Congressman Jesse
Jackson Jr., Harvard Law Professor Lani Guinier,
California Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa and
California Sen. Tom Hayden were among the political
celebrities on the 10-member panel for a gathering called
"What's Missing, What Matters: A Town Hall
Meeting" held at the Leo Baeck Temple in Los Angeles
and sponsored by The Nation Institute, a program of The
Nation magazine. They challenged the convention to
address such issues as globalization, universal
healthcare, the drug war and the prison industrial
complex.
Globalization and corporate rule
won't be dealt with by the convention to the extent they
should, contended panelist Lori Wallach, director of
Global Trade Watch, even though they have a large impact
on people's lives across the world. "These items may
be left out of the convention, but they can't be left out
of activism," Wallach said. Globalization - the
dominance by multinational corporations over the economy
and governments worldwide - has protesters fired up. They
will be hitting the streets of Los Angeles throughout the
week to get the attention of convention delegates.
Quite a few members of the
audience, who clapped louder at the mention of Ralph
Nader, presidential candidate for the Green Party, than
for the Democrats' candidate Al Gore, shared Wallach's
disappointment in the convention agenda.
Another issue that the Democratic
Party is ignoring, some fear, is the impact that drug
laws and the war on drugs are having on the Black
population in the United States. With five Black men in
prison for everyone Black man in college, drug laws are
"part of the failed policies that have been pushed
by both the Republican and Democratic parties,"
according to Lani Guinier. Whichever party controls the
White House should make sure that these policies no
longer drain federal and state budgets, taking funds away
from education, she said, noting that the average prison
guard in California makes more money than a first year
college professor.
Californians are also suffering
from the lack of adequate health care, said Assemblyman
Antonio Villaraigosa, yet the Democratic Party is not
supporting universal health care. That's why everyone
needs to get involved in the democratic decision-making
process. "Until you get people involved, you will
never move this party in the direction you want it to
go," Villaraigosa said. He was not afraid to let the
audience know that even though he does not agree with all
the positions that the Democratic Party takes, he is a
delegate for Al Gore.
Congressmen Jesse Jackson Jr.,
California State Senator Tom Hayden and Senator Paul
Wellstone, who also sat on the panel, expressed their
support for Gore as well. Most panel members supported
Gore and the Democratic Party, but panelist and columnist
for the Los Angeles Times Robert Scheer heated things up
by criticizing Democratic spending on missile tests.
When this issue was thrown in
Jackson's direction, he suggested that criticism like
Scheer's and Nader's on issues like this one can benefit
politics in the United States if they are brought to the
public eye during the presidential debates. Jackson said
that Nader should be included in the
"More discussions like this
can only make this country a better place to live,"
said Jill Golden, a member of the Green Party who sat in
the audience. "Maybe the Democrats will start to
acknowledge that there is more out there than just black
and white, even though I doubt it will happen during this
campaign, let alone this convention."
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