{"id":6767,"date":"2012-10-25T17:57:05","date_gmt":"2012-10-25T21:57:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/?p=6767"},"modified":"2012-10-25T17:57:39","modified_gmt":"2012-10-25T21:57:39","slug":"me-and-the-greens-party-that-is-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2012\/10\/25\/me-and-the-greens-party-that-is-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Me and the Greens (Party, that is)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Petra Kelly, co-found of the German Green Party (Wikipedia)<\/p><\/div>\n

There’s been a lot of talk lately on the In Box and in the North Country news-o-sphere about the Green Party, Don Hassig’s wobbly run for congress, and the media’s coverage of third parties in general.<\/p>\n

One personal wrinkle in this whole story is that I was sort of there at the early going of the international Green Party movement, albeit in a totally inconsequential, feckless bystanderish sort of way.<\/p>\n

In 1983, I went to what was then West Germany.\u00a0 I was a high school kid from a tiny Alaskan town, eager to learn about the big, wide world.<\/p>\n

As a foreign exchange student, I was entirely politically naive, far more interested in girls and beer than ideas or the fate of nations.<\/p>\n

But I found myself in a crucible of ferocious argument, over the Cold War, the environment, the role of America in the world, and capitalism.<\/p>\n

This being Germany, the debates were powered by philosophy and theory, rather than talking points and sound bites.<\/p>\n

(Okay, it wasn’t all deep rhetoric.\u00a0 That was also the year that Nena’s pop song “99 Luftballoons” came out, an anti-war dance tune that was sort of the anthem of the moment.)