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Pat LaMarche was a Green Party candidate for vice president and governor of Maine. She is now an author, activist and advocate for those without homes.
A friend of mine has died: U.S. Sen. Mike Gravel of Alaska. He was a hero, statesman, father, husband and justice fighter.
I spent the better part of a day reading his obituaries in the mainstream media. Many of them detail how he courageously read the Pentagon Papers into the congressional record. His efforts immediately declassified them and led to the legal publication of the truth about Vietnam, East Asia and the United States’ military’s penchant for unethical activity.
I haven’t read any media accounts that detail the great risk he took. How he placed his reputation, his career and his freedom on the line. But then Mike didn’t spend a lot of time talking about the risk he took, because he was too overwhelmed by the then ongoing sacrifice of human life. When he put the two on the scale, he weighed his life for the lives of countless others, and decided it was a gamble he had to take.
I met the senator in 2008. He’d been speaking truth to power in the Democratic Party presidential debates, schooling Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama (along with a cadre of other would-be presidential contenders) in the realities of war. During these discussions, there were many Iraq War critics, but only one — Gravel — had ended a war. The candidates on stage with him, backed by corporations, didn’t like his constant reminders of this fact. So, the political machine made short shrift of him, brushing him out of the way.
The day he called my phone (yes, folks made first contact that way, as recently as 13 years ago), he asked if I’d meet him at Harvard, after he gave a talk there. I drove down from Maine and we went to dinner.
The senator knew he was getting swept aside by the Democratic Party machine. He wanted to test the waters for a third-party campaign. I’d run for vice president for the Green Party in 2004. The senator eventually made a bid for the libertarian nomination.
That conversation — that first meeting with one of my all-time heroes — was the start of a magnificent friendship.
Over the years, we encouraged each other’s hard work, traveled together on occasion, and took turns promoting each other’s ambitions. I interviewed him for radio shows. I wrote about him. And he agreed to all those interviews, in order to support my efforts as a feminist, peace activist and advocate for the poor.
We got to know each other. We respected each other. Because of the close ties formed over the past 13 years, I’m a little horrified by what I don’t read in his obituaries. Horrified but not surprised. Not one of the articles I’ve read discusses his lifelong passion: The National Initiative.
Gravel wanted a national referendum whereby the people of this country could legislate the laws that they’d like to see in place. He felt that citizens of the mightiest, wealthiest nation in the world should be governed by laws of their own choosing — laws that reflected their ideals. Many states have individual referendum processes whereby the people’s will is done when the traditional forms of governance fail. These referendums are a popular alternative to unresponsive representation.
People in the United States overwhelmingly favor healthcare for all, climate action, voting rights, nuclear arms control and peace, but the legislative and executive branches have failed them.
My friend, Mike Gravel, worked tirelessly for decades to inform and educate the public about his dream of a fourth branch of government — a people’s congress. And the media announcing his death has made little mention of it.
As his friend, in lieu of — and in addition to — whatever else you might do to honor Gravel, please educate yourself about his dream. Go to the library and ask them to get his newest book, “The Failure of Representative Government and the Solution: A Legislature of the People.” If you can afford to, buy it. If you can afford to purchase two, buy yourself one and give one to a friend.
Get to know Gravel by getting to know how much he believed in you. You’ll love him for it.