John,
Here’s another good example. This is an event from the left with only about 60 people. Fairly large story.
Can you explain why this merited some pretty good coverage yet a large protest with 250 people on Six Forks Road merits none?
Just curious as to the standards.
Thanks.
Joey Stansbury
http://www.newsobserver.com/news/story/1148447.html
Coals glow at global warming rally
Sabine Vollmer, Staff Writer Comment on this story
Leave it to Greenpeace to make grilling environmentally friendly.
The advocacy group cooked some red meat over an open fire to rally troops in the Triangle at a grass-roots election campaign Sunday.
But true to its cause, Greenpeace advertised the Pullen Park cookout on fliers printed on 100 percent recycled paper and encouraged participants to walk or bike to the event. Half of the hamburger patties and hot dogs were vegetarian, and everything was grilled over charcoal without chemical additives.
More than 60 people came, the majority of them under 30. They wrote letters, planned events and made calls designed to goose Brad Miller, a Democratic Congressman from Raleigh running for re-election, and his Republican opponent Hugh Webster into taking a stance against global warming.
In advance of the cookout, which was the first local event of Greenpeace's national Project Hot Seat, volunteers had talked to hundreds of people in the Triangle about global warming, said Kelly Miller, Greenpeace's field organizer in Raleigh.
"There's a lot of concern in the area," Miller said. "And we're not only going to vegan potlucks."
Richard Blackmon, a 24-year-old electrical engineering student, walked about a quarter of a mile to Pullen Park to participate in his first grass-roots campaign about global warming.
He said several of his family members disagree with him that melting polar ice, droughts and floods are signs of manmade climate change. Though he has tried to use less energy -- he car pools, buys long-lasting light bulbs and turns the water off while he shaves -- he had never been active politically before the Greenpeace event.
"It's about time," Blackmon said.
Ricardo Calderon, 22, who studies renewable energy sources, agreed.
"It's our generation and our children's generation that are being affected," Calderon said.
The Greenpeace event also attracted about a dozen old hands who've been green for years. The cookout was the first collaboration between Greenpeace and N.C. Interfaith Power and Light, an initiative by the N.C. Council of Churches.
"Honey, I've been doing this since the '60s," said Bonnie Reiter, 60, an environmental advocate who is active in several local groups, including the green team at the Unity Church of the Triangle in Raleigh.
Webster has yet to announce a position on global warming. And Reiter wasn't too impressed by Brad Miller's environmental record.
"He accepts global warming," she said. "But he hasn't done a darn thing about it."
sabine.vollmer@newsobserver.com or (919) 829-8992
