The Fanstastic Ms. Fox

People ask me "why Rhino" and I have to answer that I don't really know the answer m'self, but Im interested. My primary interest is in the provincial election - those are the most Gong Show of the three scales. But I can see federal and municipal potential.

Federally, we need to get the party recognized, so I'm signing people up. I still have forms.

Municipally, I have a uh... 'vision.' It involves Sam "Runs over the poor in his wheelchair" Sullivan's suspiciously more generous (and totaly unregulated) donors in a lake of alligators, with the people who played power games with Vision and COPE serving as chum to arouse the reptiles' interest.

I mean something serious by this: I can't stand the NPA and I really like COPE... at least siginificantly more than I've ever liked any other non-fringe political party, but, even after the Wal-Mart, the end of housing for the non-rich, the broken transit promises, and even during considering scrapping the ethical purchasing policy,  people just don't seem interested in municpal politics, let alone serious municipal alternatives. It feels almost as if Rhino is the only way of getting some bloody participation on the local scale. So be it.

Given that participation is somewhere around 25%, that leaves a goodly number of potential converts.

Here's my idea: Vancouver has the Work Less Party, The Naked Garden Party, the Sex Party and so on. Why don't we see if we can get everyone together and form a whole slate of nuts? Not just for the election, but for any municpal meeting?

If you know anyone in these parties, send them my way.

Also: Capri Hall, October 14th. Work Less party Masquerade. $10 to get in; $5 with costume.

I've started a COPE newsletter LJ here. Those of you interested in municipal politics, ethical purchasing and community involwement, should go check it out.

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A question for you: What were your impressions of the recent Vancouver election? What about 2002? How did COPE come across? How did Vision come across? The NPA? The Green Party? What role did and could the internet play in all this? What is yor take on municipal politics in geteral? Comments please!

Three-quarters of an hour to go. I think we're going to win.

This is extraordinary. This is one of the rare times that the struggle wasn't doomed at the outset that the heroes stood a chance. And maybe, maybe, this is the first time that my side will win.

                                                         I should explain that I grew up in Kelowna.

Screw self-actualization through meaning in now-action or whatever. Give me some victory.

This feeling is electric. This is life.

 

There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right. That we were winning. And that I think was the handle. That sense of inevitable victory over the forces of old and evil. Not in any mean or military sense. We didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. We had all the momentum. We were riding the crest, of a high and beautiful wave. So now, less than five years later, you go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look west. And with the right kind of eyes – you can almost see the high watermark – that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.

Creator of the ninety-six forms, each one subtly different, each arranged, breatthing life and order into the universe and stuff.