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. 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."
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Mar. 23 -
The Pinal County Greens today announced their support of The Black and Brown Stand Up for Justice Rally at Cesar Chavez Plaza in downtown Phoenix on April 6.
Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair, said, "We strongly endorse this mass movement of local organizations such as the NAACP and community members in solidarity with the family of Trayvon Martin, for whom we all seek justice."
The Black Alliance for Just Immigration (BAJI) in alliance with Puente Arizona have organized this rally to organize people of color in demanding justice in the law enforcement and criminal justice systems.
The Black and Brown Stand Up for Justice Rally is also part of the "Arrest Arpaio, Not the People" campaign
organized by Puente Movement to demand Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio face criminal charges for his negligence and violation of human and civil rights as outlined in a Department of Justice 2011 report.
"At a minimum, we need to make sure everyone in Arizona is treated with dignity," said Pinal County Greens co-chair Grayson. "Sadly, that is not happening at present, and things must change."
APACHE JUNCTION, Feb. 25 -
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution supporting the efforts of the Librotraficante Caravan, which is bringing contraband books — or “wet-books” — to Arizona. The project is also intended to raise awareness of the “prohibition” of the Mexican-American Studies Program and the removal of books from classrooms.
As Colorlines noted:
“When we heard that Tucson Unified School District administrators not only prohibited Mexican-American Studies, but then walked into classrooms, and in front of young Latino students, during class time, removed and boxed up books by our most beloved authors - that was too much. This offended us down to our soul. We had to respond,” said Tony Diaz, founder of Nuestra Palabra: Latino Writers Having Their Say, which has led the charge.
Diaz added, “With their record of anti-immigrant legislation, politicians in Arizona have become experts in making humans illegal. We did not do enough to stop that, thus that anti-immigrant legislation spread to other states such as Alabama and Georgia. Now, these same legislators want to make thoughts illegal. If we allow this to happen, these laws, too, will spread. Other branches of ethnic studies will be prohibited, and other states will follow suit.”
The Librotraficante Caravan will travel from Houston, Texas, to Tucson, Ariz., carrying a payload of contraband books, creating networks of Underground Libraries and leaving community resources in its wake.
With just days away from launching the caravan Libroficante could use your help...donations are critical.
"We urge everyone -- both Arizonans and normal people concerned with government censorship of ethnic studies and ethnic literature -- to support the work of the Librotraficante Caravan," said Pinal County Greens co-chair Richard Grayson, who has taught classes in multicultural and immigrant literature at several colleges in Florida and New York.
"These 'forbidden' books -- such as Paolo Freire's Pedagogy of the Oppressed, which I first read decades ago in a class at Teachers College at Columbia University -- should be required reading for some of our ignorant state officials."
For information on how you can make a tax-deductible donation, please visit the Librotraficante Caravan website.
TUCSON, Feb. 22 -
Tucson Weekly, sponsor of Project White House 2012, today endorsed Richard Grayson in next week's Arizona Green Party presidential primary and Sarah Gonzales in the Arizona Republican Party presidential preference primary. The newspaper's editorial board
called Gonzales "severely awesome," noting that she was the only Latina among the many white male candidates running for the Republican nomination.
The editorial wrote this about Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens:
All of the Greens have done a lot to express their plans through Project White House, but we have been most impressed with Richard Grayson,
including his plan to deport Republicans back to the 18th century, where they could be more comfortable with their tricorner hats and other Tea Party garb, and his demand that Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu be nicer to his ex-boyfriends. Few of the Project White House candidates have done a better job of responding to the issues of the day.
"I am very grateful to everyone at Tucson Weekly for this endorsement," said Grayson, reached in Brooklyn at a campaign fundraiser. "I'm so excited I don't know whether to scream or eat a banana."
APACHE JUNCTION, Ariz., Feb. 20 -
Green Party presidential candidate Richard Grayson, running in next week's Arizona Green Party presidential primary, today called for a nationwide moratorium on Jeremy Lin puns.
Speaking at a press conference, Grayson said, "Enough is enough. While the First Amendment protects every citizen's right to free speech,
I call on Americans to exercise restraint and stop making puns based on Jeremy Lin's last name. Most of these puns totally suck.
Cut it out already!"
Grayson, co-chair of the Pinal County Greens, noted that twenty years the Chicago Sun-Times called him "fun-loving and pun-loving"
and Best Sellers, in reviewing Grayson's Lincoln's Doctor's Dog, said he was "given to outrageous puns."
"So it's not that I don't love puns," Grayson said.
"I'm a Knicks fan who adores Jeremy Lin. But there is no excuse for any more Jeremy Lin puns. The time wasted on creating them is hurting our economic recovery."
Grayson, in calling for the moratorium, condemned the fact that "林疯子几乎占据美国各大体育网站的头条"
and announced the support of Tao Lin, the bestselling author of Shoplifting From American Apparel, and other writers who are being made physically ill from all the Lin-related puns.
"If I win the Green Party primary next week and am elected President, I will stop this insanity," said Grayson. "Insanity. Insanity!"
