Ten Key Values of the Green Party
The following are a few issues that are important to me. I welcome your comments and your ideas on how to bring about this most important work.
Notch Reform
A crime is being committed by our congress. It has been known for
many years now that those United States citizens, born between 1917 and
1926 (the WWII generation) are being given less social security benefits
than the rest of the population. There are three bills, now in congress,
that are getting nowhere. This dragging of our congress’s feet must
stop. Give the elders of our society what they rightly deserve.
To wait while 11,000 of these deserving citizens die each year is criminal
and unconscionable.
Elections and Democracy
Elections that are paid for by the public are necessary to allow unfettered
access to our elected representatives. All forms of corporate support
to the election process should end.
Corporate Responsibility
This is an oxymoron. Corporations are not human beings. It is
impossible for them to be responsible. The men and women that control
and benefit from the operation of the corporation must be held responsible.
That is not being done. The people should reserve the right to abolish
the charter of any corporation that does not serve the public good.
Health Care
Basic health care for all citizens and visitors to our country, is
a basic human right. Doing anything less is an attack on the very
spirit and definition of being a human being.
Women’s
Rights
The right of a woman to have an abortion is one of many basic rights we
as human beings reserve and demand for ourselves. No state should
ever be allowed the abrogation of the right to do, what you will, with your
own body.
Taxes
The people are taxed too much and the corporations are taxed too little.
Tax the rich to feed the poor, or as the Dali Lama suggested: Use the capitalist
system to make money and the socialist system to distribute the profits.
I believe it is good to stay open to radical ideas. The important
issue is how much more should one individual have when so many have so little.
Transportation
We are forced to drive around in little metal boxes while these little boxes
destroy the very atmosphere we breath in order to survive. This is not to
mention the thousands of lives that are lost each year to automobile accidents.
More importantly, the automobile culture is a thing of the past. We
must immediately begin the reformation of our city infrastructure to be
centered around fun, free or affordable, high speed, environmentally friendly,
public transportation. There should be a monorail in every city connected
to all urban areas by an enjoyable means of getting around, without owning
your own personal automobile. The situation we find ourselves in,
in most large cities, is a crime. It was forced upon us as the only
solution to getting from point A to point B. We were lied to and tricked
into falling in love with this little metal box that has caused so much
damage to our society. My first car was a 1967 Ford Mustang Sprint
with a 289 engine. I loved that car, but their use should be kept
in perspective. Keep them, but just do not drive them all the time,
every day. There are better ways to get around now and much more fun ways
too.
Environment
The air we breathe is only possible because of the trees, trees that we
are now clearcutting to the north of us. There are brave souls spending
their lives in trees to protect them from loggers. We must stop this
insanity. The health of our environment is the most important issue
our generation will address. We must stop the attack on Mother Earth
in this lifetime. If we do not, there will be no future for our children
or our grandchildren. We do not have to choose between jobs and the
environment. There is not an amount too great to pay for clean air,
water, and earth. The earth does not belong to us; we belong to the
earth.
Power
We will move to a renewable form of energy and withdraw from our dependence
on oil or our democratic society will crumble and the security of the globe
will be put in jeopardy. The taking of the world’s resources
for our consumption is being challenged by those that own those resources.
We should move immediately to wind, solar, and other forms of renewable
energy. We have all the necessary technologies needed to phase out
nuclear, oil and coal as fuel sources. We can do this in our lifetime,
but we must start today.
Genetically
Engineered Food
We are being experimented upon. We are eating or using untested,
unpredictable, unnecessary, genetically engineered corn, soya, canola and
cotton. It is not labeled. You do not know you are consuming
it. The corporations that do business internationally have some shipments
that go to Europe and some that stay here because those in Europe have rejected
this abomination. They have said NO to corn that have bacterial and
viral genes spliced into them in order to either produce their own pesticide
or to be resistant to the company’s herbicide. They do not benefit
the farmer. They do not benefit the consumer. There needs to
be a moratorium on this experimentation until it is proven to cause no harm.
Death
Penalty
All civilized countries have outlawed the death penalty. Most major
religions ban the practice of taking a persons life for committing a crime.
We should become one of those civilized countries.
Wages
While thinking about a minimum wage is a good thing, I would say we
also begin thinking talking about a living wage and a maximum wage.
Since we are now a global community we require a global minimum and maximum
wage. A job and a living wage for everyone on the planet is crucial
for world peace. There should not be such a large difference between
the lowest and the highest paid individuals in our society. It is this discrepancy
that causes so much stress and tension throughout the world. When
some drive in luxury cars and dine on expensive food while others lie cold
and hungry on city streets throughout the world, there will be unrest.
Only when we treat the needy in the world with the compassion they deserve
will there be true justice in our society.
Nuclear Weapons and Power
Nuclear power was a bad idea. We have been lied to. It is not cheap
and we will pay for it for thousands of years to come. All production
of radioactive material must stop and the sooner the better. Nuclear weapons
must be banned and dismantled as soon as humanly possible. This is
one of the most important foreign relations issues of this generation.
It is not being addressed. Instead of disarming we are creating new
nuclear weapons instead of leading the way towards a world at peace; a world
that has dropped its arms and embraced its people as one. To live
a life in fear is such a tragic waste. We can bomb the world to pieces,
but it is impossible to bomb it into Peace.
Reduce, Reuse, And Recycle. Make it your mantra.
Thank you.
Thomas Lash.