Here at VoiceYourself our mission statement echoes Gandhi's mantra, Be the change you wish to see in the world. You are the best example of this sentiment.

VYS: What started your life of activism?

GD: I was always opinionated and willing to take action, even as a very young girl. When I hear the word activism I am reminded that there is very little difference between getting on ones skis for a cross country morning outing or running down to the town meeting to speak up for something needed; political vitality should be seen as but one aspect of any Americans life energy. Activism and democracy are but the cause and effect sides of the same coin. My first truly political actions were as a parent, advocating for more community programs for the young people of our community--dances, swimming and the like.

VYS: In 1960, along with your husband, Jim, you helped stop the planned use of hydrogen bombs in Alaska saving an Inuit fishing village at Point Hope. How is it that you decided to go to there to stop the hydrogen bomb testing?

GD: Our minister had traded places for a summer with an Alaskan minister. Through this visitor we learned about the crisis in Alaska, and traveled with him back to Alaska. We drove a VW minibus with the minister, an Inuit couple, and a very large dog. Once we were in their village, we of course became committed to help them save it. The minister understood the most important strategy in politics: make it face-to-face and good things happen.

VYS: What was your inspiration to walk across our country and what did you learn from that?

GD: Its a rather long story--the full story is in my book (Granny D; You Are Never Too Old to Raise a Little Hell / Random House). I will say that the then recent death of my husband and the even fresher death of my best woman friend put me in a special place, emotionally. I had been very frustrated by the total disregard my members of Congress were paying to the issue of campaign finance reform, insulting me and other interested constituents in the process, despite our tremendous effort to collect and send thousands of letters and signatures. But it was the sight of a traveling man on the road that turned my thinking to Peace Pilgrim and the idea of talking to small groups and drumming up support across America. Personal loss often drives our best civic actions, as we see time and again and have recently seen in the form of Cindy Sheehan.

VYS: What purpose did the Tuesday Morning Academy serve?

GD: The Academy is a group of friends in our neighboring towns. For many years, we have discussed important issues under the leadership of a very wise leader. It is considerably more than a book club, and only slightly less than a one-room university. It is where I learned about campaign finance reform, among a good many other things.

VYS: Why did you decide to unseat Sen. Judd Gregg at this time? What did you say to your supporters when faced with that defeat?

GD: I did not decide to unseat Judd, but to run against him. He was, and perhaps still is, the Senator with the highest approval rating in his home state and he is indeed a pretty decent fellow, so unseating him was not my intent, though we did get deep in the game and made a full commitment to play to win. When he was suddenly unopposed, an opportunity presented itself to create a campaign about the Bush policies, so, with only a day permitted to think about it, I jumped in. I used the senate campaign to talk some about Judd Gregg and campaign finance reform, but more about Bushs disastrous policies. We brought hundreds of young people into New Hampshire, and, believe me, they were motivated to get rid of Bushs policies, not Greggs. What happened? New Hampshire was the only swing state that had gone to Bush in 2000, to go to Kerry in 2004, and we take a small share of credit for that. We took not one dollar of special interest or PAC money for the campaign. Even so, we won in some major communities where we had the dollars to compete. The pundits were expecting me to receive 20% of the vote, as I had no real financial resources. The fact that I won in areas where we could advertise should be an encouragement to other candidates who want to go out there and tell the truth. Had the progressive organizations like Deans or MoveOn.org promoted us to their huge lists, so that we could have received small, individual contributions, I think we could have actually won. They refused. But as it was, we did what we set out to do, which was to turn New Hampshire from red to blue.

VYS: During your campaign what was the most often asked question about your ability to take on this job?

GD: My age, of course. I walked the state and demonstrated that I was trim of body and mind; it was nevertheless the big issue.

VYS: How do you frame this political defeat of a progressive vision of America and what do you expect from others now?

GD: Oh my, that question is drowning in despair--let me pull you out and dry you off!

Though they dont know it, the thing most people like about Howard Dean is not Howard Dean, but Joe Trippi. He is the leader who spread the vision of a new kind of politics based on the power of regular working people acting together, whose actions can be organized by the Internet. His little book, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised, Democracy, the Internet, and the Overthrow of Everything is as important as Professor Lakoffs popular treatise on elephants and more important by far than my own book on grassroots issue organizing. Was a progressive vision of America defeated in any recent election? It has not even been laid out as a voting option for Americans. Senator Kerry was not put forth as a progressive leader, and underfinanced candidates like myself hardly could break through the superficial issues (age, in my case) to communicate a progressive vision to voters. So there has been no defeat of the vision; it has not even made it to the ballot yet, except as a nipping at the heels of the two major parties. Until they are reformed, the two major parties dissemble on behalf of the two branches of Americas elitesnot the American people. When one party represents the elites and their lies, and when the other party represents the interests of the people and their planet and the truth, then see how the people vote! Getting to that day will not be easy, but it will come sooner than our discouraged hearts can presently imagine, because it will have to.

We were only a year ago despairing over the state of the news media, thinking democracy was lost on account of it, and in that year it has changed into a flowering of new voices and truth-seekers as we blog our way out of the corporate necropolis, just as though little, unexpected eggs were found in the ruins, and little beaks were seen pecking their way out, word by word.

VYS: What lessons do you learn from those you oppose loudly and often? Those who wish you would fade away?

GD: With occasional lapses, I try not to oppose people so much as bad policies. I tend to like strong personalities, even those on the other side of my favorite issues. And that has often proven to be the case the other way round, as people who have opposed campaign reform, including the crustiest editors of some New Hampshire newspapers, have not minded my company when we have had the chance to spend time together. I love the fact that Newt and Hillary, George the First and Bill are all becoming friends. Lets keep our anger focused on the issues and love each other as best we can.

VYS: Why were you arrested for reading the Declaration of Independence in the Capitol?

GD: It was a planned act of civil disobedience. We were making the point that big corporate contributions were a chain of enslavement, and that Congress needed to declare its independence. So we entered the Rotunda in a series of groups, each unfurling a banner and doing a reading. Mine was from the Declaration of Independence. I was arrested a year or so later, this time reading from the Bill of Rights. I was jailed both times, as were my friends. The judge in the first case was a wonderful fellow who, in sentencing us, made a very fine speech in support of our actions. I put it word for word in my book, as I think he was as eloquent as Lincoln on that occasion.

VYS: What is the most important thing you have learned from this election process and what democracy means to each citizen?

GD: Democracy and life are not about anything but standing up and taking your part. It is deeply meaningful and joyful when we do that, regardless of the odds and regardless of the outcome. The great peace marches leading up to Bushs great misadventure in Iraq were joyful marches. The anger and despair all melt away when we are out there, doing everything we can to represent our highest values.

VYS: What accomplishment are you most proud of and is there anything you would have done differently? We have to learn from your experiences.

GD: I get so excited and filled with a sense of accomplishment when someone writes, or comes up to me on the street, and says that they did this thing or that in their community, because they were encouraged by something I did. I think democracy needs moral leadership and energy, and we have to provide it to each other through our own actionstalk is cheap.

VYS: Since we did not win the positive leadership you and millions of others worked for, whats next?

GD: No one, particularly in the Democratic Party, is saying the right things about what must be done. Here, I will start the list for them. First, we must stop organizing solely for elections and start organizing for people. The party should have volunteers in every housing project, and in every tough neighborhood, every big box plantation house, using the pull of the Party to get better housing, better schools, better jobs, better pay, better benefits and safer streets. The residents and workers must be helped to speak for themselves. As it is now, the Democratic Party shows up once ever few years, asking for votes and promising justice that never seems to happen. This failure of issue organizing is the principle deficiency with the Democratic Party today, and they dont really see it.

Before my Senate run, I traveled 23,000 miles in the swing states to encourage voting in tough areas, and I never ran into Democratic Party people in those housing projects and neighborhoods. When they did show up later, Im sure it was to ask for unearned votes. Votes are report cards for effective issue organizing, and issue organizing isnt happening at the party level. Where then, are poor people to find any support for their needs? From right wing churches, Im afraid, creating a toxic loop of government program cuts and further votes for

VYS: Howard Dean was on campaign trail telling people to get involved on every level of local politics. Who should get in the game, what does it take?

GD: There are people in every town who are alive enough and sensitive enough to help move us forward as a nation and a world. Right now they struggle against a Democratic party that is still more about rich lawyers and developers and their own precious egos than about the real needs of our people. We need a party that cares more for truth and love than for victory. Once that happens, and leaders who embrace that rise to the top of the party, the victories will be assured, for the American people are starving mad for truth and selfless leadership.

VYS: Do you think we will see real bi-partisan efforts in Washington today with this administration?

GD: With some Democrats voting for CAFTA, the Iraq War and millionaire tax breaks, what is your definition of partisan? The question makes no sense in todays Washington, where both parties, after obligatory bows to the left or right, dance to the same tune played on cash registers.

VYS: What hope can we pass on to young people and our countrys future?

GD: We can pass to them the certain knowledge that unsustainable policies will not be sustained. There is no question that America will become a land of peace, justice and environmental sustainability: nature will make the corrections if we do not do so ourselves. All we can do is be ready for our coming victories, understanding that our actions can advance the timetable and reduce the costs of change.

VYS: Why is the label progressive so misunderstood and what can we as a community say to make people understand what it means to them?

GD: Any label, not just that one, is poison in todays atmosphere. A politically pigeon holed person is seen as a person with a personal, selfish agenda. If you are against the poisoning of the rivers or against the destruction of the livable global atmosphere, you are seen as just one of those Environmentalistsa special interest group. There is no way out of this problem, except to shed the labels and fight the issues one by one as mothers, fathers, friends, neighbors, coworkers--but not as labeled political operatives.

This problem grew as news organizations stopped doing real fact reporting and started doing the cheaper work of reporting, He said, she said stories. This put everybody with a label in a game position. Our only way out is to not play by the medias rules. A mother who loses a son in Iraq is potent only so long as she cannot be labeled a longtime liberal, antiwar protester, for political labels dehumanize and disempower us. With the assignment of a political label, unlike a human label, comes a total loss of credibility and its power. In my own case, I am a concerned great-grandmother as far as the media is concerned, and I will not admit to much else. And that is also the truth.

VYS: What is your favorite part about raising hell?

GD: When you decide to really go do something, the unexpected outcomes are most interesting. They are not always pleasant, but, like lancing a boil, things usually feel better afterwards. I went into a U.S. Congressmans office on Capitol Hill once and started my own filibuster, reading from his list of corporate contributors in his lobby. It was a little embarrassing to do so, and perhaps it was less than useful, but sometimes you have to put some energy into a stalled moment and hope for the best. I like it when you get a stuck situation to start moving. Thats when you can nudge its direction.

VYS: Who have been some of your heroes and why?

GD: I dont have to stroll far up or down my road to find enough heroes to keep me inspired. There are so many usual people in this world who are not the least bit usual. They know the issues, they care deeply, and they make extraordinary sacrifices to make the world better. They are the people in the campaign headquarters on the telephone or out on the street with the little signs and the staple guns. I would take any of my neighbors over any national leaders I have met. I know many young people who are, in soul and mind, capable of leading our democracy on the highest roads of our dreams. My husband was one of those heroes, as is my sonfull of energy, love and justice. They are the Americans I count as heroes, and I pray that our political system can evolve so that such as these people might lead or have worthy leaders to represent them. Do I think that any political party comes close to representing their great hearts? I do not.