The video was made by Little Tree Media, and is showing on TV on these channels:

You can watch Current TV online or enjoy it from the comfort of your couch:

directv - channel 366
dish network - channel 196
comcast - channel 107
at&t u-verse - channel 189
time warner - check listings

Elke Kennedy writes vividly about her son’s murder in Greenville, SC on May 16th 2007 at the website of Sean’s Last Wish Foundation. She and other members of Sean’s family will appear in the Tillman Auditorium in Tillman Hall on the Winthrop University campus in Rock Hill, SC Thursday, April 10th at 8:00 PM. This is a fundraising event for the foundation, and the York County Green Party is not involved beyond wanting visitors to our website to know of and attend the event.

If you have any interest in serving the people of York County as an elected official, now is the time to get started. By state law, anyone who wants to be the nominee of a political party must file a “Notice of Intent” with the county party executive between noon on March 15th and noon March 30th.

If you want to get a “Notice of Intent” in person, representatives of the York County (SC) Greens will be at the Fort Mill Public Library in Baxter Village from 4 to 8 PM on March 28th and 29th, and from 8 AM to noon on March 30th.

Bryan Smith spoke at a community forum at St. James Methodist Church sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, and the local paper, McClatchy owned Fort Mill Times, and radio station WRHI, which is actually locally owned and operated.

The Herald filmed the 2 minute opening statements by five of the seven people running for town council. The first two are not in the race with Bryan. The third is Ken Starnes, the incumbent. The fourth is Bryan Smith, and the last is Dean Youhanic, the other challenger in the race.

I am not sure what to do to post the video directly here, so I’ll just put up a link.

Watch the video here

The first video that loads is the debate between the two candidates for Mayor. Just click on the video labeled “Fort Mill Town Council Forum” and Bryan is about half way through.

On Thursday, November 1st, the community center behind Jerusalem Baptist Church at 1003 Steele Street in Fort Mill, SC will rock with the wisdom and wit of former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney. Currently attending the Elevate Festival in Austria, Rep. McKinney served a dozen years in Congress and as her last act filed papers to impeach President Bush, VP Cheney and Sec. of State Rice.

Her visit is sponsored by the York County (SC) Greens. Her visit is expected to boost voter turn out in the coming town council race, and hopefully will benefit Bryan Smith’s run for Fort Mill Town Council.

The event will begin at 6 PM with a press conference and Rep. McKinney will address comments to the crowd starting at 6:30. Light refreshments will be served and local talent will grace the stage in advance of Rep. McKinney’s address.

This is by Liz Smith-Anderson of Rock Hill. Liz is a regular at the York County Green Party sponsored weekly peace vigil.

South Carolina’s Assault on Women.
By Liz Smith-Anderson

The South Carolina House of Representatives has, proven, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the agenda to outlaw legal abortion in our state is still on. Despite the fact that a woman’s right to an abortion is settled law, local Representatives Greg Delleney, Carl Gullick, Mick Mulveney and Gary Simrill (all Republicans), have sponsored H 3355. This new law, if passed by the Senate and signed by the Governor, would require that a woman seeking an abortion must have an ultrasound done and the results shown to the patient before the abortion can go ahead.

Twenty-four representatives in all signed on to sponsor this bill, the four from our county are men. Apparently the push to legislate morality is still at the forefront of state politics. Instead of minding their own business, they want to stick the government, and their own personal agenda, into this most personal decision. They are happy to spread that lie that most women seeking an abortion do so only as a matter of convenience or as a means of birth control. These statements, as far as I am concerned, are far from the truth.

I have known several women who have had abortions. NONE of them did so as a matter of convenience or as a means of birth control. All of them AGONIZED over their decision. In every case but one, that I know of, the father of the child had no say in the decision because they CHOSE to deny that they had fathered the child. No one mentions making the father view the ultrasound before his “partner in crime”, the woman, undergoes a medical procedure that would end the prospect of child support payments for 18 years. Why let the baby’s daddy off the hook? It takes two to make a baby, why not have both parties have a medical procedure forced upon
them for the bad decision they made. Why just make the woman pay? Why is it OK to force the woman to view pictures of her fetus but not the man?

I spoke with Rep. Bessie Moody Lawrence about this bill. She stated that while she thought there should be time restrictions on the termination of pregnancy, she felt this bill was an attempt to put a one size fits all solution to an issue that was very complex. She did not agree with the no exceptions language in the bill and felt that when pregnancy was forced on a woman, through rape or incest, that it should not apply. In the end, she did not feel that this bill was the answer to the problem.

I also spoke with Rep. Herb Kirsh. Rep. Kirsh stated that although he voted for the bill, he believed in a woman’s right to choose. Yet he agreed with the bill and does not think that a woman having to view an ultrasound of the fetus will persuade anyone not to have an abortion.

What this all comes down to is that there are still factions in our state that are pushing onward with their agenda of limiting freedom. From the party that wants less government involvement in our lives, we get a bill that would place the government (with pictures and documentation) in control of the when’s and where’s of a very personal decision. This isn’t about abortion in reality. It’s a cynical attempt to win votes.

Abortion has been around for a long time. Abortion will not end because of its legal status. Wealthy women were able to obtain abortions long before any thought was given to legalizing the procedure. Pay the doctor, keep you mouth shut, go home. It was the lower class women who suffered through back room abortions, dosed themselves with various poisons, and in many cases, died from their botched attempts. This is exactly what we do not want to return to and this legislation is a thinly veiled attempt to do just that.

52% of the women seeking an abortion are younger than 25. Woman aged 20-24 accounted for 32%, teenagers 20%, and girls under that age of 15, 1.5% of all abortions performed in the U.S. White women have the most abortions (60%). 64% of the woman having abortions identified themselves as never having been married. Protestants lead the way with 37.4% of all abortions, followed closely by Catholic woman with 31.3%. Jewish women came in at only 1.3% and those with no religious affiliation at 23.7%. 18% of all abortions are performed on women who identify
themselves as Born Again/Evangelical Christians. Is this bill an attempt to save the religious amongst us from themselves?

93% of abortions occur because of social reasons, which should read private, personal reasons not open for government interpretation. 52% of all abortions occur before the 9th week of pregnancy, 25% between the 9th and 10th weeks. 1% occur after the 20th week of pregnancy and most of these were for medical not social reasons. It is estimated that 43% of all women will have at least 1 abortion by the time they are 45 years old. (information obtained at www.agi-usa.org).

Instead of spending time on pushing women back to second class citizenship, the Green Party of York County believes that our representatives should be working on the issues that will affect the already born. There is more than enough to go around; clean water, water wars, unrestricted growth, ethics, air quality, illegal immigration, protection of wetlands…the list goes on and on. Rep. Moody-Lawrence should be congratulated for having the gumption not to sponsor or vote for H 3355.
Maybe it is because she is a woman that she understands that there is no one answer for all women during what will be one of the most difficult times in their lives…whether or not they end up terminating their pregnancies or not. Our Representatives will not be obligated to raise the unborn they are trying to save, so why are they involved?

In the end, the question for the voters of York County is, do we want representatives who believe women make decisions about terminating pregnancies without thought? Do we want politicians who think they should substitute their faith and judgement for our own? Do we want politicians to stick their noses into the most personal decisions, with the threat of jail time if we don’t do things their way? Or, are you ready to take control of our future and bring York County into the current century? The York County Greens are ready, ballot line in hand, to help progressive, open-minded people challenge these narrow minded and irresponsible legislators on election day.

OK, York County has almost no local branches of national groups. I think this stinks, for many of these national organizations have great positions, and a reputation that can help. For example, if there are Greens in the League of Women Voters, and they approach the Rock Hill Herald, Fort Mill Times, Lake Wylie Pilot, Clover Herald/Yorkville Enquirer and the local public TV station about sponsoring debates between the various candidates, there ain’t no WAY they are going to keep Greens out.

So, here is the beginning of a list of national organizations with no local chapters. If you’re interested in looking into setting up a local group of one or more of these folks, just drop me a line and I’ll help, or contact them directly, and let us know what’s going on.

The South Carolina League of Women Voters has no York County chapter.

Neither does Common Cause

The ACLU has no local group.

Americans United for Separation of Church and State has no York County Chapter.

The National Council of La Raza has on office in West Columbia. They might be willing to help us organize in that community.

Physicians for a National Healthcare Policy doesn’t have a South Carolina Chapter but claims to have contacts in every state.

Amnesty International has an Atlkanta office responsible for covering South Carolina but I didn’t see anything about local chapters.

Union of Concerned Scientists would be cool. My wife Nancy is a scientist. That’s one already!

Veterans for Peace has one contact listed, but I can’t help but thinking that a public gathering of a new group of Veterans for Peace would get at least a few. We’ve had several vets at our anti-war vigils.
ProChoice America has no chapter in South Carolina.

The National Organization for Women has four chapters in SC, but none in York County.

One of my faves, the War Resisters League

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list, and please leave a message if you can think of other national groups we could try to build locally.

Today is the ninth vigil in Rock Hill, SC sponsored by thew York County (SC) Greens. Participants have covered the political spectrum and are not all Greens. Democrats, Republicans and independents as well as other political persuasions have come together to call for an end to this war.

The fifth vigil was smaller, with maybe thirteen people there.

The sixth was COLD…very cold, and we were down to about ten hardy souls, and as always, our friend Elija, our 16 month old peacenick, was there despite the cold.

The seventh vigil was back up a bit, to maybe fifteen folks. My report on the eighth vigil is below. Sorry to be so short on the recent past vigils, but my memory stinks and if I don’t get it down right away there is a good chance I’ll get it wrong.

For the past eight weekends the York County (SC) Greens have held a peace
vigil at the corner of Eden Terrace and Oakland Avenue.

Last weekend we were up to about thirty five, due in large part to a group of students from across the Carolinas
who were in Rock Hill at the behest of the Socialist Student Union at
Winthrop University for an area student conference. I would guess that between 20 and 25 of us were those same students.

Photos, if I have done this right, are linked to below.
Here’s a photo…
That’s me, wearing a straw hat
The weather was warm enough for shorts.
Apparently, megaphones can be bought cheap at eBay.
The students march for peace.
Letting Exxon know…
Citgo in this shot…
War is ILLOGICAL
A can of spray paint, a sheet, and we’re go to go.
Oakland Avenue.
More…
Lies, Lies, and MORE Lives.
Crossing at the crosswalk…
Honk for Peace is always a good phrase.
Impeach Bush, Impeach Imperialism.
We stay on the sidewalk and the grassy rise next to the sidewalk, as we have been told.
The ever-popular Peace Sign.
Trekkies for Peace?

The York County (SC) Greens continues to sponsor anti-war vigils each week at the corner of Eden Terrace and Oakland Avenue in Rock Hill, SC. Held from Noon to 1 PM, the vigil last Saturday drew 11 people into the chilly breeze to call for peace.

We got a visit from one of Winthrop’s finest, and I think we were able to reach an understanding. Most were returning vigilers, but three were new. One was a high school student from Northwestern. One was a student from Winthrop University, and one was a local Green who has not been free until now to attend.

She, Liz Anderson, wrote a letter to the editor, which ran in today’s paper, encouraging the public to join us. Our protests have been the subject of several letters to the editor, and so far not one reporter has shown up to cover us.

Despite very chilly weather, an enthusiastic group of twenty six people were at the corner of Oakland Avenue and Eden Terrace in Rock Hill today from Noon to 1 PM. Several, about half, were returning participants. Two women from South Africa were there, as were four women from the University of North Carolina in Asheville. Four students from South Pointe High School were there. Signs included “Thespians for Peace”…”High School Students for Peace” and others created on the spot.

For the first time we included chants. “Exxon, Mobile, BP, Shell…Take this war and go to hell.” Ok, it isn’t “LBJ, LBJ…How many kids did you kill today?” but you work with what you have. The standby “What do we want?…Peace!…When do we want it?…NOW!” was pretty well organized on the spur of the moment.

Hundreds of cars drove by. A healthy minority drove by honking. This time we got one “Be a patriot” comment. Frankly, I think we are patriots. Two tractor-trailers drove by honking for all they were worth.

At one o’clock we broke up, agreeing to continue next Saturday. It;’s looking like a core group of us are willing to be there every week, and there is enough interest out there to get students to drive from Asheville and writers to drive from Greenville, so why not students from Davidson or Warren Wilson? Why not from Fort Mill High School, and highschools all across the area? No one can fairly be expected to do this forever, but if everyone kicks in when they can, we can keep the pressure on.