One would think, after losing his second consecutive presidential election, Ralph Nader would be sitting at home licking his wounds instead of touring the country spreading his messages to the American people.

Nader, who ran for president for the Green Party in both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections, spoke at Hendricks Chapel on Friday night. His speech, entitled ‘Bring Our Troops Home. Stop the Iraq War. Rebuild Our Communities,’ focused on the problems that America faces due to the U.S. occupation in Iraq and how the U.S. presence there takes away from the needs of American citizens.

The event was free for both students and the community, but organizers accepted donations requested at $10 for the community and $5 for students. Nader is touring the country because his most recent campaign for president left his organization in debt.

Nader spoke to members of both the community and university as part of a three-day Green Party conference, ‘Organizing to Win,’ held by the Upstate Greens, the local chapter of the Green Party.

The event began with the local teenage youth group Media Unit performing a labor skit. In addition, several groups such as the Partnership for Onondaga Creek, the Campus Greens, members of SU’s Student Environmental Action Coalitions and students from the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry gave brief speeches about their groups’ causes and recent activities.

Although focused on their specific issues, most of the speakers also delivered messages about fighting for personal causes and staying persistent in changing for the better.

‘Organizing to win means you always go in with a winner’s attitude,’ said Louise Poindexter, a representative with the Partnership for Onondaga Creek. ‘The only thing that beats a failure is a try.’

Some highlights of the speeches were SEAC’s recent victory in convincing SU to purchase 20 percent of its power from renewable sources. Members of the group smiled and said they were very excited about the victory and that it meant they were still going to work toward the future.

Next, punk rock musician and poet Patti Smith recited a poem she wrote about an Iraqi mother putting her child to bed at night. She also sang a song before introducing Nader.

‘I contemplated what it would be like to be a mother in Iraq while bombs were being heard overhead,’ Smith said before reciting her poem.

Nader began his speech by accounting President George W. Bush’s reasons for entering Iraq and dismantling the Iraqi government.

‘What (President George W. Bush) did to this country in this war of fabrication, lies and deception, and the things he continues to do even after we’ve found no ties to al-Qaeda, no weapons of mass destruction and no threat to other countries, he now says that he’s there for freedom and to provide democracy for the people.’

Nader continued to speak about how years before the Gulf War, Iraq’s economy, education system and overall quality of life for its people was good. He explained how former President George H.W. Bush’s greed for oil and support of Iraq’s invasion of Iran backfired and put American soldiers in the position of fighting Iraqi citizens and destroying their quality of living.

‘Dialing for corporate dollars has become a way of life for them,’ Nader said about President Bush, his political allies and business friends.

Nader called President Bush a war criminal, saying he sends troops over to Iraq to be severely injured by a people who do not want them there. Since the occupation began in March 2003, they have lost power and electricity constantly, the food supplies are dwindling, the education systems have not been stable and the health system has been crumbling, Nader said.

‘The average plight of the Iraqi people is worse today than under Saddam,’ Nader said.

Nader concluded his speech by saying the majority of Americans do not want to be in Iraq, but refuse to do anything to bring the troops home.

He said the war on Iraq is a diversion for the American people so they do not focus on the problems that the U.S. faces such as Social Security and health insurance.

‘We are letting them get away with (the war) because we have too many voters who don’t do their homework,’ Nader said. ‘Those who do are afraid of being considered unpatriotic.’

The evening’s events ended with local Green Party member Howie Hawkins and an additional musical performance from Patti Smith.

Published on April 17, 2005 at 12:00 pm