Monday not only marked the first day of spring but also the initial meeting of the Isabella County Green Party.
A dozen of the "Greens" met at The Wesley Foundation, 1400 S. Washington St., Monday night and focused on obtaining ballot access for the party in Michigan.
Mid-Michigan residents have suggested forming a local Green Party for the past few years and the need for an alternative party has grown, said organizer and Mount Pleasant resident Alan Gamble.
"The Green Party, more than anything else, stands for taking the country back from the corporate interests and putting it back into the hands of the people again," he said.
The party's Four Pillars, or most important values, are ecological wisdom, social justice, grassroots democracy and non-violence, Gamble said.
Regarding the Green Party, Mount Pleasant resident and party supporter Bob Bucholtz said, "If it doesn't clearly represent the people, then it's more clearly open to the people."
The Green Party needs 45,000 signatures in order to place its candidates on Michigan's November 2000 ballot. The new Isabella County chapter, hoping to obtain 1,000 of the signatures, had obtained 112 as of Sunday.
All signatures must be collected within a six-month period. The 180 days for collecting signatures began in mid-January and will end on July 18.
Gamble said the number of signatures needed for state ballot access is actually 30,272, but a goal of 45,000 has been set to assure ballot success because some signatures may not be valid.
The 1,000 signatures needed in Isabella County "is a reasonable goal, but it's going to take work," Gamble said.
"I think we must go to a system that's more than a two-party system," Farwell resident and Green Party supporter Tom Jones said.
"Because in a two-party system, you basically just get the conservative and the liberal end of the same party, and you also get this gridlock."
Jones said gridlock is less likely to happen in a multi-party system because there's more negotiating and more alternative views expressed. His primary interest in the Green Party, he said, remains in its goals of cleaning up the earth, which first drew him to the party 25 years ago.
The Green Party has 73 elected officers in 19 states as of January. All are at the local level.
This year, Tom Ness from Ferndale is running for the U.S. Senate as the first-ever candidate from Michigan to run for a national office as a Green.
Gamble said Ness is planning to visit CMU sometime between June 9 and 19. Ness will collect local ballot petitions during this time.
Ralph Nader, often called America's leading consumer advocate and also a lawyer, writer and lecturer, is one of four Green Party presidential candidates.
Nader became nationally prominent in the mid-1960s after the publication of his book, "Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile."
In the spring of 1966, Congress held hearings to investigate the auto industry. Nader, the key witness, expressed the need for a strong law enforcement agency to govern the auto industry and the safety of vehicles. The hearing led to the passage of the federal motor vehicle and highway safety laws.
Jello Biafra, former singer of the now defunct punk-rock band The Dead Kennedys, is another Green Party presidential candidate this year.
More information about the Green Party can be found at www.greens.org or www.gp.org.
Some upcoming events:

Nader, along with Michigan Attorney General Jennifer Granholm and Dr. Chris Boudrie will speak on "Aging Issues In a Pro-Active Community" at Monroe Community College from 9 a.m. to noon March 29.
Nader's expected running mate, Winona LaDuke, is scheduled to appear in Ann Arbor Thursday through Sunday. At 7 p.m. Thursday LaDuke will appear at Border's Books at the Arborland Mall, 3527 Washtenaw Ave.
The next meeting of the Isabella County Green Party is slated for 7 p.m. April 3 at the Wesley Foundation. Future sessions are scheduled for the first and third Mondays of the month.

To obtain Ballot 2000 petitions or for more information about the Green Party or scheduled appearances by the candidates, call Gamble at 773-0523.