GREEN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES
GREEN PARTY OF MICHIGAN
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>>> SPECIAL NEWS RELEASE <<<
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
January 28, 2003
GPUS Contacts:
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Scott McLarty, Media Coordinator
phone: 202-518-5624
e-mail: scottmclarty@yahoo.com
Dean Myerson, National Political Coordinator
phone: 202-296-7755
e-mail: political.coor@verizon.net
Adam Eidinger, Shirts Off Coalition
phone: 202-744-2671
e-mail: enrages@bellatlantic.net
Natalie Johnson Lee, Ward 5 member of Minneapolis City Council
phone: 612-673-2205
GPMI Contact:
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Marc Reichardt -- Chair/Treasurer, GPMI
phone: 734-668-9628
e-mail: treasurer@migreens.org
The Green Party Response to George Bush's State of the Union Address
====================================================================
Greetings from the Green Party, the party of peace!
My name is >NATALIE JOHNSON LEE.<
I am privileged to represent Ward 5 in the great city of
Minneapolis, Minnesota, in the heart of the United States of
America. And I am proud to be a member of the Green Party of the
United States!
Tonight the President promised America a policy of war. War on
Iraq. War on minorities. War on America's most vulnerable. War
on regular working people.
In response, the Green Party, America's only growing political
party, offers an >ALTERNATIVE OF PEACE.<
* * *
I represent almost 30,000 working people in Minneapolis, Minne-
sota. I know my constituents personally, and I know their struggles
for decent housing and decent work. When my constituents need help,
they call me on the phone. That's grassroots democracy in Minne-
apolis, Minnesota.
Tonight, in Washington D.C., I must ask: "Who phoned Bush and
asked for this war?" "Who phoned Congress and asked for this war?"
> America did not dial that number. <
Someone else did.
I've got a message for the CEOs of the oil corporations and of
the weapons manufacturers. You're tying up the line. America is
trying to get through.
Like 170 other Green city council members, mayors, county
supervisors, school board members, and state representatives, my
phone is ringing off the hook. Our constituents are calling us.
They are saying, "We are worried about this war." They are
saying, "We want respect and equality." They are saying, "We
want good jobs, education, and health care." The Green response
is always the same: "You are not alone. The Green Party stands
with you."
That's our message tonight.
* * *
The President promised a policy of war on Iraq.
In response, the Green Party offers the only national security
policy that really works: A policy whose goal is peace, not war.
America can wage peace, not war, by breaking the hold of the
oil corporations on Congress and the White House. It's time to
kick the oil addiction. Right now. America has the technological
know-how and the renewable resources to make the break from fossil
fuel dependence. We can and should build up our solar, wind, and
other renewable energy sources now.
America can wage peace, not war, by putting a stop to the global
trade in weapons. We must stop it at its source. That's here, at
home, in the United States. U.S.-based corporations are the prime
suppliers of weapons to the world. It's time to beat swords into
plowshares. It's time to put the arms profiteers out of business.
America can wage peace, not war, only if we are consistent in
our support for democracy. The foreign policy of supporting "our"
dictators against "their" dictators has been a failure. Saddam
Hussein is in power today because the U.S. government once supported
him, just as it once supported bin Laden. Thank you, Mr. Rumsfeld.
It is time to consistently support democracy. Perhaps it is
unfair to expect George W. Bush to understand democracy, much less
promote it, but that's the agenda that will win America trust and
allies in an uncertain world.
America can wage peace, instead of war, by helping the economies
of the poorer countries of the world. Exploitation breed poverty,
poverty breeds hatred, and hatred breeds terror. Unrestricted
corporate power has caused massive unemployment and environmental
destruction across Asia, Africa, and Latin America, and today
threatens the United States as well. The Green Party calls for a
global economic policy whose goal is the elimination of poverty,
the creation of sustainable industries, and support for real
democracy based on the empowerment of working people.
Americans want security, not unending war. In its eagerness
to invade Iraq, the political establishment has revealed its true
purpose. Not security for Americans, but control over oil. Not
peace in the Middle East, but military bases across the globe.
Not rule of law, but violation of the Constitution. Bush is no
reluctant warrior, he is a warmongering draft-dodger, and together
with a weak and compliant Democratic Party in Congress, he is
threatening American interests.
The President claims the inspections have failed. He is wrong.
In fact, his attempts to drum up a war fever are what has failed.
The Green Party believes that Bush's oil is not worth the loss
of millions of innocent Iraqi civilian lives.
The Green Party says: We support our troops! Mr. President:
Bring Our Troops Home!
The Green Party knows we must build our security on a founda-
tion of international peace, justice, and democracy.
We say Peace is Patriotic. Who is with us?
* * *
Americans want a policy for domestic peace as well.
The Bush administration's attacks on civil rights don't sit
well with many Americans. The Democratic silence in the face of
these attacks is shameful. The slogan "United We Stand" is mir-
rored by "Divided We Fall" and the constant chipping away at the
legacy of the civil rights movement leaves us wondering why he is
promoting division. Why the attacks on human rights, on immigrants,
and on affirmative action?
"Who phoned Bush and asked for these attacks?"
America did not dial that number.
I am a proud to be a member of the political party that
guarantees the rights of ALL Americans. That's the guarantee
of the Green Party. We defend the rights of immigrants. We
call for amnesty for all undocumented workers. We support the
civil rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered
people in housing, jobs, civil marriage and benefits, child
custody and in all areas of life, the right to be treated
equally with all other people. We believe in making right
the wrongs of history, and we support affirmative action and
reparations for slavery.
The Green Party knows there is no equality without justice.
We Greens say to the President and to Congress: "Immigrants
are not the enemy!" "Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered
people are not the enemy!" "People of color are not the enemy!"
It's time to secure domestic peace through equal rights and
justice for all. That is the Green guarantee.
* * *
Americans want not only peace, we also want prosperity.
Struggling to pay for housing, struggling to pay for school,
struggling to find a secure job, worrying about whether we'll
keep it, working people in this country have gotten a raw deal.
Now the administration would compound our pain by cutting taxes
on the rich, at a time when public services are being eliminated.
"Who phoned Bush and asked for these cuts?"
America did not dial that number.
Bush calls it an economic stimulus package. Greens ask
"economic stimulus for whom?" It is time for an economic
stimulus package for the rest of us.
Where the Washington establishment wages a war on public
education, social welfare, public lands, and local government,
the Green Party takes a very different view.
We call for full federal funding to support children,
families, the unemployed, elderly and disabled. We call for
a graduated supplemental income to maintain all adult incomes
above the poverty level. We support a guaranteed living wage
for all Americans. We support universal health care coverage
for all through single-payer national health insurance. We
support the preservation of public wilderness areas for future
generations. We support the labor movement and call for the
repeal of the undemocratic Taft-Hartley law so that workers
can freely organize unions.
The Green Party stands with working people because we ARE
working people. We're committed to an economic policy that
puts human need before corporate greed.
* * *
Yet tonight, as the economy is failing most Americans, the
President promises war.
Mr. President, America did not ask you for this war. America
did not ask you for these attacks on civil rights. America did
not ask you for tax cuts for the rich.
Mr. President, it is time to hang up the phone. America's
trying to get through!
* * *
And to the members of Congress, both Democrat and Republican,
the 250,000 members of the Green Party, and the millions more who
support what we stand for, have this to say:
You have wasted too many opportunities to deal directly with
America's problems. Tonight, on the eve of war, America cannot
wait any longer.
Our nation cannot afford to see pressing issues, like health
care for all, kicked back and forth like a political football
from election to election. Working people need health care now.
Our people and planet cannot afford this war for oil. Depend-
ence on oil is unhealthy for Americans and it is contributing to
global warming. The time for political procrastination is long
gone; it's time for corrective action now.
I know that many Americans feel the same way. I hear it from
my constituents all the time.
To those Americans who are looking for a way out, the Green
Party says, "We are here, we are growing, we are your way out!"
We are the alternative.
Together with Greens in 90 nations worldwide, we represent
a new kind of politics resting on four pillar values: Grassroots
Democracy --- Ecology --- Social Justice --- Non-Violence.
The Green Party is waiting to hear from you. No corporate
contributors are tying up our phone lines. We accept no corporate
contributions.
Call 1-866-41-GREEN. Look us up on the web at www.GP.org.
Again, please call 1-866-41-GREEN, or visit us on the web at
www.GP.org.
Millions of Americans want peace, want equality, want social
justice. We are with you. We know that another world is possible.
If we will it, and act on it, it is not just a dream.
Thank you, and good night.
# # #
This address was heard live on Pacifica Radio:
http://www.pacifica.org/news/030128_SoU_SpecialCoverage.html
The text is also posted on the GPUS Web site at:
http://www.gpus.org/press/stateofunion_01_28_03.html
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Green Party of Michigan * 548 S. Main Street *
* Ann Arbor, MI 48104 * 734-663-3555
------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Green Party of Michigan was formed in 1987 to address environmental
issues in Michigan politics. There are Greens organized in all 50 states
and the District of Columbia. Each state Green Party sets its own goals
and creates its own structure, but US Greens agree on Ten Key Values:
Ecological Wisdom * Grassroots Democracy
Social Justice * Nonviolence
Community Economics * Decentralization
Feminism * Respect for Diversity
Personal and Global * Future Focus/
Responsibility Sustainability
Schedule Note:
-------------
GPMI is preparing to present its own response to next week's
scheduled State of the State speech by newly elected governor Jennifer
Granholm. The party will also be holding a quarterly meeting at
Marygrove College in Detroit on February 8-9.
created/distributed using donated labor
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
page last modified 29 Jan 2003