Mesa, Ariz., May 1 -
Today Richard Grayson, former co-chair of the now-defunct Pinal County Greens, was appointed Supreme Leader of the Arizona Americans Elect Party.
"I am delighted to assume the reins of the Arizona Americans Elect Party, a recognized new party in the state of Arizona," said Grayson. "We look forward to running candidates for local, state and federal office this year. Any Arizona voter can change his or her registration to become a member of the Arizona Americans Elect Party and run for office as a write-in candidate starting in June. Go for it!"
At his investment as Supreme Leader in a secret ceremony at the state party's headquarters in Mesa, Grayson concluded by saying, "The Arizona Americans Elect Party is the cool new party in town where everyone is welcome."
"It's not like the Arizona Green Party."
PHOENIX, Apr. 24 -
The Arizona Green Party (AZGP) today expelled the Pinal County Greens from the state party and revoked the group's membership in the AZGP.
"The so-called Pinal County Greens were never an official organization of the Arizona Green Party like the Maricopa Greens, the Pima Greens, and other county groups," Angel Torres, AZGP state co-chair said.
Claudia Ellquist, the AZGP delegate to the Green Party of the United States said in a statement: "No such local party ever existed in Pinal County. Nor does a 'Pinal County
Green Party' exist under the AZGP banner. This group is a sham, just as Richard Grayson, the group's purported co-chair, was a sham Green candidate for Congress in 2010 whom we opposed and whom we sued -- unsuccessfully, sadly -- to remove from the Green Party ballot."
Torres added that Grayson's running for office in the 2012 Green Party presidential preference election in February, in which Grayson finished in a tie for third behind Jill Stein and Kent Mesplay, was also a sham campaign, as was Grayson's write-in candidacy in the special Green Party primary election for Congress in the Eighth Congressional District last week.
"We have been more than tolerant with these fraudulent Arizona Green Party members," said Ellquist. "But the Pinal County Greens' recent endorsement of President Barack Obama for re-election forces us to formally expel the Pinal County Greens, co-chair Richard Grayson, and all its members, if there are any, from the AZGP."
Grayson said that at present he had no comment on the Pinal County Greens' expulsion from the Arizona Green Party.
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Apr. 23 -
The Pinal County Greens met today and voted to endorse Barack Obama for President.
"This decision wasn't that easy, because we have some effective Green candidates running," said Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson. "Also, the Obama administration has been less progressive than we would have liked. However, only one of two men will be elected President in November, and we greatly prefer President Obama to Governor Romney."
The Pinal County Greens passed a resolution calling on the Green Party of the U.S. to bypass candidates Jill Stein and Roseanne Barr and instead cross-nominate President Obama for President, giving him the Green Party ballot line in states where cross-endorsements are allowed.
"The Pinal County Greens will be doing all we can the rest of this election year to support President Obama and Vice President Joe Biden," Grayson said.
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Apr. 5 -
The Pinal County Greens today attended the Social Justice Forum at Central Arizona College. Here is a report by Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson:
We spent most of the day today at an innovative and informative Social Justice Forum sponsored by Central Arizona College at its Superstition Mountain Campus in Apache Junction. The Social Justice Forum drew its inspiration in part from the well-known words of Martin Luther King Jr. wrote in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail": "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,"
and it included a terrific keynote address by Dr. Sue Warner, numerous concurrent presentations and sessions on different topics related to the forum's theme, an opportunity fair, discussions about community activism, a film showing, and more (also breakfast and lunch), all for a nominal $10 fee.
The concurrent sessions were held in rooms 442 and 444 on campus, and while everyone had to choose one of two or three during the four blocks of time from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, we got to attend some interesting presentations, starting with attorney Leo Valverde's "The New Face of Poverty" to start.
Leticia Berry, a CAC student who works at the Desert Vista Behavioral Health Hospital and at Parc Place Chandler, an adolescent inpatient treatment facility, delivered a highly informative presentation on the etiology and behavioral symptoms of juvenile sex offenders, their treatment, and how parents can protect their own children.
Another great session featured Dr. Kristen Bishop, a naturopathic medical doctor, leading a discussion on important women's health issues regarding pregnancy and birth -- as a doula, she contrasted various methods of natural childbirth with standardized U.S. hospital births -- and the factors affecting breastfeeding. We've been interested in women's medical care since being involved in an undergraduate campaign to get a gynecologist on the Brooklyn College campus and doing our political science major's seminar paper on the changes going on in reproductive health care back in the early 1970s, and we learned a lot from Dr. Bishop.
At 1 p.m., after lunch and an opportunity fair in which various local organizations of activists from places like the food bank set up tables in the courtyard, we got to hear Dr. Sue Warner, Central Arizona College's chair of Social and Behavioral Sciences, deliver a wide-ranging keynote address titled "The Broken Escalator."
The title came from a video she showed near the end of her presentation, a compendium of varied social justice issues facing the world today, from income and wealth inequality to demonization of "the other" to environmental justice.
As someone who's taught at colleges, law schools and high schools since 1975, we can always recognize a highly effective, inspiring teacher, and Dr. Warner did not merely lecture but skillfully engaged the audience in a thoughtful and provocative discussion.
One of several sessions concerned with LGBT issues -- we missed ones on bullied youth and coming out, affirming churches, and sensitivity training for parents, but we figured that having been active in gay rights for decades, we could learn more at other sessions on less familiar topics -- was a highly interactive presentation and discussion, "Equal Rights: A Call to Action," led by Stacey Jay Cavaliere and Bea Valezquez of One in Ten, an organization we've long admired.
They were master facilitators, funny and warm and intelligent and informative, and they made effective use of group activities, like our discussion using yarn, which effectively tied all the individuals in a varied group together.
A lighter but fascinating change of pace was CAC student Brittni Evans' presentation, "Star Trek: Adventures through Space and Equality," focusing on the social justice issues and messages of equality and inclusion that permeated Gene Roddenberry's original 1960s Star Trek series. (We remember our Midwood High School classmate Neil giving us a petition to sign in the spring of 1967 to stop NBC from canceling it after the first, low-ratings season. It worked, and the show lived long and prospered.)
Another CAC honors student, Jo Beaudry, then spoke on "The Psychology of Hate: Cognitive and Psycho-Sociological Effects of Hate Regarding the LGBTQ Community," a sophisticated presentation involving brain science and cognitive behavior therapy. It was very well-done. We should note that the technology so helpful in these presentations worked pretty flawlessly -- as a college instructor, we know how rare that can be -- thanks to, we think, Cristina Hatler, Melissa Gardner and others involved in the planning for this terrific event.
We had to get to the nursing home to help feed our mom dinner and then do some other work, and so we missed the pizza dinner on campus and the courtyard 8 p.m. screening of Paul Haggis' Oscar-winning film Crash and the discussion afterward. We've seen it a couple of times, first in 2004 in a Plantation, Florida, theater and can see how the movie's L.A.-based interwoven narrative works effectively as a critical reflection instructional tool for diversity and social justice issues dealing with race, gender, and ethnicity.
Speaking of L.A.: although we missed Hanukkah in Santa Monica in December, we're about to head out to spend Pesach in the San Fernando Valley. But we are grateful for everyone involved in making today's Social Justice Forum at Central Arizona College's Superstition Mountain Campus a reminder to us that we don't have to be in New York City, Los Angeles or Miami to find a community concerned with the issues we've been involved with our whole lives.
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Mar. 29 -
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution urging Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and attacking anti-business Republican politicians for blocking this needed action.
"Right-wing Republicans seem intent on destroying the Export-Import Bank, an important institution which has financed exports since the Depression," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "Unless it is reauthorized, the bank faces the possibility of shutting its doors completely by the end of May. Inaction by these commerce-hating conservatives could harm and even destroy many small businesses in the United States."
Grayson specifically charged anti-business Congressman Jeff Flake with plotting to destroy the Export-Import Bank: "Jeff Flake is spitting in the face of every small businessperson in Arizona who depends on financing their exports and imports."
As The New York Times reported, Exports have been one of the bright spots of the fragile recovery, but without Export-Import Bank financing, companies could struggle to complete contracts with overseas buyers. Those buyers will most likely turn to foreign competitors whose governments have more robust versions of the bank, businesspeople say.
“There’s not a bank in the United States that’s going to loan money to that customer of mine in Argentina to buy my airplane,” said David Ickert, vice president of finance at Air Tractor, which makes crop-dusting and firefighting airplanes in Olney, Tex. “There is not a free-market system that operates like that. It does not exist. We need the Ex-Im Bank, period.”
Like so much else in Congress these days, it is not that simple.
With its charter set to expire in May, the bank is the target of conservative groups. They are making the case to Republicans that the bank, created in 1934 to finance sales to the Soviet Union, has no place in a free-market system. Club for Growth is holding it up as the next Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, crowding out private lending and offering dangerous loans that ultimately could be left in the laps of the taxpayer.
“Those groups are just wrong, period,” said Jay Timmons, president of the National Association of Manufacturers and a generous personal contributor to Republican candidates.
The bank is financed with a small percentage of each loan it makes to foreign buyers of American exports, producing $3.4 billion in profits for the federal government over the last five years.
Drew Greenblatt, president and owner of Marlin Steel Wire Products, in Baltimore, said he recently got a rush order for wire baskets from a firm in Singapore, assuming he could finance the sale. He went to the Export-Import Bank and paid a one-half-percent fee on the loan. The bank guaranteed 95 percent of the loan. He kept the plant working through the weekend and completed the sale.
“Think about all the winners in this transaction,” he said. “Ex-Im got half a point. Baltimore City steelworkers got extra hours. I got extra profits to meet payroll, and hopefully I got a client who will reorder from me.”
"The Pinal County Greens will ask our representatives in Congress to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank without delay," said Grayson. "Anti-capitalist Republicans like Jeff Flake shouldn't keep holding American businesses hostage."
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Mar. 28 -
Today the Pinal County Greens took part in Central Arizona College's third annual Take Back the Night event,
part of the well-known international movement that calls for the end of sexual violence and invites the public to join the college in its stand for safety and empowerment to "shatter the silence" and "stop the violence."
Here is a report by Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson:
It began at 5 p.m. by the Pinal County Justice Court on Idaho Road,
where participants gathered
and heard a rousing and inspiring talk by Natalie Ehmka, founder of Pretty Feisty,
whose passion stems from her personal experience with drug and alcohol-related sexual assault - an incident that happened during her college years. An expert on sexual assault prevention, she had effective advice and support for young women and for those of us concerned about their health and safety.
Whistles were given out,
and the group marched with signs
over to the Superstition Mountain Campus of Central Arizona College,
where we heard presentations
by Apache Junction Police Chief Jerald Monahan, a consultant for the National Domestic Violence Fatality Review Initiative, who explained that most domestic violence victims don't report incidents because they fear not being believed and how police must take the attitude of "believe first." As the little girl sitting in front of us said, "Good job, Grandpa!"
The fabulous Divine Essence performed some powerful slam poetry and spoken word pieces dealing with topics like women's self-esteem and empowerment, domestic violence, and caring for the next generation as well as one's peers. She was quite charismatic.
In the middle of her own set, Divine Essence brought on Robert FlipSide Daniels, who also performed a couple of energetic pieces, one of which began sweetly as the story of a childhood crush but ended with an example of the unfortunate pervasiveness of domestic violence in our world.
Nev Kraguljevic, director of residence life at Central Arizona College, acted as MC, but spoke from the heart as the survivor of a childhood in a family where domestic violence took place.
This was the third annual CAC Take Back the Night,
with the earlier two events held at the college's Signal Peak Campus.
After all the speakers were given gifts by the college, little flashlights were distributed among the audience,
and we used our whistles to "make noise" and call attention to the issues regarding women's safety. Near the close of the event, we had a moment of silence to remember the many victims of domestic abuse and sexual violence among the women of the world.
We are grateful to everyone who contributed to Take Back the Night and are glad we got to attend.
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Mar. 24 -
Today the Pinal County Greens voted to join Greens in Pima County in endorsing community activist Charlie Manolakis in the April 17 Green Party primary for Congress in the special election in Arizona's Eighth Congressional District for the seat previously held by Gabrielle Giffords. The district includes parts of Pinal County, Pima County, Cochise County and Santa Cruz County.
"As the only Green candidate on the Green Party primary ballot, Charlie Manolakis has won the support of Pima County Green Party members," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "We are happy to join them in pledging our support for this fine candidate."
Grayson noted that last week a Pima Superior Court judge threw out a meritless challenge to Manolakis' position on the ballot and urged independents as well as party members to vote for Charlie Manolakis on April 17.
"As the Pima Greens' Claudia Ellquist wrote in January, 'a Green voice should be heard' in this special election for Congress to debate the Democratic and Republican candidates," Grayson said.
"Along with the rest of the Arizona Green Party, we are thrilled that Charlie Manolakis will be our voice."
