[Fwd: [vgpDISCUSS] Signs, signs, everywhere]

[ Interesting local Green drama. /d ]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [vgpDISCUSS] Signs, signs, everywhere
Date: Mon, 11 Oct 2004 17:29:42 -0400
From: Craig Chevrier <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
To: [email protected]

Hello all:

In a sad recent development for the Vermont Green Party, we have been
forced to bar Steve Ekberg, aka "Sign Man" from our future meetings,
events, and from distributing literature to the public on our behalf.
This is a decision reached by consensus of all elected officers of the
party who were present at our last officers' meeting, and one that I have
not made public, hoping that we could come to a final compromise with Mr.
Ekberg before taking such action, one that is difficult to reconcile with
our value of encouraging diversity in politics.

As you know, last summer, when Sign Man made the local & state press (and
some national mentions) with his sign promoting Ralph Nader's 7% vote
tally in Vermont in 2000 during Governor Dean's campaign announcement
speech from Church St. in Burlington, we made every effort to defend his
right to free speech and to represent Greens in the way he knows best:
Through direct action. We went out on a limb to defend him, despite calls
at the time to disavow his sign and his message.  We respect that this is
the way Mr. Ekberg knows best to communicate, and wanted to take all
precautions against infringing on his right to speak out in the way he
sees fit.

You are probably also aware that Mr. Ekberg has repeatedly used
offensive, foul, and belligerent language in many signs since then, using
words that, though protected under the First Amendment, are not
appropriate for the political realm, or for public gatherings where the
goal is to convince everyday people that voting Green is in their best
interest.  We simply cannot have such language associated with the Green
party or the Vermont Greens specifically. Our strategy, rather than to
shock people into agreement, which we believe can't work for most logical
individuals, is to point out what's wrong with other parties' and
candidates' approaches.  His signs -- on large fluorescent greens and
yellows -- have appeared at many events in Vermont, Boston, and New York.
I have received many complaints about such representation in these public
venues from Greens from all over the northeast. We have recognized that,
though the signs may be shocking and may garner some attention, do not
communicate what being Green is all about. We'd rather smaller amounts of
positive attention that large amounts of negative feedback -- or worse,
laughter.

Since then, however, Ekberg has refused to work with the VGP steering
committee on improving his message so as to avoid offending the groups
and individuals with which we are trying to create relationships. We have
tried for 14 months to get Mr. Ekberg to work with us, not against us,
but he has, instead, labeled us as "Demo-Greens" and "Cobb Greens"
(whatever that means, an ironic statement in the context of the VGP vote
to not place Cobb on our ballot line) and insists his behavior is
protected by the 10 Key Values of the Green Party. We don't believe any
Green Party should tolerate alienating and abusive behavior, that the
10KV don't protect such behavior, and that his violation of the 10KV
trumps Mr. Ekberg's right to associate himself and his signs with the
Green Party.

There have been several individual reports of abusive, harassing, and
offensive behavior on the part of Mr. Ekberg -- both while leafleting and
petitioning for the Nader campaign and while representing himself as a
Vermont Green in public venues -- from strangers, friends in other
activist groups, and some Greens. We also have had complaints about his
behavior at our statewide convention, where he was verbally abusive to me
because I insisted that one of his handmade signs -- which could only be
the work of Sign Man -- be taken down, and where he exhibited what
observers at our meeting have called "intimidating and harassing"
behavior during the deliberations around our vote to ratify the
nomination of David Cobb as the Green Party presidential candidate. He
has offended several of our candidates to the point where they refuse to
allow him to do distribution of their literature. In an ironic twist of
fate, he refused this weekend to distribute literature as part of his
Nader brochure drop in the local area because our local candidate flier
has my name on it. Clearly, this is not someone willing to put his own
agenda aside for the betterment of the Green Party.

On Friday evening, while working the door for the appearance of Supreme
Court Justice Antonin Scalia at the University of Vermont, I saw the
reaction from the attendees at the event who read a sign that (much to my
shock & chagrin as both a UVM staffer and a well-known representative of
the Green Party within the UVM administration) said F____ OFF SCALIA on
one side and VOTE GREEN PARTY on the other.  They laughed. Those are
people who, though they might have agreed with our positions, may never
see past that one negative message to the positive messages of the Green
Party. Rather, they don't think we are to be taken seriously. To make
matters worse, I witnessed Mr. Ekberg "giving the finger", shouting
obscenities, and making other obscene gestures to passers-by, including
automobiles with children inside.

This, for me, was the last straw.  Patience has run its course, and has
failed.  We have written Church St. Marketplace to request that he not be
given any further permits to table as a Green, and we have notified him
that he may not attend future meetings of the party. Whether he obtains
permits under the guise of another group is beyond our control, and he
just may continue to portray himself as a representative of the Green
Party. Mr. Ekberg insists that I and our steering committee are but "Cobb
Greens", and that his actions would be defended by the GP-US at large. I
hope this is not the case.

We may not be able to stop Mr. Ekberg from representing himself as a
Green, but we can publicly disavow association with that kind of
communication. If you agree with me, the best thing to do is to simply
tell your friends, fellow Greens, and would-be Greens that Ekberg is not
a Green, and that no Green would intentionally offend the masses with
obscene language, since that does nothing to promote the Green values we
hold dear:  Peace, Justice, Democracy, and Ecology.  I've watched many of
you ignore him at public events, but this, unfortunately, has not been
enough.

Finally, the only way we can be sure to overcome the problems of one
person attempting to dominate the message of an entire -- growing --
group, is to support our candidates.  They're the people on the front
lines, and the ones who are bearing the mantle of the Green Party.  Show
them your support by attending or viewing the events listed at
http://vermontgreens.org/events.html, or by donating to the VGP campaign
fund at http://vermontgreens.org/join.html.

With warm wishes for a Green future,

Craig Chevrier
Chair, Vermont Green Party
chair-HUVwuYCs0HHE+QnRsb7NIdi2O/[email protected]
LIVE>GREEN<VOTE

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