Today the Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, passed a resolution wishing everyone in Pinal County, the state of Arizona, the United States of America and other nations of the earth a happy new year.
"We hope 2012 will bring a greener, safer, more sustainable and prosperous planet," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair.
Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair, was interviewed this afternoon by Eric English of TV's ABC15 of Phoenix about his candidacy for the Green Party presidential nomination. Grayson is running in the February 28 Arizona Green Party presidential preference primary.
The Pinal County Greens today passed an emergency resolution wishing all Arizonans, Green Party members and normal people a very merry Christmas.
"We hope everyone will have a good holiday," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County.
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution demanding action to protect black bears endangered by the border fence between Arizona and Mexico, which prevents the animals from migrating within their native habitat. As Marc Lacey reported in today's New York Times, a study published in this month’s edition of Biological Conservation "warns that the black bear population just north of the border in Arizona may be threatened by the increasingly impermeable barriers at the border." "The border bears are closely related, whether they're on the Mexican side of the border or the Arizona side," said Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens. "They are different genetically from other Arizona black bears and because of the 'Wall of Hate' border fence splitting their habitat in two, their population density is significantly lower than bears in other parts of the state."
"This is unacceptable," said Grayson. "The Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies concerned with border security must find a solution to the Arizona black bear problem. It's their land, too. We demand action within the next two weeks."
The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County and they are smarter than the average Republican.
Grayson, 60, first ran for President in 1984, when he unsuccessfully sought the nomination of the Democratic party to run against President Ronald Reagan. In 2004, Grayson ran for the U.S. House of Representatives as a write-in candidate from a district where the Republican incumbent had no Democratic opponent and published his campaign diary at the McSweeney's website as "Diary of a Congressional Candidate in Florida's Fourth Congressional District," and in 2010, Grayson was the Green Party candidate for Congress in Arizona's Sixth Congressional District, running against Representative Jeff Flake.
Grayson said he looked forward to actively campaigning in the primary. "I am happy to be Arizona's favorite stepson candidate in the Green Party presidential primary," he said. Other candidates are expected to file in the race during the weeks ahead.
In light of today's "damning" Justice Department report detailing illegal discrimination against Hispanic Americans by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, the Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution urging Sheriff Joe Arpaio to resign immediately. "Enough is enough," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "Sheriff Arpaio has done so much wrong during his terms in office that it would take 500 servers to contain all the data of his misdeeds. Joe, it's past time for you to go, and everyone but you apparently knows it." Today's Justice Department report said that Arpaio oversaw a pattern of unconstitutional conduct that targeted Hispanics and retaliated against others who criticized the practices. “We found discriminatory policing that was deeply rooted in the culture of the department - a culture that breeds a systemic disregard for basic constitutional protections," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for civil rights. He laid the blame at Arpaio’s door, adding: “These issues go to the highest levels of the department." Grayson, speaking for the Pinal County Greens, said, "It is unconscionable how little Joe Arpaio and his local apologists care for the Constitution. Even Maricopa County is a government of laws, not of unscrupulous men of zeal like the sheriff.
Arizona law enforcement needs to turn the page on Arpaio's sad chapter and let law-abiding officials create a compelling narrative of twenty-first century American justice for all."
The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County and supporters of Occupy Phoenix.
Today the Pinal County Greens passed a resolution hailing the end of the Iraq War, "a useless, catastrophic mistake that never should have happened and which wasted American and Iraqi lives and resources." "With the end of U.S. military actions in Iraq," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair, "we end a miserable chapter in the saga of the United States as a failed empire. This was an entirely unnecessary tragedy foisted on the public by Republicans and Democrats alike, with the Green Party, always against the war, offering a lonely voice of sanity amid the 2002-03 rush to war based on lies."
Grayson said he spent the day when the war began at an antiwar service at St. Maurice Roman Catholic Church in Dania Beach, Florida, with the parish's priest and fellow members of the group Peace South Florida and others aligned with the Catholic organization Pax Christi. Grayson ran as a write-in candidate for Congress in Florida in 2004 on a platform calling for an immediate end to the Iraq war.
"We never thought the war in Iraq would last this long," Grayson said, "but the war in Afghanistan, broadened by President Obama, has gone even longer. The Pinal County Greens call for an immediate withdrawal of all U.S. forces from the failed war in Afghanistan, too." The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, which, according to 2010 U.S. Census figures, is America's second-fastest-growing county.
The Pinal County Greens today attended US Veg Corp's First Annual Green Holiday Festival in New York City. Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair, wrote and sent these photos from the event:
On this cold, sunny afternoon in Manhattan, we attended the first annual Green Holiday Festival presented by the good folks at US Veg Corp. We spent a long time amid a cornucopia of green products, services, food and organizations, with an emphasis on stuff for the holiday season. We're grateful to US Veg Corp for allowing us to spend a couple of hours at the Green Holiday Festival and see various green-minded gift vendors, non-profit information tables, live entertainment, and activities, all in celebration of green living -- important to all of us, whether we're in the Green Party or not.
