Photo Credits: (c) 2016 Harold Michael Harvey
ATLANTA, GEORGIA, CASCADE PRESS (CP) Over coffee, cheese eggs, biscuits and salmon patties, a group of political activists met in Southwest Atlanta, Georgia on a Saturday morning to plan ways to get Jill Stein, Green Party candidate for President, on the Georgia General Election Ballot. Stein needs 7500 signatures on a petition to be included with the names of the Republican and Democratic Party nominees. The deadline for submitting signatures to the Georgia Secretary of State is July 12.
The group met ahead of a planned visit by Stein to the state on Thursday, June 30. She is scheduled to greet Green Party members and other supporters at Murrell’s Cafe at the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC), from 7:00 to 9:00 pm.
Stein hopes to capitalize on the large number of progressives in the Atlanta metropolitan area who supported Bernie Sanders during the Democratic Presidential Preference Primary. Sanders has yet to release his supporters.
On the MSNBC Morning Joe Show this week, Sanders said, “The issue right here is I’m going to do everything I can do to defeat Donald Trump. I think Trump, in so many ways, would be a disaster for this country if he were elected.”
While Sanders supporters wait for him to signal where they should give their support, the Green Party is not wasting any time in showing them that Stein shares many of Sander’s views on climate change, on radically reducing the school to prison pipeline, legalizing marijuana and in addressing drug use and mental illnesses that are plaguing the country.
Jerome Taylor recently moved to Georgia from North Carolina, He attended the breakfast because, “I wanted to see what I could do to help Jill Stein be elected president. I will phone bank, knock on doors and pass out flyers,” Taylor said.
“I became interested in the Green Party when Gore lost. Then when Bush won the second time I knew something was wrong,” Taylor said.
The Georgia Green Party plans to fan out across Atlanta at street festivals and parks this weekend seeking signatures to place Stein on the Georgia ballot. Anyone wishing to participate in the Presidential Petition 2016 in Georgia Drive can contact the group at 470-223-1239.
Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist, the author of Paper puzzle and Justice in the Round. He can be contacted at haroldmichaelharvey.com.