RIP, Peter Camejo

What an inspiring guy! I saw him give a really moving speech during the 2003 California Gubernatorial Recall Election campaign and I was filled with admiration. May we all live up to his shining example!:

SACRAMENTO -- Peter Camejo, a Green Party leader who was a third-party candidate in three California gubernatorial elections before becoming Ralph Nader's running mate in the 2004 presidential race, died Saturday. He was 68.

Camejo, who had been battling lymphoma, died at his home in Folsom, a suburb east of Sacramento.

"Peter was a friend, colleague and politically courageous champion of the downtrodden and mistreated of the entire Western Hemisphere," Nader wrote in a statement released Saturday. "Everyone who met Peter, talked to Peter, worked with Peter, or argued with Peter, will miss the passing of a great American."

Camejo ran for the state's top office in 2002, 2003 and 2006, supporting abortion rights, the legalization of marijuana, universal health care and a moratorium on the death penalty. Before joining the Green Party, he also ran for president as the Socialist Workers Party nominee in 1976.

In 2004, Camejo was independent Nader's vice presidential pick.

Last month, Camejo, who lost his hair from chemotherapy, attended the Peace and Freedom Party convention in Sacramento to endorse Nader's current bid for the presidency with running mate Matt Gonzalez.

"Ralph Nader is more than a candidate, he's an issue," Camejo said in his Aug. 2 speech, adding that Nader brought true reform, offering an independent choice to the "ruling party."

Camejo passed away a few days after completing his autobiography, according to Nader.

Born on New Year's Eve 1939 in New York City, Camejo, a first-generation Venezuelan-American, became an activist at an early age, speaking out against the Vietnam War and for migrant worker rights. He marched in Selma, Ala., with Martin Luther King, Jr.

His fiery activism also got him expelled from the University of California, Berkeley in 1967 for using a school microphone during a demonstration. A year later, then-governor Ronald Reagan put him on his list of the 10 most dangerous people in California because he was "present at all anti-war demonstrations."

In 1987, Camejo co-founded Progressive Asset Management Inc., an Oakland investment firm that steers its clients' money into socially responsible funds where he remained its board chairman until his death. He also served as a board member of Earth Share, a federation of more than 400 environmental organizations, where he worked to promote solar energy.

"Peter Camejo was a man of great passion and boundless compassion for the poor, uninsured workers and for immigrant workers in their struggle for justice and legalization," Mike Wyman, a longtime friend, said in a statement on behalf of the Green Party of California. "He became a leader in the environmental justice movement and helped organized communities of color around environmental issues that affected them directly."