NY Green Fest 2011
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The NY Green Fest 2011 is all about finding solutions to help the planet be greener. This is largely supported by the Green Party and those who are involved in the Green Party. The great part about this conference is it reaches all spectrums; there are serious workshops about sustainability as well as music on the Solar Stage.
There are some big names who are presenting at the conference. There’s Gary Abraham is an attorney who will be talking about why the answer for clean energy production will not be found in wind turbines. Barry Miller, a mechanical engineer, will be speaking on DIY solar and wind installations. Kent Mesplay, a presidential candidate for the Green Party for the 2012 elections, will also be speaking.
The topics for the conference include rekindling the anti-nuclear movement, the truth about wind energy, real food, low-cost solar DIY, and free energy solutions. For those who are interested in becoming more “green,” this is a great opportunity to learn more. There are many subjects, so you’re sure to find classes that meet with your interest in the green initiative. It’s all about what each of us can do on our own, which combined will make a difference in the world.
If you aren’t able to make it this year, consider going to the conference in New York next year. It’s a great opportunity to meet with like-minded individuals who truly believe that we are the guardians of this planet and we need to do all we can to protect it.
The Ecological Wisdom of the Green Party
Like all political parties, the Green Party came from strongly held beliefs. However, the platform based on its approach to environmentalism and conservationism, didn’t foment into a US party represented by elected officials until 1985. As global concern for the planet and its resources has grown, so has the strength of this political party still in its (relative) infancy.
Although the party has seen limited success in garnering elected positions in the US, its central tenet has pushed the other political parties to at least compromise on many of these important issues.
The Green Party’s Take on Ecology
According to the Green Party’s platform, members believe that society must act with the knowledge that it is an integral part of nature. It is incumbent upon society that it functions within the limits of its ecological resources on a local and global level. The Green Party doesn’t see the planet as meeting our needs in just the here and now but believes society needs to be sustainable. That is, future generations will benefit from our actions now rather than suffer its consequences. Therefore, society must respect the integrity of the planet’s natural resources and consume its resources in a way that will move us toward an economy that is energy efficient and agriculture that replenishes the soil.
The US Green Party and the Kyoto Protocol
The US Green Party has had little effect on the US when it comes to supporting the Kyoto Protocol, the portion of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change geared toward combating global warming. Whereas the Green Party supports rapid reduction of greenhouse gases worldwide, higher energy efficiency standards and the conversion to renewable energy sources, both the Republican and Democratic parties oppose the treaty.
Basics of the Green Party Philosophy
The goals of the Green Party really are rather simple. The platform of the Green Party is based on making society better by making sure that everyone is taken care of and has equal opportunities. In general that means the Green Party puts people ahead of politics. They believe that people should have the chance to get quality healthcare, education, and basic civil rights.
The Green Party philosophy isn’t simply about giving handouts to everyone. Instead the idea is that American society benefits when the most people have the education, food, shelter, and medical care that they need. Children who are living in comfortable environments are more likely to be their best selves in school and the community if they have everything they need.
The Green Party platform doesn’t require anyone to ignore the reality that not everyone makes the best decisions, but the party’s platform does call for good treatment in prisons. The Party calls for education and work/life skills to be part of the prison culture.
Overall the politics of the Green Party supports non-violence, which is why the party is opposed to most war. The 10 Key Values, the guiding document of the Green Party, state that the party will “work to demilitarize, and eliminate weapons of mass destruction” while still acknowledging that sometimes self-defense becomes necessary.
The idea behind the Green Party is that peace and love can be guiding forces in the world and that sharing the wealth of the entire nation not so that everyone has exactly equal possessions and assets but so that everyone has at least enough to cover their basic needs. The purpose of the bulk of the Green Party’s positions is to make the world happier and more satisfying for the largest number of people, rather than pitting people against each other to compete for resources.
What does “Community-Based Economics” Mean?
The 10 Key Values are what defines most completely what the Green Party’s position in on a variety of issues. Within any specific issue, these values are the guiding force. The sixth of the key values is a belief in community-based economics. Unlike some of the other values, such as social justice and gender equality, community-based economics is not as intuitive. So, just what does it mean to have community-based economics?
Locally-Owned Businesses
Supporting locally-owned businesses through tax incentives or grants is a key idea to supporting community economics. Because more of the money from local shops goes to the local economy than is true for online or chain-store shopping, the Green Party platform calls for more support for local businesses, which will create better educational and civic opportunities for people within that community.
Industry Decisions
The Green Party wants to empower people in each community to determine whether or not they want a certain business in their area or not. Don’t want a landfill? That should be okay. Opposed to Wal-Mart? Again, that should be a decision made at a local level to create the most sustainable economic model for the community. Decisions should not be based on corporate needs.
Living Wage
The living wage is a concept that the Green Party has tried to introduce into society in many communities. A living wage is enough pay to afford to live in decent housing and to have food and clothing appropriate for the climate. The goal of community-based economics is to determine a local wage that is enough to support these basic economic needs.
These basic economic principles will support each community’s needs and help the people within that community to live better, more productive lives. The Kentucky Green Party’s goal is for communities across the Commonwealth to be able to implement these economic strategies.
Green Party’s Goals for Better Healthcare
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Party politics typically means pitting Republicans and Democrats against each other to talk about how to best fix American society within a narrow scope. The two major parties represent only the center in terms of political beliefs, and their arguments typically are over shades of grey. Such is the case with the healthcare reform now in litigation.
One of the central beliefs of the national Green Party is that universal healthcare, also called a single-payer system, is the best option. Universal healthcare means that the government acts as the insurer, negotiating with doctors and making payments and medical determinations in the way that insurance companies do now.
The Green Party belief is that society would benefit from overall lower healthcare costs, even if taxes increased to pay for this service. Though universal healthcare didn’t pass in the 2009 healthcare reform bill, there are other issues that the Greens support related to healthcare.
The Green Party supports the “Manhattan Project,” a series of HIV/AIDS-related ideas, including increased funding for research on HIV/AIDS and the care of people living with AIDS. The Manhattan Project also calls for needle-sharing programs and for low-cost medications to be made available.
The only place where the politics of the Green Party aligned enough with the major parties was in the belief that healthcare is a human right. The general belief of the Green Party is that all people should have access to proper healthcare, which means that there are no people turned away from coverage because of a pre-existing condition. The new healthcare reform law will require insurers to begin to accept patients with a variety of conditions that previously led to denied coverage.
The Green Party’s goals with regard to medical rights are to make society better by ensuring that healthcare benefits are equally accessible and affordable for everyone.
Ways to Fight Homelessness on an Individual Level
Fighting homelessness is a problem at all levels of our society. There are no places without homeless people in them. Many of those people are termed “chronically homeless,” meaning that they have nowhere safe and inside to stay routinely. Others are homeless only for brief stints. Still others find places to sleep with friends or family, but they have no permanent residence.
Outside of legislative action, how can be who are committed, as the Green Party is, to eliminating homelessness help?
First volunteer your time. Homeless shelters, both emergency shelters and transitional living facilities, need people to do all sorts of work. There are staff volunteers who help residents but also there are people who take care of the shelters websites, fundraising, publicity, maintenance, personal improvement classes, and perform other services. Give of yourself to help your community.
Donate money and goods when you can. If you do not have the time to donate, you can give hats, gloves, and boots in the winter months. Donate some money each month or year to a shelter of your choice. Shelters often need donations of cleaning supplies, toiletry items, and clothing, so ask around to find out what your local shelter needs.
Vote often. Local measures on issues such as sleeping in public places and funding for shelters matter tremendously to you right where you are. On a larger scale, federal votes on aid for veterans and mental health insurance coverage matter in helping keep people from being homeless. Be sure that you find out what candidates positions are on these issues and that you hold them accountable for making the best choices once elected.
Green Party candidates work actively to help end homelessness, but Greens can coalition with people from other parties who share these goals. Homelessness is an issue that should break party lines.
Why The Green Party Matters
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21st Century Insurance is a leader in their field, but they aren’t the only insurance company around. While they may be the best, there are plenty of other companies out there to choose from and you know that. However, what if you weren’t allowed to know about the best companies, or even the other lesser companies? What if you were only always given two companies to choose from no matter how good or bad they were? You wouldn’t like to be limited, now would you?
In the political system, we have the unfortunate time of being given only two parties to choose from. The Green Party is often not one of those big parties. It’s a shame because the world needs the Green Party and other parties just like it, but try telling that to the boys in Washington.
The simple thing is that the more ideas there are in Washington, the more we can find the path to positive change. With only two parties working for change, we are really losing out on a lot of interesting and helpful ideas.
What the Green Party provides is a platform for the sharing of ideas that are a little off the beaten path. They believe that there shouldn’t be the acceptance of money from big corporations and they are against the idea of a government that doesn’t work tirelessly for the people. We all agree that they should be working hard for the American people, but the Green Party is the only party that seems to base their entire political system around it.
The Green Party gives the American people another option. Another option is what will keep the rest of the political system honest. Without honesty, we are going to be staring at the same old broken system we have had in place for years.
No Green Pawns
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The Green Party is growing in size. If it wants to beat the two major parties in their game of Monkey in the Middle, it still has a bit of growing to do. One of the biggest challenges facing the Green Party is its own level of success. As it becomes larger, the major parties attempt to manipulate the Green Party’s mass to affect election outcomes in their own favor.
Take the Texas tussle to get the Green Party on the ballot. To break into the two party system, a party must pass a petition with over four thousand signatures. The Green Party mobilized a drive garnered twice the necessary forty thousand signatures necessary to allow their candidates to appear on the 2010 November ballot. This was a significant victory for the party—this year, there would be a viable third contender in the usual two-party race.
Yet in June 2010, the party found itself suddenly banned from the ballot it had worked so hard to attain. The state served the Green Party a restraining order as if it was a stalker ex-boyfriend. The reason? Republicans contributed funds to the petition drive.
The Democratic Party uncovered that one of the petition drive’s biggest contributors was an out-of-state corporation with ties to the current Republican administration. This was considered an ethical violation because the Republican Party was hardly contributing altruistically—- they intended to use the Green candidates to siphon votes from the Democratic challengers.
The state supreme court overturned the restraining order. This decision was based partly on the grounds that once access to the ballot had been granted it should not be unduly rescinded. Henceforth the Green Party campaign bore a slightly darker cast for their involvement in the whole affair.
This debacle made one thing clear—now that the Green Party carries more weight, the two major parties are both looking to brandish it like a mace. Until the Green Party reaches the critical mass it needs to throw the two-party system out of balance, it must be vigilant to avoid being the pawn of other parties.
3 Prevailing Myths About the Green Party
Existing outside of the two major parties means combating a lot of bias in the media and educating the public on what one’s positions truly are. The Green Party, like the Libertarians, the Socialists, and others, find themselves in this position often. Here are some of the most common myths about the Green Party and its members.
Myth: They’re all hippie tree huggers without jobs.
Truth: Okay, they’re mostly tree huggers. Green Party activists do love the environment, and they want the government to take steps to protect it. Green Party members often are non-conventional and work in creative jobs, but there are plenty of members who work good, old-fashioned 9-5 jobs, too.
Myth: They want the government to run our lives.
Truth: The Green Party’s platform calls for gender equality, civil rights, compassionate economics, and environmental sustainability. When these issues are in jeopardy, then the Green Party supports legislation that will propel the issue forward. Examples include the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which made many forms of race-based discrimination illegal, and healthcare reform (in the form of a single payer system), which would give everyone access to quality healthcare.
Myth: Their ideas would make people lazy.
Truth: There’s nothing to support this claim, but it gets bandied about often. The idea behind is that public assistance encourages people not to work. The truth is that public assistance is a lifeline for people who cannot support themselves.
Providing financial assistance as well as life skills training, which would require a greater investment in social services, could be a long-term benefit to struggling families.
These myths are simply three of the most pervasive about the Green Party and its
members. The policies that the Green Party promotes aren’t intended to harm citizens. Instead they’re intended to help provide everyone with the best possible chance to succeed.
Helping Green Party Candidates Succeed
Helping a Green Party candidate get elected in a local or state election requires a savvy understanding of the Green Party’s principles and political campaigning. Because Green Party candidates are painted as the “other” in elections, campaigners must determine the best ways to make the Green Party candidates looks like qualified, respectable candidates to avoid the stigma that accompanies third-party candidates in much of the United States.
Stick with the standards that candidates from other parties use in campaign information. Provide a basic background, including education and work experience as well as one sentence about the candidate’s personal life. Use both printed literature and social networking to reach people. Though Green Party candidates believe in environmental sustainability, having a limited amount of literature available will help attract some more mainstream voters. Just be conscientious about what you print.
Harness the power of the internet! One of the disadvantages of being a third-party candidate is lack of funding compared to Democrats and Republicans. Politics is, at its core, about being able to reach voters. Facebook, Twitter, and candidate websites are easy, free (or inexpensive) ways to reach thousands of voters. Find a young, enthusiastic campaign volunteer who understands how to leverage these networking tools and make the most of them.
Push for inclusion in debates. If you think the local chamber of commerce, a frequent host in local elections, won’t include you, then begin to approach nonprofits or business owners who you think may be sympathetic to the idea of including all candidates. Ask these people to sponsor alternative debates or to push for the main debates to include all candidates.
Being confident about your right to participate in local election discussions and knowing how to use the benefits you have will help improve your chances of getting elected as a third-party candidate.
