Ecological Wisdom * Social Justice * Grassroots Democracy * Non-Violence
>> Green Party of Michigan <<
http://www.migreens.org
>>> ---------------- <<<
>>> News Release <<<
>>> ---------------- <<<
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
---------------------
August 23, 2004
For More Information Contact:
----------------------------
Lou Novak -- Meeting Manager/GPMI
meetingmanager@migreens.org
John Anthony La Pietra -- Elections Co-ordinator/GPMI
elections@migreens.org
>> Greens Support Candidates, Issues at Summer Quarterly Meeting <<
>> ============================================================= <<
> Will Offer Statements Against Ban on Same-Sex Marriage, <
> For Nader Ballot-Access Rights to Board of State Canvassers <
> <
> Backing Verified Voting, Plugging Gaps in Water Legacy Act; <
> Also Supporting Social Forum Movement, Million Worker March <
> <
> Preparing for September Visit by Presidential Candidate Cobb, <
> Planning Ways to Help Full Slate with Busy Campaign Schedules <
Even at a retreat, the Green Party of Michigan moves forward.
Amid the beautiful setting of the Hawk Woods Nature Center in
Auburn Hills, GPMI took action on a range of immediate and long-term
issues at its quarterly State Membership Meeting this past weekend.
The party has already sent two statements to the Board of State
Canvassers meeting today in Lansing, supporting rights that are
threatened by matters on the board's agenda:
* Greens support the right for same-sex couples to marry, and
oppose the proposal to amend the state Constitution to
take away that right.
* GPMI has its own Presidential ticket of David Cobb and Patricia
LaMarche, but supports the right of Ralph Nader to qualify
for the November ballot -- and decries the hypocrisy of both
Democrats and Republicans on the issue.
Greens also unanimously passed another election-related proposal,
supporting calls for "verified voting" -- a paper trail for all voting
machines, to make sure that recounts and audits of counting processes
are always possible.
And the party just as strongly endorsed a five-point proposal by
Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation (MCWC) to strengthen the
definition of water diversion in the Michigan Water Legacy Act proposed
by Governor Jennifer Granholm, plug a multi-year gap in MWLA's protection
for water resources, and make other necessary improvements in state water
policy and law.
After presentations on the Million Worker March in Washington, DC
October 17 and a Detroit session of the World Social Forum set for
after the November elections, Michigan Greens were also unanimous in
their support for both activities.
Presentations were also made about the need to end US and world
dependence on oil, gas, and coal and move to a sustainable energy
future (leading up to a tour of a solar-cell plant), and the status
of efforts to add Southfield to the list of cities urging the state
to provide universal health care under Michigan's Constitution and
collect petition signatures to restore Michigan's 99-year-old ban on
dove-hunting.
And to conclude the weekend, members heard updates from several
of GPMI's 42 candidates on the November ballot, and discussed ways
to make the campaigns more visible and successful.
Greens Present Board of State Canvassers with Cases for
Gay Marriage, Nader Candidacy -- and Against Hypocrisy
------------------------------------------------------
GPMI released a public statement in July on the controversy over
Ralph Nader's efforts to get on the Michigan ballot as a Presidential
candidate. And the party, and several of its candidates, have spoken
out repeatedly about support for "all civil rights for gay people,
including the right to get married", as Platform Committee chair and
Oakland County Executive candidate Art Myatt put it.
Now both issues are before the Board of State Canvassers -- and
the meeting agreed that it was important to make sure the Green point
of view was represented there as well.
The Nader flap gives Greens an opportunity to be visibly above an
increasingly visible morass of hypocritical maneuvering by Democrats
and Republicans alike. It also draws attention to the benefits of
Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), which would let voters express more of
what they really want -- and get more of it, too -- while making sure
elections are won by majority vote.
And it lets the party introduce Michigan residents to this year's
Green ticket of California's David Cobb and Patricia LaMarche of Maine.
Cobb, a "homegrown" organizer dedicated to growing the Green Party,
is planning to come to the state next month. LaMarche, who raised two
children as a single mother, is due to stop in Michigan early in October
as part of a nationwide tour of homeless and women's shelters.
On November 3, Greens will add the votes cast for Cobb and LaMarche
and the votes for Nader and his running mate Peter Camejo "for a tally
of how many people overcame fearmongering and voted for progressive
change in this country."
The party's statement against the same-sex marriage ban quoted GPMI
chair and spokesman March Reichardt, who is running for the 3rd Ward
seat on the Ann Arbor City Council. "In our opinion," Reichardt noted,
"attempting to use the Constitution to limit the rights of the people,
rather than to enhance or protect them, is an unconscionable act."
Other Green candidates and leaders have continued to make strong
statements since then:
* 7th District Congressional candidate Jason Seagraves sees a
gay-marriage ban as violating the freedom of religion of
his Unitarian Universalist Church, which performs such
marriages.
* Peter Ponzetti III, running for the State Board of Education,
focuses on the need for civil-rights equity in marriage,
which in civil society is at its core a contract.
* And James Wilber, Green candidate for Kalamazoo County Clerk,
has promised to use the office -- "the provider of marriage
licenses" -- "to support marriage rights, including the right
for anyone to marry the consenting adult that they please,
including same-sex couples."
Sending the statements to the Board of Canvassers is a new part of
a small but growing effort to present Green policy views in Lansing as
an alternative, points out John Anthony La Pietra of the party's Media
Committee. GPMI has responded to "State of the State" speeches, and
submitted comments to Michigan House and Senate committees on selected
legislative proposals.
Party Backs MCWC Plan as "Good Start" of Addressing
State, Federal, International Water Law and Policy Problems
-----------------------------------------------------------
Water issues have long been one of GPMI's top priorities -- and
they were a focus of the Hawk Woods meeting from the start. Greens
heard an update from Marie Mason and Priscilla Dziubek of the Detroit
chapter of the Sweetwater Alliance on the fight against privatization
of public water resources in in Highland Park and Detroit -- and also
in Mecosta County, the battleground for MCWC's lawsuit against Nestlé
Waters North America over the corporation's Ice Mountain water-
extraction and bottling plant.
MCWC and attorney James Olson have proposed a five-point approach
to embodying the legal principles recognized in Judge Lawrence Root's
decision for them in that case in explicit state law. At the meeting,
GPMI formally supported those principles -- which, Mason agreed, would
add needed strength to the Water Legacy Act now in the legislature, and
plug some unfortunate "gaps" in that well-intentioned proposal. "It's
a good starting point" toward addressing the many other water issues
facing the state, the nation, and the world, she said.
Mason also asked for and got support for a lawsuit filed by Michigan
Legal Services and the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization challenging
the Constitutionality of Public Act 72 -- which subjects Highland Park
to the absolute control of a financial manager, who is appointed by the
governor and who can disregard votes by the elected City Council.
MWRO, Sweetwater, the Highland Park Human Rights Coalition, the
Detroit Green Party, and others have been publicizing current financial
manager Ramona Pearson's drive to privatize the city's water system in
the teeth of loud public opposition and repeated Council votes against
the move.
Also on the agenda was a viewing of the independent film _Thirst_,
which was shown earlier this year on the PBS series _POV_. Among the
pushes for privatization documented by _Thirst_ was one in Stockton,
California -- where the mayor wanted to sell out the public water system
to an affiliate of Thames Water . . . the same parent company of the
group given favored sole-source consideration by Pearson.
Dziubek and Mason urged Greens to keep the pressure on Granholm --
the only person who can remove Pearson and end water privatization in
Highland Park.
Dziubek and Mason also suggested other things Greens could do:
* Attend a public hearing on possible changes to the 2001 Annex to
the Great Lakes Charter -- at 2pm on Tuesday, September 14 at
the Michigan Library in Lansing. Granholm has "asked for our
input . . . so let's give it to her," said Dziubek.
* Help build support where you are for Highland Park and Detroit.
MWRO is holding a grassroots organizing conference October 2-3
at the Ramada Inn in Southfield, focusing on housing, hunger,
and health.
* Find out about what's going on in their own communities. Public
Citizen puts out a flyer titled "Who Owns Your Water?" spelling
out the opportunities water conglomerates see in the US -- and
what citizens can do to keep their water public and safe. One
new example in Michigan is Nestlé's move to snatch up municipal
water from the city of Evart in Osceola County.
Greens at the meeting supported the organizing conference. They also
agreed to join a national network of "Water Allies", and encourage the
national Green Party of the United States to do the same.
Making Connections to World Social Forum, All Working People;
Standing Up for Health Care, Verifiable Votes for Everyone
----------------------------------------------------------
Dziubek also introduced Joaquin & Gabriela Pastor of the organizing
committee for the Detroit Social Forum -- part of the World Social Forum
movement whose slogan, "A Better World Is Possible", points up a contrast
with the World Economic Forum meetings of the super-rich and powerful.
The Pastors presented a slide show of photographs from last month's
Social Forum of the Americas in Quito, Ecuador. They are working to hold
a forum in and for Detroit -- tentatively scheduled for November 6, but
in any case to be held before the next World Social Forum in January.
Attendees voted to set up a committee to study how to help with the
World Social Forum activities. Dziubek and the Detroit Greens are already
working with the Pastors in planning the Detroit meeting; 86th District
State House candidate Rebekah Mikkelson will also serve on the committee.
Dianne Feeley won Greens' support for another mass movement with
principles close to the party's own: the Million Worker March, October
17 in Washington, DC. The march's national co-chair, Clarence Thomas of
San Francisco's Local 10 of the International Longshore and Warehouse
Workers Union, will be speaking in Detroit Wednesday, September 22 at
1248 Grand River Avenue.
14th Congressional District Green candidate Lisa Weltman has already
been working with the march -- and with Verified Voting, a group calling
for "a permanent record of each vote that can be checked for accuracy by
the voter before the vote is submitted, and is difficult or impossible
to alter after it has been checked."
Greens at the meeting passed Verified Voting's resolution saying that
"Providing a voter-verifiable audit trail should be one of the essential
requirements for certification of new voting systems." This follows up
on the party's support last year for the Michigan state NAACP's platform
of Help America Vote Act plan suggestions (such as same-day registration
and real no-burden provisional voting, as well as IRV) that would truly
encourage and help all Americans to vote in the faith that their votes
would count and be counted.
Bill Opalicky of Southfield announced that he is taking a resolution
supporting universal health care to tonight's City Council meeting. The
resolution is similar to one introduced in Mount Pleasant by Jim Moreno,
a GPMI member running for re-election to the non-partisan City Commission
there. Both are based on a campaign by the Universal Health Care Action
Network and a lawsuit filed by Michigan Legal Services claiming that the
governor has a Constitutional duty to plan for health care for all
Michigan residents.
On another long-range issue of everyday concern, energy, Art Myatt
offered the meeting a somber look at the current demands on the world's
fossil-fuel resources; the coming permanent shortage of oil (and, for
the US, a natural-gas crisis less than a decade away); an analysis of
how the situation is already driving US foreign policy; and the outlook
for building a truly sustainable energy and economic future.
Myatt then led his fellow Greens in a tour of the United Solar solar-
cell production plant -- just a fence away from the nature center . . .
and almost right across the street from the Palace of Auburn Hills.
The closing discussion of Green campaigns ranged from sharing event
information to fundraising goals and tools, unified yard-sign designs to
help voters identify Green candidates across the state, how to support
the Cobb and LaMarche visits and other co-ordinated campaigning, and
getting more supporters active on local and statewide candidates and on
friendly efforts like the petition drive to restore the dove-hunting ban.
The meeting also saw the release of the new issue of GPMI's _Amber
Waves of Green_ tabloid, which lists all the candidates and has articles
by several of them. The issue will be sent to libraries across the
state, said La Pietra -- as well as to political action committees . . .
but not to raise money.
Instead, the party wants to reach the affiliated groups that survey
candidates, hold forums and debates, and send out voter guides. "We
want to do everything we can to make sure every voter has a fair chance
to hear about Green candidates -- and we want to make sure all the places
they may turn to find out about candidates know there are good Green
candidates on the ballot, too."
[---------------------------------------------------]
For more information on some of the issues mentioned here, please
visit the following Web sites:
Coalition for a Fair http://www.coalitionforafairmichigan.org
Michigan
Committee to Restore http://www.stopshootingdoves.org
the Dove Shooting Ban
Detroit Social Forum http://www.detroitsocialforum.org
Great Lakes Charter -- http://www.michigan.gov/Annex2001Process
2001 Annex
Michigan Welfare Rights http://www.mwro.org
Organization
Million Worker March http://www.millionworkermarch.org
Public Citizen http://www.wateractivist.org
(on water issues)
Sweetwater Alliance http://www.waterissweet.org
Universal Health Care http://www.uhcan.org
Action Network
Verified Voting http://www.verifiedvoting.org
Water Allies http://www.waterallies.org
GPMI's public statement in support of same-sex marriage rights and
against a Constitutional ban on those rights, is on line at:
http://www.migreens.org/press/pr040229.htm
The party's declaration of respect for the Nader candidacy, and
disgust with the squabbling of the major parties over it, is at:
http://www.migreens.org/press/pr040712.htm
These texts were the ones submitted to the Board of State Canvassers.
They can be provided on request.
The campaign Web site for David Cobb and Patricia LaMarche is:
http://www.votecobb.org
For the independent/mixed-party campaign of Ralph Nader and Peter
Camejo, the Web site is:
http://www.votenader.org
A full list of Michigan Greens on the November 2 ballot, with the
offices they are seeking and campaign contact information, is at:
http://www.migreens.org/mi-cand.htm
For more information on GPMI, and how you can get in contact with
Green candidates and locals in your area to help offer Michigan voters
a choice and a voice independent of the "Big Two" parties, please visit
our home page:
http://www.migreens.org
# # #
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. Greens are 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
created/distributed using donated labor
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*
SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS
-----------------------
* "Five-Point Approach for Michigan Water Policy and Law" (MCWC)
* Resolution of Support (Verified Voting)
Five-Point Approach for Michigan Water Policy and Law:
A Proposal of Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation 1/23/2004
(from http://www.savemiwater.org/news/press-release-01262004.htm)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
1. Adopt a Michigan Water Protection and Conservation Act that declares
and asserts the State's common law sovereign interest in the water
as a public resource and declares it held in trust on behalf of
its people and the State's future security.
2. Adopt a Prohibition Against Water Diversions for Sale Act to
prohibit the diversion for sale of water (or, alternatively,
outside of some other defined hydrogeological unit or, in
addition, the Great Lakes basin) consistent with the Michigan
Constitution, Art. 4, Sec. 52, the common law of sovereign
interests over water, and existing statutes. (The State may
decide to allow for narrow exceptions to the extent expressly
authorized by the Legislature and/or through an authorized
delegation to the appropriate administrative agency(s), such
as the Department of Natural Resources and/or Department of
Environmental Quality, but it must be done with utmost caution.)
3. Adopt a Water Resources Protection, Conservation and Withdrawal
Act that is consistent with the State's public interest in the
water, the public trust in navigable lakes and streams and their
tributary waters, and the common law regarding private rights
to use water under the riparian-groundwater law.
4. Adopt a Water Resources Planning Act to establish a framework
for the preparation of a State Water Resources Plan that
accounts for the water, its use, its scarcity or abundance,
its non-renewability if removed or diverted, its future need,
conservation and feasible and prudent alternatives, its en-
hancement, within the State and Great Lakes basin as it relates
to people, their health and safety, industry, recreation, and
the sustainability of the environment and economy, and that
accounts for its value, qualitative, quantitative, and economic.
5. Adopt a Water Resources Protection and Conflict Resolution Act
that provides for the resolution of conflicts between ground-
water users or groundwater users and the environment, health,
safety and general welfare, taking into account the standards
in Part 3, above. The resolution process would establish an
Office of Water Conflict Resolution, which would process water
conflict complaints and assign them to accredited mediators or
alternative dispute resolution persons.
==================================================================
Verified Voting -- Resolution of Support
(from http://www.verifiedvoting.org/resolution.asp)
---------------------------------------------------
Computerized voting equipment is inherently subject to programming
error, equipment malfunction, and malicious tampering. It is there-
fore crucial that voting equipment provide a voter-verifiable audit
trail, by which we mean a permanent record of each vote that can be
checked for accuracy by the voter before the vote is submitted, and
is difficult or impossible to alter after it has been checked.
Many of the electronic voting machines being purchased do not sat-
isfy this requirement. Voting machines should not be purchased or
used unless they provide a voter-verifiable audit trail; when such
machines are already in use, they should be replaced or modified
to provide a voter-verifiable audit trail. Providing a voter-
verifiable audit trail should be one of the essential requirements
for certification of new voting systems.
Other Contacts:
Green Party of Michigan
548 S Main St
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
734-663-3555
info@migreens.org
posted to web 23 Aug 2004