Please see http://www.mngreens.org/caucus2008 for locations and other detail.
Each candidate and draft candidate campaign was asked to submit 300 words for Green Party members, supporters and caucus participants to consider.
Jesse Johnson (http://www.jesse08.org)
Forthcoming
Cynthia McKinney (http://www.runcynthiarun.org)
Green Party member
candidate for Presidential Nomination
Green Party of the United States
Cynthia McKinney served 12 years in the United States Congress. There, she proved to be a courageous voice for the voiceless, speaking truth to power.
She authored legislation that would have: eliminated federal subsidies for corporations taking jobs overseas; instituted a national livable wage; repealed the Military Tribunals Act; provided for national forest protection and restoration; eliminated the use of depleted uranium weapons; denied federal assistance to law enforcement agencies violating human rights; allowed 9/11/2001 victims the right to participate in the Victims Compensation Fund and sue those responsible; and impeached Bush, Cheney, and Rice.
McKinney successfully extended Agent Orange benefits an additional 25 years; authorized the USDA disparity study that demonstrated USDA discrimination against minority farmers, and directed the Pentagon to study how it handled conscientious objection.
Cynthia will implement radical common sense solutions to America's myriad problems. With a view toward the long term, she asks us all to be willing to do some things we've never done before in order to have some things we've never had before.
The Power to the People Committee is Cynthia's way of proving what Bobby Kennedy said so long ago: "Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope; and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."
Kent Mesplay (http://www.mesplay.org)
I run to improve our basic physical security and to reform politics. Sustainability is a security issue. Communities and regions that are largely self-reliant in a manner not preventing future generations from also being self-reliant are more secure. At all levels of organization we must rapidly learn to live within our means and build sustainably and efficiently for better independence and basic security of water, food and energy. Renewable energy, local organic produce and improved health care delivery are Green issues.
Electoral reform is critical to inspire confidence in voting. I work to improve the manner in which we reach decisions as a government and how we select, elect and retain candidates to public office. I support public funding of campaigns, with automatic inclusion into debates for those ballot qualified candidates who, through ballot access, have at least a statistical chance of winning. The current political system does not emphasize deep debate and the solutions that such open discussion brings. I encourage preferential voting, Instant Runoff Voting (I.R.V.) and other improvements to politics. Lobbying is bribery.
Peace is important. It's not important to just end the war in Iraq but to grapple with the issue of our national addiction to war. Our nation must take a leadership role in creating the conditions that will lead to diplomatic solutions. Through improved communication and verification the younger generations of today can help put an end to war, if their hearts are in it.
Support the Green Party and movement, vote Mesplay.
Kat Swift (http://www.bexargreens.org/katforprez)
At age 26 I recognized that I needed to actively work to modify our society and that we need to do something now to break the chain of insanity - that of not voting or voting for people whom you cannot respect before our Constitutional Republic becomes beyond repair.
Now at age 34, I have been working for eight+ years as a Green Party activist to build an alternative system based on the foundations embodied in the GP’s 10 Key Values.
My hope is that all people, especially youth and women, of this country will join me in exercising the power held in our votes to improve the course of society.
Top three priorities:
- Creating sustainable communities with equal access to quality of life, including medical coverage that provides adequate mental health and substance and physical/emotional abuse services, ending violence against women and children, classism and all forms of discrimination, decontaminating food and water, legalizing all drugs, providing livable wages, decentralizing government, and ending corporate control of our lives so that communities are better able to meet their needs;
- Clean up our military contamination around the world, cease military interventions that only serve to increase the wealth of the owning class, reinstitute diplomacy and mediation in foreign policy, and stop supporting dictatorships and providing military arms that perpetuate violence abroad;
- Correct the electoral process to open source software with duplicate paper receipts, one for recount and spot checking, and the other for the voter to take home; remove corporate donation loopholes from campaign financing; add ‘None of the Above’ to the ballot lines, standardize ballot access laws across the country; implement Instant Runoff Voting; reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and provide equal campaign coverage for all candidates of all parties with free equal airtime on the public airwaves.
