Mark Dunlea to do Reading from Madame President on Saturday, Jan. 22, 1 PM, Market Block Books, 290 River St., Troy (corner of Third St., close to Uncle Sam Atrium / Troy City Hall)

For More Info: 518 286-3411. To order: nys.greens.org/madamepresident. $20.99 plus shipping and sales tax.

Local activist and author Mark Dunlea will do a post-inauguration reading from his first novel Madame President: The Unauthorized Biography of the First Green Party President on Saturday, Jan. 22nd at 1 PM at Market Block Books, 290 River St. Troy (corner of 3rd St., near City Hall). He will also talk about "Where do We Go From Here" following the 2004 presidential election.

Dunlea's novel imagines what would have happened if a Green had been president on September 11, 2001. Dunlea, a founder of the Green Party in New York, helped manage the NY Campaigns of Grandpa Al Lewis, Ralph Nader, Stanley Aronowitz, David McReynolds and others. He served four years as am elected green Town Board member in Poestenkill. He was the national organizer for Sonia Johnson when she was the first woman to run for president in 1984 for the CItizens Party.

Dunlea,has been a political activist for more than 3 decades since helping to start the New York Public Interest Research Group while a student at RPI. For the last 20 years he has worked for the Hunger Action Network on a variety of economic justice and health care issues. He is also cofounder of the Hudson Mohawk Independent Medid Center. He has worked on a variety of environmental, peace and social justice issues. He recently helped organize the campaign to raise the state minimum wage. He is presently organizing a campaign for universal health care, a major focus on his novel.

"A fast-paced mixture of politics, sex and the counterculture. A must read for anyone interested in third party politics. If you liked Stupid White Men, you'll love Madame President," stated "Grandpa" Al Lewis. "This book provides hope to those who want to build a world based on peace and justice. Another world is possible," added, Medea Benjamin, cofounder of Code Pink and Global Exchange.

Rachel Moreno, a nurse and single mom active in the movement for universal health care and anticorporate globalization, is the Green Party’s vice-presidential candidate in the disputed Presidential election in 2000. When the election is thrown to the Electoral College, she is chosen VP in exchange for the Greens helping to elect the Democrat.

Under suspicious circumstances, Rachel assumes the Presidency on the eve of 9/11 and the tragic death of her son in the World Trade Center. She orders the third hijacked plane shot down, but rebuffs Congress’ effort to launch military strikes against Afghanistan, instead pushing for the terrorists to be tried as criminals.

Her efforts to build a more just world are confronted by an angry Congress determined to go to war and CEOs outraged about her Justice Department’s prosecution of corporate crime. Forced to confront the pressing social issues of our time, Rachel puts into practice a Green vision for the environment, health care, feminism, racism, energy and foreign policy.

A Prayer for Peace
In a Time of Mourning

By Mark A. Dunlea
November 2004

Dear Lord
We pray for you
To Show us the way
To Peace
For we are lost
In a wilderness
Of despair and destruction
As bombs rain down
Upon those
We claim to save
For Democracy
For oil and power

Oh Lord
We are told
That we have Lost Faith
And we are ashamed
For we have championed war
When we profess to believe in peace
Let us take back
The courage of our convictions
Let us remember
Our Love
For the children
For our mother earth

We are in mourning
For evil walks Brazenly in our midst
And we fight those
Who also pray in the name of Yahweh
For we are afraid
For Death has visited us
So we demand a terrible vengeance
As if this will heal our soul

Give us the Strength
To seek truth
About why so many are killed
In your name

Give us light to throw off the darkness
That weakens us, confuses us
Help us find compassion
And tolerance
For our fellow beings
To find mercy
And enlightenment
To build a world
Not based on greed and domination
But on the values
Of peace and justice

Open up our hearts Oh Lord
And heal them
Make them stronger and wiser
So we can receive the teachings
Of Jesus and Mohammed and Buddha
Of Gaia and the Old Prophets
Let us find forgiveness
Let us start out again
On the path to peace
For there is no way to peace
Peace is the way.