Glen Anderson’s death marks the end of an era. He had been a loyal Green Party member for 30 years. He used to give talks for the state party (on Peak Oil for instance) and he led a 12-part series on Re-examining Capitalism for our local party in 2010 (after the 2008 meltdown). He led seminars in methods of activism.
Lately he let all his efforts go except for his monthly TV interview show. That was not your usual interview show; it was all scripted beforehand, the participants were only allowed to say certain things, he told them ahead of time what they were allowed to say and Glen would add his 2 cents as if he were a participant also. Topics ranged from nuclear weapons to housing to voting systems, and on and on. They are still on-line, you can look them up at https://parallaxperspectives.org/.
He got the Percival Landing vigil started, that happens every Friday night. The band plays and everyone has fun, it’s a great tradition. It’s hard to imagine Olympia without it. Glen supplied the signs.
Glen had a round face ringed with beard so he looked like that gentleman on the Quaker Oats box. He knew how to defuse a situation so there was never a shouting match. Nevertheless, he was pretty inflexible in his views and was able to dismiss what someone else thought in a pretty final way. It could smart.
He was generous with his friends and he had his jokes — not always the same ones either. You could only find that out in the odd moment when he was not working. Most of the time he was planning another TV show or doing research.
On the wall outside his door was a sign directed at evangelists: You will not convert me to your religion; please consider my religion instead. There followed a history of Christianity, which he said was originally about loving each other more and then became a religion about Christ himself. Apparently he thought evangelists were receptive to rational thoughts and therefore he had a duty to educate them. He finished the page by telling them they were welcome to take one of the sheets of paper. Glen thought it was his business to educate everyone.
If you knew him you will be sorry he’s gone, and if you didn’t, you missed something. We who are left will have to work all the harder to supply what he used to.