I was very interested in your revolutionary garden when you first told us about it and I get your reasons for it, besides the satisfaction that comes from the delicious food planted with your own hands. We love the tomatoes we get from our tiny space. I know that my grandparents, parents and their siblings made it through The Depression because they grew most of their own food, including meat. I know they often were hungry, but they did not starve, and they shared and cared about their neighbors and vice versa. Not many people have the space these days to grow such expansive gardens, and I worry about what will become of us all when the hard times come. The government, the extremist churches and other entities have caused people to become so uncaring and cold toward others that I cannot see us coming together to help each other survive the next time.

Please do go forward with the ADP. “Tepid” is exactly the right word–the ADP needs resuscitation before it falls into a persistent vegetative state. My small one-on-one attempts to engender courage down there go into the round file. There is no reason they should listen to me–I am just a passionate Democrat with a small pocketbook, but you can reach people.
I cannot imagine a more opportune time than now for that group to rejuvenate itself, so those guys need to throw some cold water on their faces, look at what is happening right now, stiffen their spines and go for this opportunity that has landed in their laps.

(Sorry, Glynn, I know it’s your soapbox. I appreciate your letting me use it from time to time.)

In covering the Alabama Democratic Party’s Jefferson-Jackson fund raising dinner Friday night, why didn’t you do a typical speech story like the AP or the local newspaper would?

My answer:

Three reasons.

I did do a complete daily newspaper style story on the party’s fund raising dinner in December…

General Clark Calls Siegelman Prosecution Political, Bush Presidency ‘The Worst’

The main reason I did was because I knew neither the Birmingham News or the AP sent reporters to cover that event, mainly because Wesley Clark was not big news since he was not in office or in the presidential race – and maybe because the News and AP don’t care much about Democrats. If you will recall, Siegelman was in jail at that point. I figured the News and AP also knew Siegelman would be at the Pelosi event.

But I thought Clark’s comments about Bush and the country were worth reporting newspaper style.

I knew the News and AP would be there to cover Pelosi, although I found her speech particularly tepid and not as newsworthy as Clark’s.

The third reason is that I am increasingly concerned that the Alabama Democratic Party does not know how to save itself from a Republican takeover of the Legislature in 2010.

I believe my home state needs a competitive two-party system, or someone needs to come up with a plan to introduce more parties in the system to do what the Democrats seem unwilling to do.

I have tried to communicate how to raise money online, for one example, but my entreaties continue to go largely ignored by the party apparatus. So I am considering continuing my investigation of “What’s Wrong With The Alabama Democratic Party?” and writing a series about that in the near future.

The tepidness needs to stop, for starters, and the party needs to embrace its left wing, especially on environmental issues. There are tens of thousands of people in this state who do not vote at all because they see only Democrats who are pro-business, pro-family and wear their Christianity on their sleeves like Republico-crats.

Here’s a clue: To help save the environment, it is not necessary to couch it in Christian terms by saying we are trying to “save God’s creation” as Pelosi did. You don’t have to be a Christian to believe saving the environment is critical to saving life on Earth and for public health reasons. The Christians think the world is going to end anyway. Those of us who follow science believe that does not have to be true in our lifetimes – if we take action.

The reason we believe Obama will be the next president of the United States is because he is bringing millions of new voters into the Democratic Party. In his case it is not because of his stance on the environment, which in fact is still a weakness of his campaign. McCain has bona fides on the global warming issue, which might hurt Obama or Clinton in the general election – if they don’t get onboard in a stronger way. Even Republicans say they are pro-environment in public opinion polls, so why are Democrats so afraid of being labeled liberals by talking about it?

And here’s a news flash you won’t see on the right-wing Christian Political Parlor blog, which for some reason gets linked to by the Alabama Democratic Party’s Web guy – when this site does not.

I talked to a guy at the Pelosi event from Vulcan Materials, one of the worst polluting corporations on the planet. The reason I talked to him is because I grew up with him. His name is Joe Howle, and he is the environmental rep for Vulcan these days. Why was he even there at a Democratic Party fund raiser? I know for a fact he’s no Democrat.

Because his company is concerned that McCain and Hillary might convince Congress to pass gas tax relief this summer, which would devastate federal and state road building efforts. The company and others have already convinced Gov. Bob Riley to come out against it, and Obama is so far resisting the move. The best I can tell the Alabama Democratic Party has said nothing about that yet, including our own Rep. Davis, who endorsed the Obama campaign early on.

How’s that for breaking news blog style? Are you paying attention Brannon? Or are you just “too busy” reading the Political Parlor blog and the Birmingham Ruse?

I often wonder why we don’t get more questions here in the comments section. If I were a discerning reader here to ask myself a question today, I might ask something like: Gee, Wilson, why do you write about your garden, as if anybody gives a damn?

My answer is: Well, if that is true, why does the Washington Post now have a home and garden section prominently displayed on the front page of its Website, even though most people turn to the Post for political coverage in DC? And how has Southern Living magazine made so many millions over the years writing about such softball fare? I planted my revolutionary garden as part of a protest of the Bush administration’s complete failure to care about poor people, in spite of its early slogan of “compassionate conservatism.”

That would be a sick joke if the lie were not so tragic for people all over this state, country and the world who are having a hard time affording food. If my tomatoes do well enough, I will be donating some of them to the homeless in Birmingham.