SHADOWS BRING ISSUES TO LIGHT

Unconventional Gathering Appeals To Range Of People

At the Shadow Convention 2000, three blocks and a world away from the
Democratic National Convention, people can walk into Patriotic Hall from
the street, engage in political arguments and listen to plain talk about
difficult issues.

The four-day event, the second to coincide with the major party
conventions, is bringing together people from across the political spectrum
to talk about the issues that organizers believe the major parties have
shied away from -- the need for campaign finance reform, the persistent gap
between rich and poor, the failure of the war on drugs.

In Philadelphia and in Los Angeles, these parallel forums have become
places for political activists to build networks, strategize and realize
that they're not alone. Some of the debate even involves people who are
offering very different messages to their partisan constituencies, said
Arianna Huffington, a political pundit who is one of the organizers. She
heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson and U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel of New York speak
both to the Democrats at the Staples Center and to the Shadow Convention.

``Their speeches here were so much more powerful than the ones they gave to
the Democrats. Jesse was talking about the moral center, but here he really
did address the moral center,'' she said. ``It's as though you have to
check your passion at the checkpoints at Staples Center.''

Linda Hawthorn of Nevada City came to recruit people to her idea of taking
the U.S. Constitution at its word, allowing any citizen to petition the
government for the redress of grievances. ``I thought this is where I need
to be,'' she said.

She liked the egalitarian spirit of the Shadow Convention, where suits and
sandals mingle. ``If I were a contributor at the Democratic convention, I'd
be afforded all kinds of privileges,'' said Hawthorn, a paralegal. ``I'm a
contributor here, and I stand in a line like everybody else.''

So do high-profile speakers such as former independent presidential
candidate John Anderson, rock icon David Crosby and satirist Al Franken.

Their overarching concern, similar to that of the many protesters who move
between the streets and the Shadow, is that corporate financing and
influence have corrupted the political process to the point that the needs
of citizens are ignored, or worse. This alternative event is paid for
through foundation grants, individual donations and contributions from
sponsoring think tanks.

There's reason for the Democrats to speak boldly on these matters, Shadow
Convention organizers said, noting that GOP presidential candidate George
W. Bush and Green Party candidate Ralph Nader threaten Vice President Al
Gore's hold on California.

``These are Democratic issues, and the Democrats aren't talking about
them,'' said one staffer, suggesting that the Gore-Lieberman ticket has
much to gain by going after the constituency that's been attending the
Shadow Convention.

The alternative gathering focuses on the human faces behind the issues. The
walls inside Patriotic Hall are covered with color photographs of people
sentenced to long prison terms for drug convictions. The speakers' panels
include people anguished over gun violence or pesticide poisoning or the
unequal distribution of life-saving medicines, and angry at the political
influence of the firearms, agribusiness and pharmaceutical lobbies that
they say buy off legislative efforts to reform their industries.

``We want to really get these issues much more in the mainstream,'' said
Huffington, a well-known conservative who seems to be undergoing a very
public shift to the political left. ``We want the question about the
casualties of the drug war to be one of the 50 questions reporters ask when
they cover the candidates. We want campaign finance reform to be one of the
top five questions.''

And the Shadow Convention organizers want ordinary people feeling left out
of the political process to start talking about these matters too. People
like Lizette Hernandez and Margie Francia, who walked over on their lunch
hour to listen. They heard about the Shadow Convention from a friend who
came and bought a lot of books from the tables in the basement.

``I wanted to hear a little bit more about the supposed war on drugs,''
said Hernandez, who works at an affordable-housing non-profit organization
in Los Angeles.

She said she liked that this forum was taking place parallel to the
Democratic National Convention, adding, ``too bad it's not in the
convention.''

The Shadow Convention is streaming events live through today at:
www.shadowconventions.com

Cheryl Devall can be reached at: cdevall@sjmercury.com or (323) 293-7818.