Last week, Daryl Lang wrote a whimsical front-page article about the Green Party and Ralph Nader. Lang said that Ralph had "vanished from the political scene."

I must tell you that Ralph and the Green Party are very far from "vanishing."

For instance, due to Ralph and his widespread campaign, the Green Party has initiated over 450 new locals, and over 900 new Campus Greens across the country.

The Green campaign has spawned the formation of the Penn State Campus Greens, an affiliate of the new Campus Greens USA.

The Campus Greens USA is similar to the College Democrats and Young Republicans or Young College Republicrats.

In addition to Campus Greens USA, a group of high school students formed the Young Greens of America, which has merged with Campus Greens USA. These groups were begun by politically active students inspired by the message of the Green Party.

You may be asking: Why the upsurge in the Green Party?

The answer is simple. We have a corrupt corporate-owned government that responds less and less to the now-disenfranchised citizens and caters more and more to the wealthy profiteers.

In the tradition of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr., the Green Party is forging a new social and political diversity that represents the working class, the poor and the groups that have been traditionally disengaged from the political process. Greens represent true diversity.

If the Republicrats represented me —the citizen — there would no need for a Green Party.