Zinn Institute: Are You In?
“On scrolls of silver snowy sentences, not War’s unbeautiful alliteration.”
Richard Martin Oxman (with apologies to Hart Crane)

Dedicated to Noam Chomsky, Michael Parenti and Arundhati Roy

“Keep in mind, if you will, that for the 2006 gubernatorial election in California there was only a 39.29 % turnout. And that the number of what they call invalid or blank votes just about equaled what Peter Camejo got for the Green Party, almost half of what all the non-major candidates received. All else being equal (which is never the case, granted) the TOSCA candidate could win by a landslide. On both paper and in my gut I know we can do this.” — The author’s imaginary, imaginative neighbor

“Though ending war wouldn’t solve all of life’s problems, it wouldn’t be a bad start. Aside from cutting way down on the number of traumatized souls walking the streets, the number of innocent civilians slaughtered, and environmental degradation… there would be more money available for… you know what. With ending just one of our many wars. Obviously.” — The author’s anonymous TOSCA* partner

*http://oxtogrind.org/archive/331

For me, it has a ring, Zinn Institute.

As per Howard Zinn’s http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/21923, my intention is to (contribute to) end(ing) war on earth. Sorry, I’m serious.

Now… for those of you who haven’t left the hall, let’s see where we can start.

Let’s use our imaginations. Let’s acknowledge that nothing great happens, nothing “impossible” happens without such letting go.

So… let’s start by taking over the State of California in 2010 as per http://oxtogrind.org/archive/315 and http://oxtogrind.org/archive/329.

Like I told Michael Parenti — so thrilled to have his support! — even if we lose… if we garner only 500,000 votes (WHICH I AM CERTAIN WE CAN DO) we’ll have topped the total for what ALL “other parties” got in 2006 in California… the Greens, the Libertarians, and the Peace and Freedom and American Independent parties combined. That would be an absolute watershed in history in anyone’s book. Especially if the votes were given to our WRITE-IN candidate (with no affiliation whatsoever). And ESPECIALLY if no traditional campaign were waged… with no dependence upon mainstream media coverage.

THE PUNCHLINE: We’re going to do this on a ZERO budget. And with a non-politican as a figurehead of a coalition with a heart. Only those totally bereft of imagination can fail to see the potential of such a feat to transform public consciousness.

Yes, consider me now the President of the imaginary Zinn Institute.

Don Quixote can be reached at headburg@yahoo.com
P.S. What they call human nature is much more about the thrust of TOSCA than it is about war. See “Just and Unjust War” in Zinn’s Declarations of Independence.
http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02102004.html One Dance: The People’s Summit, 2004, accomplished with no experience… and less of a budget.
http://oxtogrind.org/archive/305 Some of my background
www.marcelsgeo.blogspot.com Some inspiring aspects of Marcello/home schooling
www.sosylvie.typepad.com The incomparable Sylvie
www.frenchpaintbox.com This and the next four sites are all archived, dated family introductions of a sort; we’re not too into encouraging so much (harmful) air travel these days.
www.cancerfreeitaly.com
www.parisgraves.com
www.useutravel.blogspot.com
www.ctravelc.blogspot.com
www.nativeitaly.org (in process)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM-Hdn7h7tU#GU5U2spHI_4 For mucho fun.

Special note: Howard and Noam Chomsky and Arundhati Roy and Michael Parenti could begin by recommending some tentative candidates. Maybe someone you’d like to recommend could jump into that group too. Yes, that would be absolutely beautiful. Then, it would be my job to make sure that each and every person who provided her/his imprimatur (at http://oxtogrind.org/archive/336) AND each and every soul who signed on as a supporting voter had a chance to participate in the old democratic back and forth (up to a specified date) respecting who the final candidates (figurehead Guv and Lt. Guv), and advisers (all serving in tandem as GUV) should be. AND… they could take part in dialogue regarding issues, of course.