I am a Pacific Green Party voter and activist, and I encourage others to consider registering and voting Green.

I first registered as a Green in 1999, when the party was still officially the Pacific Party of Oregon. It soon affiliated with the national Green Party organization and the name changed to “Pacific Green Party.”  

My motivation was intellectual and temperamental. The major political parties were committed to policies of exploitation for wealth accumulation by the wealthy at the expense of nature and people. The Greens were an international movement supporting human rights, nonviolence, democracy and ecological wisdom.

I was animated by a tendency to challenge authority and root for the underdog. The initial enthusiasm and successes of the 2000 Ralph Nader presidential campaign cemented my loyalty to the party and its ideals.

I would not support one of the major parties as a possibly lesser evil, when both are leading on paths of increasing violence, inequity and ecological devastation.

Since 2008, I have regularly run for U.S. Congress as the Pacific Green candidate in the Oregon 4th District. I do not run to punish Peter DeFazio for shortcomings as a Democratic representative. I believe we are fortunate to have a leading progressive Democrat as our representative.

I run to promulgate a better vision for the future and to give voters the opportunity to vote against the system of militaristic imperial larceny that the United States has become.

Mike Beilstein

Corvallis

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