What’s wrong with being Green?

Is there a Green Lantern that stands for social justice, peace, participatory democracy and ecological wisdom. Photo credit: J.Lynn Sunderland

Recently at one of our campaign meetings, the opportunity for a photo presented itself to the group. Two of the participants – both in their twenties declined to be in it if the photo was to be put into the public domain, such as on facebook. They explained that they were just moving to the area and were looking for jobs in the Gippsland region. They were afraid that if an online search was conducted by prospective employers, then this might count against them in their job applications.

It struck me that in our democratic pluralist society that there was something wrong with people in this situation being afraid to express their political allegiances openly. I was wondering if this was always the case and I must say that I can’t remember this attitude being prevalent when I was their age – that being in the 1970’s and early 80’s. People were generally proud to fly the flag for either Liberal, Labor or the Democrats.

Go Green in 2014

Today many Greens supporters seem to think that they will be chastised, ridiculed or ostracised for coming out about their heart-felt allegiances. About five or six years ago, I “outed” myself as a greenie, or at least a Green at heart (I only became a member in April this year). I must admit that my frequent letters to the editor did provoke some odd reactions at times, and some people were eager to try to perform a political exorcism on me to get me to see the error of my ways.

What this “examination” did for me though was to confirm the righteousness of my decision. Having a farming background and then completing a Science degree and becoming a Maths/Science/Technology teacher, told me that Climate Change was the key political issue and will be in every election for now on for the next century. (Providing civilisation lasts that long. But that will depend on how we collectively respond to the problem.)

I think the main reason for this “shame” of being Green is due to the mainstream media trying to keep the political status quo and that disruptive new-comers like the Greens are going to shift power balances established over generations and interrupt the cosy arrangements for people like Rupert Murdoch who thinks of himself as the de facto President of Australia. We only need to look at how his newspapers – especially The Australian treat news involving the Greens and which is still not acknowledging human induced climate change, or the way that Sydney’s Daily Telegraph treated the Rudd Government in the lead up to the last election – complete with Hogan’s Hero’s caricatures of the leading players on the front page.

Somehow, Murdoch has made people feel guilty for being Green and letting certifiable lunatics like Barnaby Joyce have a free run with comments about $100 legs of lamb because of the carbon tax. But the truth is, we should feel proud to be green. If it weren’t for green activists, Bjelke Petersen would have drilled for oil in the Great Barrier Reef, the Gordon River in Tasmania would have been dammed, there would be few National Parks and many more plant and animal extinctions. All of these actions have resulted in great economic gain for people involved in Tourism in QLD, Tasmania and elsewhere. These activists fought to preserve what was precious and irreplaceable and today are seen as visionary and indeed as patriots as they have protected the integrity of the landscape.

Today, the only large political party which attempts to carry on this visionary tradition of being stewards of the environment are the Greens. We see it in the Gippsland region when we back the farmers and rural dwellers in their fight against the CSG invasion. We see it when we say no to the planned 13 billion tonne allocation of brown coal expansion in the Latrobe Valley. We see it when we contrast our planning and support for public transport based on transparent business models, as opposed to the secrecy and backroom deals of the Napthine Government.

The Greens are the only Party that is proposing real solutions for climate change? I am increasingly heartened as I talk to people when door-knocking, when growing numbers of people also “get it”. They know about scientifically based policies and transparency of decision-making by government. All they want is for a Party to articulate it and offer a better vision. The Greens can be that Party.

Join Daniel by voting Green in November.

My hope is that after this coming election, the notion that the Greens are somehow just a bunch of tree-hugging subversives will be discarded by the populace and that despite Mr Murdoch’s best efforts to mis-represent the truth, the Greens will be seen as a party with integrity and truth on its side.

I will also hope that no one should be afraid of having a job application knocked back because they are a Greens supporter. As for me, I am more than ever proud to wear my Greens tee-shirt and grow the brand and talk to people about where we want to be in 10 years time and how the Greens are the only ones thinking about this. Now is the time for everyone to get on board and give it our absolutely best shot in the lead up to Nov 29th. Let’s make ourselves proud.

Join Daniel Caffrey for Morwell when Victoria Votes on the 29th of November 2014

We found Dan is in good company. All over the world people are voting Green: http://eatenbyagrue.org/why_im_voting_green.html

http://wendybacon.com/2013/voting-green-because-im-a-journalist-and-all-the-other-reasons-2/

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/why_im_voting_green_20121029

Why I’ll be voting Green – and it’s not about the environment!

Isn’t a vote for the Greens a wasted vote?

Why I’m Voting Greens

http://larvatusprodeo.net/archives/2010/08/why-im-voting-for-the-greens-tomorrow/

http://happychatter.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/why-im-christian-and-voting-green-1.html