Apache Junction, Ariz., Dec. 9 -
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution honoring Abigail Borah, the 21-year-old Middlebury College junior from Princeton, N.J., who spoke out yesterday at the international climate change conference, COP 17, in Durban, South Africa. Ms. Borah interrupted a speech by Todd D. Stern, the Obama administration’s special envoy for climate change.
The Pinal County Greens' resolution urged President Obama "to replace the incompetent current climate change envoy with Abigail Borah, who spoke with the kind of passion and common sense required in these crucial talks on the most important issue for our planet."
According to the New York Times, Abigail Borah
told the assembly that she would speak for the United States because Mr. Stern had forfeited the right to do so.
“I am speaking on behalf of the United States of America because my negotiators cannot,” said Ms. Borah, who is attending the conference as a representative of the International Youth Climate Movement. “The obstructionist Congress has shackled justice and delayed ambition for far too long. I am scared for my future. 2020 is too late to wait. We need an urgent path to a fair, ambitious and legally binding treaty.”
Scores of delegates and observers gave her a sustained ovation. Then the South African authorities threw her out of the conference. “That’s O.K.,” Ms. Borah, who is from Princeton, N.J., said later by telephone. “I think I got my point across.”
"Her eloquence is a sharp contrast to President Obama's 'empty rhetoric,'" said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "She should be appointed the new special envoy on climate change, as she represents the United States far better than the ineffectual and clueless Todd Stern. She truly spoke truth to power."
The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County.
Apache Junction, Ariz., Dec. 8 -
The Pinal County Greens today passed a resolution strongly condemning the Obama administration's decision to overrule the Food and Drug Administration's plan to make emergency contraceptives available over the counter, including to teenagers.
The contraceptive pill, called Plan B One-Step, has been available without a prescription to women 17 and older, but those 16 and younger have needed a prescription — and they still will because of the decision by the health secretary, Kathleen Sebelius. If taken soon after unprotected sex, the pill halves the chances of a pregnancy.
"What good is having a supposedly liberal, supposedly pro-choice president if we get political decisions like this, pandering to social conservatives and endangering reproductive rights?" said Richard Grayson, Pinal County Greens co-chair. "The Obama administration has shown again and again that it cares more about its own survival than the health and welfare of American women and that political expediency will trump principle every time."
Grayson noted that the Green Party unequivocally supports women's reproductive rights, including access to emergency contraception.
The Pinal County Greens are members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County.
Apache Junction, Ariz., September 3, 2011 -
One day after President Obama announced without warning that his administration was walking away from stricter ozone pollution standards that it had been promising for three years and instead sticking with Bush-era standards, the Pinal County Greens passed a resolution condemning the President's "cowardly retreat" on environmental protection.
"This action on ozone comes just weeks after President Obama's State Department gave a crucial go-ahead on an environmentally catastrophic pipeline to bring tar sands oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast," said Richard Grayson, co-chair of Pinal County Greens, members of the Arizona Green Party in Pinal County.
"We strongly condemn and protest these brazen political sellouts to business interests and the anti-environment Republican Party, which has been aggressively moving to curtail protections for endangered species and regulations for clean air and water, and which opposes any government effort to address climate change," the Pinal County Greens' resolution said.
"This is why America needs a Green Party," said Grayson. "We urge voters to consider a pro-environmental alternative to the clear weak record of the federal Democratic administration and the hostility to the environment displayed by Republican members of Congress and presidential candidates. With the urgency of climate change, we cannot keep walking this environmental tightrope."
