was intended to be (and in an esoteric sense, rather than a Biblical one). I'm going to join the group and add my energy to the process, although what help I can offer the overall effort might be minimal, even so, I will try.
Thanks to you Evan, for your champion spirit, for putting forth initiative against those issues that inhibit a prosperous social structure, and for your efforts to stop the criminal and violent inhumanity of man.
Thanks, mysterious Spyromom. Hardly anyone would get in the sewer of "politics" until it had endangered their life.
Post a Comment