| Kevin Diaz | |
|---|---|
| Published Jan. 29, 2003 | LEE29 |
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Natalie Johnson Lee, the Green Party-endorsed Minneapolis City Council member, gave her own twist Tuesday on the State of the Union, one that she called, "the sorry state of the union."
Delivering her national party's response to President Bush at a rally outside the U.S. Capitol, Johnson Lee railed against the administration's tax cuts and war plans.
"The Green Party does not support this war," she said. "This is a party of hope and peaceful alternatives. Bush has not made a case for war. There are a lot of untruths in the media, and the majority of the American people don't want war."
Johnson, who represents Minneapolis' Fifth Ward, called Bush's economic stimulus package "a 21st-century version of trickle-down economics. . . . We've heard all this before."
The address was Lee's first appearance on the national stage since she ousted DFL City Council President Jackie Cherryhomes in an upset in the 2001 elections. With the brightly lit Capitol Rotunda as a backdrop, she addressed several hundred activists.
The Green Party rebuttal was also a first for the fledgling third party, which has struggled for major-party status around the nation. "This is our maiden voyage," said Scott McLarty, a Washington spokesman for the party.
For the national Green Party, a Minneapolis Green provides a model of success, local Greens said. The City Council has two Green-backed members -- Johnson Lee and Dean Zimmermann.
"Minneapolis is one of the leaders in the country for having Greens on the City Council," said Eric Makela, the party's Fifth District Minneapolis chair. "Natalie's ward [in North Minneapolis] has a high degree of poverty, and one of the party's pillars is social and economic justice."
McLarty said the party also was looking for geographic and ethnic diversity. Johnson Lee is black. "She offers many different kinds of diversity," he said. "She's from the Midwest, the heartland of the nation. People tend to think of the Green Party as a West Coast phenomenon."
Johnson Lee, for her part, seemed genuinely bewildered by the national spotlight. "I'm excited, humbled and honored at the same time."
-- Kevin Diaz is at
