Amy Goodman, host of the independent news media program Democracy Now!, wowed her fans at the Green Festival in Seattle Sunday.
They began pouring into the Ballroom at the Seattle Convention Center even before Frances Moore Lappe had finished her talk.
Amy gave examples from her book, “Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times,” written with her brother David Goodman. She and David described grassroots activists who have challenged the government and succeeded. They include:
Jim Hansen, NASA’s top climate scientist, who spoke out about censorship of his materials and speeches.
- Bill McKibben, author, educator, climate activist, and cofounder of Step It Up, a group that organized the highly successful Step It Up Day in April of 2007 at which thousands of people gathered at 1,400 iconic places across the nation to help stop global warming pollution.
- U.S. Army Lt. Ehren Watada, who said nothing was worse than fighting a war he thought was immoral and illegal.
- Dr. Steve Reisner, a candidate for president of the American Psychological Association, who advocates exclusion of psychologists from any role in interrogations.
- Rosa Parks, an activist, who helped launch the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the work of Martin Luther King Jr.
Pressing problems that continue in America that need to be addressed, according to Amy and David, include:
- The oil, gas, and coal industry efforts to open oil and natural gas drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, deregulate the energy market, subsidize the building of nuclear power plants, and dumb down the fuel economy of SUVs and light trucks.
- The telecommunications industry efforts to lobby Congress for immunity so companies can’t be sued or tried for turning over information on U.S. citizens to the government.
- Federal agencies that continue to use racial profiling, such as the Seattle case in which the FBI asked local media to broadcast and print photos of two dark-skinned men they observed on a ferry asking questions about the workings of the boat.
- The continuation of the War in Iraq, which would end, Amy said, if the American people were allowed to see the photos of the horrors of the war for one week.
Amy closed the presenting by urging the audience to participate in government and run for office at all levels so that the will of the people would "trickle up."
It was Amy's 51st birthday, and her mom Dorrie Goodman, had a bouquet of flowers presented as the crowd sang Happy Birthday.
Tomorrow's Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide will report on Bishop Steven Charleston's talk at the festival, "A Call to Action for People of Faith."
