Norman Solomon

Running for Congress

Norman Solomon -- the North Bay political activist who has been a leader of the region’s Green New Deal commission and the national Healthcare Not Warfare campaign -- announced on Wednesday (April 13) that he has filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for Congress. He said that his name will be on the June 2012 ballot if Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey decides not to seek re-election.

“After so many years of progressive leadership from Lynn Woolsey, her successor in the House should have a proven commitment to a wide range of progressive values,” Solomon said. “Whether the issue is war in Afghanistan, massive giveaways to Wall Street, chronic deference to corporate power or Washington’s failure to take drastic action against climate change, the North Bay should be represented in Congress by someone with extensive knowledge and a track record of strong public advocacy on key local, national and international issues.”

“I’ve spent decades working for social justice, environmental protection and a rational foreign policy,” Solomon said. “I see Congress as a place where strong progressive voices must be heard and basic changes must be fought for.”

To read more, click here.

"Mad as hell, with a sense of humor"

    With her usual precision, Molly Ivins commented: “If Will Rogers and Mother Jones had a baby, Jim Hightower would be that rambunctious child -- mad as hell, with a sense of humor.”

     Jim is the real deal -- a progressive populist so compelling that he was chosen to be the finale guest on the intrepid PBS program “Bill Moyers Journal.”

     I’m proud that Jim Hightower is making a special trip to California to speak in support of my emerging campaign for Congress.

To read more, please click here.

The Need for Truth About Nuclear Dangers

By Norman Solomon

On the edge of Capitol Hill, day after day, we heard wrenching testimony from people whose lives had been ravaged by the split atom.

That was three decades ago.

I was coordinating the National Citizens Hearings for Radiation Victims in 1980, one year after Three Mile Island. The voices came from uranium miners, atomic workers, veterans, downwinders exposed to atmospheric nuclear bomb tests . . . and many others. The people who testified were from a wide array of ethnic and cultural backgrounds. But in addition to radiation exposure and suffering, they had one huge experience in common.

They'd been lied to—not once or twice, but repeatedly. Year after year.

There is no danger, the officials told them. You are safe. Radiation levels? Not to worry. But gradually, the clusters of cancer or leukemia or severe thyroid ailments or birth defects became too conspicuous to ignore. Still, officials kept saying that the nuclear industry was blameless.

To read the complete article, click here.