Why I am Voting Green

Tomorrow, citizens all over the country will be heading for the polls to cast votes for Congress as well as any number of state and local races. This election is being called a historic election by some and I believe will be historic indeed. I only hope that after the election both parties will be able to find a way to work together so we can get our country back on track.

In Massachusetts the people will be electing a new governor as well as all of the other constitutional offices. I am casting my ballot for the candidates from the Massachusetts Green Party. I realize that there is not much of a chance that they will win, but I believe we need more voices from an independent third party and the Massachusetts Green Party has the clearest voice for change in this election. If enough people vote Green tomorrow the voice will be heard loud and clear.

Here are some of my reasons for voting Green tomorrow:

1. Education ~ The younger generation is our future and we need to insure that they are educated in the best possible way. I serve on the Southern Worcester County Regional School Committee and I am also a certified teacher in Massachusetts and we owe our students better then they are presently getting. The Greens believe is a strong values education public education system that emphasizes the importance of literacy, good citizenship, civic participation, and healthy self-realization. The Green Party calls upon educators to prepare students for living in a sustainable society. Support access to quality, free public education at all levels, and support significant rollbacks of tuition and fees at public institutions of higher learning. And they support a fully funded public library system.

Jill Stein’s position is clear:

Fully fund K through 12 education in every year, in every budget, for every student.

It’s a matter of getting our priorities straight. Do we hand out more corporate welfare and more tax breaks to well-connected CEO’s? Or do we educate our kids? Jill says that kids come first.

Put public schools first, and don’t undermine them with private charter schools.

Every child should have access to a quality public school in their neighborhood or community. Undermining public schools in search of privatization will inevitably lead to more expensive education, inequality, and loss of the democratic right to a free education.

Let educators and parents decide how best to educate our children.

Stop the takeover of the education agenda by private interests seeking to gain a business advantage. Stop the power grabs by state level bureaucracies seeking to impose their schemes on parents and local school districts. Schools should be responsive to and accountable to the community in which they are located. State boards filled with political hacks and privatization advocates should not dictate conditions to local school districts.

Stop punishing students and teachers for the failures of Beacon Hill.

Blaming teachers for deceptively labeled “underperforming schools” is an attempt to divert attention from the failure of Beacon Hill to properly fund schools and to address other factors affecting the ability of students to learn. And punishing students by denying them the diplomas they have earned through their coursework is a devastating punishment that is unfair and misguided. Punishing the innocent will NOT be part of Jill’s educational philosophy. We need to give students all the support they need and to work with teachers who are, after all, our school’s greatest resources.

2. Economy ~ The Greens support an ecological approach to economic security, in which economic enterprises are a compatible, integrated part of local communities, with increased emphasis on local cycles of production, consumption, and recycling. And support the preservation of agriculture in Massachusetts, the expansion of sustainable community-based agriculture and urban agriculture, and the pursuit of food security by increasing the fraction of food that is locally grown.

Jill Stein has a plan to bring 50,000 green jobs to the local economy. She is against the present plan to bring Casinos to Massachusetts as they are job killers and drain resources from the local economy as well and bring higher crime to the area. Casino job are low wage and go no where, the Green jobs will bring real revitalization to our communities and put real people back to work.

Jill Stein will fight any attempt to balance the budget through tax or fee hikes that hit ordinary taxpayers. She will stand for the fairness solution — which means closing any budget gap by asking higher-income taxpayers to pay something closer to the rate that most people have been experiencing for years. Fairness is not only just, but is the only practical way to preserve essential services and to avoid a continuing series of budget crises.

At a recent debate, Jill Stein had this to say regarding the economy, “I would like to create a revolving loan fund, a low- or zero-interest loan fund using some of this money which is being squandered right now in these tax giveaways for insiders. In particular, we need jobs in weatherization. These are jobs that pay for themselves. Where energy is otherwise going out the window and up the roof, instead we get dollars and that gets put back into the economy. The local food economy is another area, and it’s going like gangbusters, even with incredible disadvantages. But there are so many farmers markets and CSAs (community supported agriculture programs) — these are ready to expand, but communities don’t have the capital to do it, so I’d like to see loans there as well. The third area is transportation, so building bike paths and safe sidewalks and public transit. It re-integrates a more active lifestyle into our communities. One other area is the recycling economy and also clean manufacturing. We know that 90 percent of the waste stream is actually usable or recyclable, and that means employing people to sort, to re-manufacture, to re-engineer — all sorts of spin-off factory-based jobs can be created.”

These are just two of my reasons for voting Green but the number one reason is that the Democrats and Republicans have run this state for generations and they are the reason we are in this mess, a third party would be a new voice to Beacon Hill and I say it is time to give someone else a chance to run things. We need real solutions, real local solutions. We cannot depend on stimulus money and the Federal Government to bail us out and we need to return control to local governments by creating sustainable jobs that support the local community. Jobs created in the local community support the local community.

I would ask you to consider a vote for real hope and change by voting for the following candidates in the Massachusetts Election on November 2nd:

Jill Stein ~ Governor

Rick Purcell ~ Lt. Governor

Nate Fortune ~ Auditor

Scott Laugenour ~ State Representative 4th Berkshire

Mark Miller ~ State Representative 3rd Berkshire
Massachusetts Green Party
If you Don’t live in Massachusetts check out the other Green candidates at the Green Party of the USA