: This is a forwarded message to all activists and media lists
: from Dr. Brian O'Leary who was science and energy policy
: advisor and speechwriter on science and energy policy
: issues for four previous US Presidential Candidates .
: More info on Dr. O'Leary is at:
: http://www.independence.net/oleary
: -------
: From: "Brian O'Leary"
: To: "David Crockett Williams" gear2000@l...
: Subject: Why we must vote for Nader
: Date: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 12:08 PM
: Hi, David,
: Because my cyber abilities are severely limited (I've never
: done a mass-mailing for example) and my computer is busted
: most of the time, I wonder if you could circulate this as
: widely as possible within your network, including Steve
: Kaplan, Remy Chevalier and all the rest. The only bit I'm
: not sure of substantiating is the Gore/Occidental Petroleum
: deal, which I had learned of from only one source.
: (RMNEWS: This can be substantiated by going to
: http://www.worldnetdaily.com and looking for Michael
: Savage's column on the Elk Hills Oil Reserve.)
: Suffice to say, that if we are to have the proper revolution
: we desire (clean energy, hemp, etc.), we absolutely will
: need to put our support behind Mr. Nader. It almost sickens
: me the number of e-mails I'm getting to vote for Gore, and
: yet my cyberlimitations seem to be unable for my voice to
: be heard.
: The following statement, I want shouted from the mountaintops,
: given to all our friends such as Steve, Remy Chevalier,
: etc. Perhaps you could make the following statement
: available to all whom you wish to hear it; it's a
: counterpoint that must be heard, and it's my only trump
: card in this strangest of years.
: Thanks for helping.
:
Why I'm Voting for Nader
: Brian O'Leary, Ph.D., copyright 2000
: I've been deeply disturbed, dismayed and sometimes depressed
: with the recent movement of folks I admire and respect with
: their plea to vote for Mr. Gore, which is spreading like
: wildfire on the internet.
: Therefore, as never before in my limited cyberpresence, I must
: protest and offer some of my reasons for voting for Mr.
: Nader.
: What I hear primarily is a fear of "the burning
: Bush", that oilman and his golden-parachute henchman,
: Mr. Cheney, master of smart bombs that kill people, and
: could kill more. Let me say at the outset that I don't want
: those gentlemen (?) in there any more than the rest of you.
: They're spoiled fraternity boys aggrandized by the silliest
: most superficial media I have seen in my sixty years here
: (Sorry, Mr. Gore isn't much better).
: But I also see fear and ignorance in the anti-Nader, pro-Gore
: statements that are full of shallow myths ("A vote for
: Nader is a vote for Bush") ("Nader has no
: credentials besides being a
: consumer advocate") (etc). I wish to not only dispel
: these myths, but to also point outfrom my own considerable
: Washington experience, that not only is Mr. Nader superbly
: qualified, but we have a clear choice independent of the
: unprecedently inordinate influence of big money interests
: that are destroying our environment and individual freedom.
:
Mr. Nader therefore needs our support.
: We are in a revolution of human affairs, a paradigm shift,
: where defensive voting has no place...sorry, it's too late
: for that.
: A week ago I keynoted a Forum to Convert to a Hydrogen Economy
: in Ft. Collins. We discussed what it would take to get off
: our life-destroying fossil fuel economy.
: The only standing ovation I got was when I said I'd vote for
: Ralph Nader.
:
These were professors, technical people, no dummies.
:
: The support came only because of the simple fact that Mr.
: Nader is the only candidate who supports the rapid
: conversion to a clean energy economy.
: Recently my colleague Dennis Weaver and I heard Nader speak
: here in Montrose.
: Nader epitomizes honesty, intellectual rigor, compassion,
: the desire to get off fossil fuels, universal health care,
: legalizing commercial hemp in order to save our forests,
: and busting the awesome power of international
: corporatations.
: Gore has been bought out. This is important stuff, the essence
: of my entire research over the past two years, Over the
: past four decades, I have advised and written speeches for
: McGovern, Kennedy, Mondale, Udall and Jackson.
: The Gore people also asked me to help, but I refused the
: opportunity for the following reasons: he has all but
: abandoned the precepts of "The Earth in Balance",
: has accepted campaign contributions from the likes of
: Occidental Petroleum, who won the bid for the pipeline to
: the pristine Arctic Wildlife Refuge, advocates the largest
: peacetime military budget in American history, oversees the
: largest incarceration rate in the world
: for victimless crimes, and is basically bought out.
: So what if Gore has the support of the Sierra Club and other
: "environmental" groups? My new book in progress
: well documents how those groups have sold out too. Those
: endorsements mean absoloutely nothing to me.
: Perhaps most importantly, I cannot vote for someone
: defensively. I'd rather live with four years of Bush, then
: switch to Nader (whom I'll be heartily supporting in future
: years, if he has the courage to run again) than to buy into
: the lesser evil of the unprecedently money-ridden neopolik
: of America; I feel we need to expose this outrageous
: corruption and cooption of the media, and not vote
: defensively.
: A 10-15 % showing could go a long way in hearing Nader's
: voice, so far considered a joke by the media of the likes
: of Pat Buchanan.
: We need a revolution here, not more of the same; I'm shocked
: at how the fear of Bush would have created so much
: defensiveness and pretty much a guarantee of the same
: shameful American "prosperity" which is leading
: the world down the tubes.
: Whatever has happened to democracy, where we vote our
: consciences? We're collectively crazy!!!
: I told an audience of 4000 in Houston last week that the next
: time I would have a temper tantrum is when someone tells me
: that a vote for Nader is a vote for Bush. No, a vote for
: Nader is a vote for Nader.
: Nader happens to be an excellently qualified candidate who
: refuses to be bought out, and could make a big difference.
: Gore is just another mish-mash of decadent (although
: admittedlly morally better) of Clintonism, of Blairism,
: etc.
: So you have a choice to join the revolutionary team, or sell
: out again! Being a revolutionary might take another four
: years but will be much better on the other side.
: I've also heard from various quarters that Nader doesn't have
: the credentials. Nothing could be farther from the truth.
: Nader is a much misunderstood man.
: In fact, he is more of a Washington insider than the insiders
: themselves, but he's incorruptable. He has maintained the
: same modest studio apartment for decades.
: I worked with him briefly on nuclear power issues during the
: 1970s while I was consultant to the U.S. House subcommittee
: on energy and the environment headed by Mo Udall who was
: running for president. Nader tirelessly drafted
: legislation, worked endlessly with the committee
: congressmen (and myself) day and night creating a leveling
: off of nuclear power plant new
: starts.
: More than any "lobbyist" he was always in the public
: interest and against the corporate, big money interest, an
: interest which has totally corrupted our culture, including
: Mr. Gore himself.
: The fat cats have taken over Washington, it's so obvious, and
: Mr.
: Nader is one of a handful of public interest advocates (much,
: much more than just a consumer advocate).
: He will be remembered in history as a great selfless American
: hero, well-versed in Washington affairs, while Nero fiddles
: as Rome burns, and as the current Administration or a truly
: awful Bush administration figure out ways of rearranging
: the deck chairs of the Titanic, taking their oil profits
: (the analogue to the iceberg awaiting) and figuring out
: ways to get to the
: first lifeboat.
: If you or some of your subscribers vote for Nader, it will be
: clean, honest, incorruptable, and essential for the
: environment.
: I have seen the process of Mr. Gore selling out. Don't trust
: he'll return to his "environmentalism" any more
: than existing
: "environmental" groups allow SUVs to pollute the
: air, for global warming/climate change to change a la Kyoto
: celebrated by Mr. Gore, which is way too little too late,
: or for one acre of forests per second to be irrevokably
: destroyed, while the Clinton/Gore administration raids and
: arrests native Americans for growing commercial hemp in
: South Dakota (Nader's words
: for these actions: "medieval")
: Please vote for Nader, or we're in big trouble.
: Thanks.
: Best, Brian
: _________________________________________________
Yes! I was convinced to take Sherman Skolnick's advice and abstain, but I now agree with Dr. O'Leary. I will vote for Nader.