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Y ou wouldn't know it from his politics today, but Greg Miller hails from an Eastern Pennsyl- vania town in the only county from that state that went for Republican Barry Goldwater in his landslide loss to Lyndon Johnson in 1964's presi- dential election. Raised in that climate, Miller said, he was never politically conscious. His father was a doctor, and he was raised a Lutheran. It was a very strict household, where the rules were laid down in black and white, with not a lot of room for grey. These days, Miller has a habit of breaking with authority when it's warranted, and his guiding principle is bringing natural allies together for common causes. The spark for Miller's activism was Vietnam. When he was drafted to fight, his personal outlook changed. The military reject- ed his application as a conscientious objector, and he eventually spent two years in the service and 10 months overseas. "The experience really transformed me," he said. "Being forced to be in the military made me think about what kind of country this is, and how we can change it." In the war, he had wanted to be a medic because he felt it was the only job he could do there in good conscience. He was assigned to a supply base instead, and saved his life-changing aspirations for civilian life. Once he left the service, he moved to Northern California. With little money and few marketable skills, Miller took advan- tage of two programs that helped veterans train for new jobs. He chose to become a nursing assistant, and later a licensed vocation- al nurse. From there, he completed a few classes at a time at San Jose State University to become a full-fledged RN. "I stayed in nursing because of the reward you get from help- ing people overcome disease and just to see people responding to what I'm doing day by day," he said. "But management puts a lot of things in your way, and it's harder to have fulfilling experiences when you're worried about completing nine or 10 hours of work in eight hours." Miller has worked the night shift at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara for nearly 20 years. During the day, he is involved with South Bay Labor for Peace and Justice, Veterans for Peace, the Labor Party, and the Coalition for a Downtown Hospital in San Jose. He has tapped his connections with these groups in signa- ture-gathering efforts for CNA's Prop 89, a campaign finance reform initiative for California, and in promoting single-payer healthcare. From his first day as an RN, Miller planned a career of CNA g r e g m i l l e r , r n got political during Vietnam and carries on the struggle today with CNA. b y m i r a n da e v e r i t t 18 R E G I S T E R E D N U R S E W W W . C A L N U R S E S . O R G A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 Never Stop