Pinal County Greens to Attend World Economic Forum in Davos

Apache Junction, Ariz., Jan. 23 -

Today the Pinal County Greens are sending representatives to Davos, Switzerland, to the World Economic Forum.

"We are looking forward to meeting everyone from the world's billionaires and central bankers to those we support in the Occupy WEF Movement, who will be building igloos for those of us in the 99%," said Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, as his connecting flight to New York left at Phoenix's Sky Harbor Airport. "We hope to bring back some good ideas and tasty chocolate."

The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County. Richard Grayson is on the ballot as a candidate for President in the February 28 Arizona Green Party presidential preference primary.

Pinal County Greens Attend Occupy Phoenix's "Occupy Education" Rally in Support of Arizona Public Education

Apache Junction, Ariz., Jan. 7 -

The Pinal County Greens today attended Occupy Phoenix's rally for public education in Arizona, Occupy Education. Here is a report from Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson, who also took the accompanying photos:

Late this morning we took the light rail from Mesa to Central and Washington in downtown Phoenix to attend Occupy Phoenix's rally for public education in Arizona, Occupy Education, at Cesar Chavez Plaza.

It was the kickoff for Occupy Phoenix's January “Month of Education,” and as the press release stated,

Together with teachers, parents, and students, we will be discussing vouchers, merit pay, high-stakes testing, the rising cost of college tuition, and many more important topics.

Are you a parent who has seen cutbacks damage your children’s public school?

Are you a teacher struggling with low pay, large classes, and little support?

Are you a college student buried in debt? Join us on January 7th at noon and speak out!

Let’s send a message to our legislators that our children’s education is not for sale!

A good education is a right, NOT a privilege for just the wealthy few!

Bring your signs and friends of all ages!

Obviously, Cesar Chavez Plaza was not anything close to what we saw at Occupy Wall Street in Zuccotti Park in the fall, but on the other hand, we met people who've been here since the very beginning of Occupy Phoenix and we were impressed with how well everything seemed planned, without the loss of any spontaneity.

We spoke to a number of people who were highly informed, dedicated, energized and passionate about the concerns of the Occupy movement.

The human microphone wasn't really necessary as a bullhorn gave the speakers resonance over the whole plaza.

On the steps of Phoenix's Old City Hall, people from Occupy Phoenix discussed the issues regarding public education, from inadequate state funding and the corporatization of education to the problems of massive student loan debt and attacks on programs like ethnic studies.

The facilitators of the breakout groups announced what they'd be discussing and we met in these groups at various spots in Cesar Chavez Plaza.

We attended a terrific session, "Higher Education Secrets for the 99%," with college students and recent graduates, university and community college faculty and administrators, all providing interesting testimony and ideas about the crisis in higher education.

Chelsea Starr, Ph.D., the facilitator, gave us terrific handouts with charts showing the exponential rise in tuition over recent decades (we attended Brooklyn College for free from 1969 to 1973!), the net college costs as a percentage of median family income for all income quintiles, the sources of undergraduate aid, and more.

Another breakout group was titled "What Happens When Public School Becomes a Business?," in which Megan and Connie Leach, Ed.D., discussed the ways in which taxpayer money is taken from public education to support corporate profit, vouchers and tax credits, class size/student-to-teacher ratio, and other topics.

"What's Money Got to Do With It? How Income Affects Educational Opportunities" had Ana Ramos-Pell, Ed.D., leading a session on the status of the nation's public school system and dealing with questions like "Are schools really failing?" and "Does income affect our public schools and prevent students from attaining the American dream?"

Joya Scott led a breakout session on "Why the Arts Matter in Public Education," discussing the value of arts education in a high-stakes-testing-in-basic-skills system, why recent severe cuts to arts education are harming American children, and what parents and others can do about it.

There was also an open topic discussion breakout group led by Mike Royer.

Unfortunately, we had to get back to Apache Junction before the reconvening of the whole group when session participants read their calls to action and people made closing remarks.

Although we wish we could have stayed longer at Cesar Chavez Plaza, we were really glad we finally got to see Occupy Phoenix in action and look forward to returning for other events.

During the January "Month of Education," special guests will conduct teach-ins about nonviolence, sustainability, and the housing and foreclosure crisis here in the Phoenix metro area, and there will be regular teach-ins focusing on the History of politics and current events.

We're grateful to Occupy Phoenix for giving a voice to the 99% on numerous issues, including those surrounding public education. You can find a treasure trove of information and livestream at the Occupy Phoenix website.

Pinal County Greens Call for Sheriff Arpaio's Resignation in Light of "Damning" Justice Department Report of Illegal Activities

Apache Junction, Ariz., Dec. 15 -

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.

Pinal County Greens Pass Resolution Declaring "'Think Green' Is The New 'Think Pink' Day," Calling on Arizonans to Register as Green Party Voters

Apache Junction, Ariz., Nov. 30 -

Today the Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, passed a resolution declaring November 30 "'Think Green' Is The New 'Think Pink' Day," calling on Arizona voters to re-register as Greens.

"'Think pink' had its day back in the 1950s when I was a kid," said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "But now voters need to 'think Green' and register as members of the Arizona Green Party if they want real change."


"Green is the new pink," Grayson said. "Our goal for 2012 is to have more than 10,000 registered Arizona Green Party members, all of them fabulously fashionable."

He also called upon Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a big fan of Funny Face, to switch from pink underwear to green.

"Being Green is never awkward," Grayson said.

Pinal County Greens Recommend Andrew Ross's "Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City" as Handbook for Green Democracy

Apache Junction, Ariz., Nov. 8 -

The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution recommending that citizens read Andrew Ross's Bird on Fire: Lessons from the World's Least Sustainable City as "a handbook for the possibilities of green democracy in the Valley and similar Sunbelt suburban sprawl communities."

In the recently published book, the author, an eminent New York University professor of social and cultural analysis,

focuses on the prospects for sustainability in Phoenix--a city in the bull's eye of global warming--and also the obstacles that stand in the way. Most authors writing on sustainable cities look at places like Portland, Seattle, and New York that have excellent public transit systems and relatively high density. But Ross contends that if we can't change the game in fast-growing, low-density cities like Phoenix, the whole movement has a major problem. Drawing on interviews with 200 influential residents--from state legislators, urban planners, developers, and green business advocates to civil rights champions, energy lobbyists, solar entrepreneurs, and community activists--Ross argues that if Phoenix is ever to become sustainable, it will occur more through political and social change than through technological fixes. Ross explains how Arizona's increasingly xenophobic immigration laws, science-denying legislature, and growth-at-all-costs business ethic have perpetuated social injustice and environmental degradation. But he also highlights the positive changes happening in Phoenix, in particular the Gila River Indian Community's successful struggle to win back its water rights, potentially shifting resources away from new housing developments to producing healthy local food for the people of the Phoenix Basin. Ross argues that this victory may serve as a new model for how green democracy can work, redressing the claims of those who have been aggrieved in a way that creates long-term benefits for all.

Bird on Fire offers a compelling take on one of the pressing issues of our time--finding pathways to sustainability at a time when governments are dismally failing their responsibility to address climate change.

Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, said that Bird of Fire is "not simply an indictment of our current unsustainable community but provides suggestions that can lead to a blueprint for creating a true green democracy in the Valley of the Sun through political and social action."

Grayson said he was long familiar with Andrew Ross's work since the late 1980s, when his friends who were Ph.D. students in American Studies at NYU were students of the professor's and called him "an astute, thorough and often prescient scholar."

Like many others, Ross has recently been active in the Occupy Wall Street movement; here he is speaking on debt at Washington Square Park:

Last month, Grayson attended a discussion on Bird of Fire at The Center for Place, Culture and Politics at the City University of New York, where Grayson is spending the fall semester teaching at Hunter College and Borough of Manhattan Community College before returning to Pinal County in December.

The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, one of the fastest growing counties in the United States.

UPDATE, Dec. 21 - Please read Tim Hull's insightful review of Bird on Fire in Tucson Weekly.

Pinal County Greens Give Full Support to #Occupy Phoenix

Apache Junction, Ariz., Oct. 26 -

The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution announcing "full support" for #Occupy Phoenix and its protests.

The resolution urges others to support #Occupy Phoenix at Cesar Chavez Plaza and to take part in the Occupy movement's events, such as Friday's march to the corporate headquarters of Freeport-McMoRan to protest the recent killing of striking miners in Indonesia and the egregious environmental damage caused by the world's largest publicly traded copper company,

and Saturday afternoon's Feast of Financial Fools, a celebration of Halloween and the terrifying economic and social horrors caused by greed and corruption.

The Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County, America's second-fastest-growing county, have been a presence at the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations at Zuccotti Park (Liberty Plaza) in New York's financial district.

Richard Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, thanked the #Occupy Phoenix movement "for providing much-needed leadership in the Valley for the fight against inequality and in favor of a much more equitable economic framework in American life."
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In their resolution, the Pinal County Greens also noted the leadership of the Maricopa Greens, who joined in the October 15 Day of Action with #Occupy Phoenix at Cesar Chavez Plaza.

Finally, the Pinal County Greens resolution asked everyone to keep abreast of developments regarding #Occupy Phoenix

occupyphoenixaz on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

and the loose Occupy Together nationwide movement spurred by Occupy Wall Street.

"The people of #Occupy Phoenix have our full support and our admiration," said Grayson.

"Today's report by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office showing that in the past thirty years the top one percent of Americans with the highest incomes have seen their incomes grow by an average of 275 percent,

showing irrefutable evidence that our system has become skewed to reward this tiny elite minority with the highest gains, leaving the other 99% sharply behind."

"In light of the brutal police attack on Occupy Oakland," Grayson said,


"it is even more important for us to express solidarity with #Occupy Phoenix, Occupy Tucson, and other Occupy groups fighting for economic justice and political reform in cities around the United States."

"In a saner America, we wouldn't have Gestapo tactics in the streets of Oakland."