NOW THAT IS AN ARTICLE! Some people are going to have 2 problems with it though.
A) They are talking about issues, not what religion a new candidate might enforce if they were pResident, or 'anything but', what the American Public want addressed AND FIXED. B) they are not of the comfortable, lesser of the evils, so one shouldn't follow them, unless they manage to win with those who say that is their ideals, voting against them. For the rest of us, I'm with how Eugene Debs, a 3 times Presidential Candidate, whose MOVEMENTS made the Democrats give us the New Deal, even though that was bare bones and watered down, while they neutered all opposition for future threats, but as Eugene stated.... I'd rather vote for something I wanted and not get it, then to vote for something I don't want, and get it. There are those that will support the lesser of the evils even if they are the most effective evil we've had in charge, at least in our lifetime, supporting all the Corporatism they say they're against, with their votes. And then there are those who will lead in a direction we want, even when our friends who have stated they are with us in what changs need to occur, will in the end join those they have stated they are against. Scott > "No American Should Be Poor" > Cheri Honkala on YouTube > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjh9M58XjOg > > > > An Interview With Cheri > Honkala > by LEE > BALLINGER > http://www.counterpunch.org/2012/08/31/an-interview-with-cheri-honkala/ >  > "We > are Far From Having Any Kind of Democracy in This > Country" > Cheri Honkala was born into poverty in > Minneapolis in 1963. For the past twenty-five years she has served as > national > director of the Poor > Peopleâs Economic Human Rights Campaign, helping to lead marches, tent > cities, > homeless encampments, sit-ins and educational retreats. Working as part of > an > organization with a bare bones budget, Cheri has still managed to travel > the > United States and the world, making connections among poor peopleâs > organizations from every continent. She is now the Vice Presidential > candidate > of the Green Party, sharing the ticket with Massachusetts doctor Jill > Stein. > This is the first time in history that a formerly homeless person has run > for > one of top two spots in American > government. > What made you decide to run > for Vice-President on the Green Party ticket? > I ran for Philadelphia sheriff as a Green > in 2011 on a zero foreclosure platform. I pledged to refuse to throw > families > out of their homes. Other Greens learned about who I was and about the > Poor > Peopleâs Economic Human Rights Campaign Iâm part of. When I received > the call > that I was under consideration as Jillâs running mate, I thought there > would be > no way in hell that I would be chosen because I have been arrested over > 200 > times fighting for the basic necessities of life. But they knew exactly > who I was so they did call me and ask me to be Jillâs running mate. > What was the role of the > Democratic Party in your campaign for sheriff? > Gangsters. The Democrats arenât just a > different political party. The Democrats (and the Republicans) are in > power > right now and they have the ability to use different departments of > government > to harass anybody who wants to step forward and create something > independent of > the one party system. If that means using the Department of License and > Inspection, using the Parking Authority, using the Housing Department, > they > donât hesitate to do it. > What is Kensington, the > Philadelphia neighborhood where you live, like? > Mother Jones once marched from Kensington > to the United Nations to call attention to the children who were losing > their > limbs working in the factories. If Mother Jones were alive today, there > would be > no factories in Kensington for her to march from. Itâs the poorest > district in > Pennsylvania and itâs multi-racial, reflecting the growing equality of > poverty. > We have the third highest hunger rate in the countryâhigher than > Jackson, > Mississippi or the Bronx. It has the highest homicide rate in the country. > Itâs > a very difficult place to raise childrenâthe city of Philadelphia has > announced > they will close forty schools while the state of Pennsylvania spends more > on > prisons than it does on education. There is a high rate of AIDS and there > are > drug war shoot-outs every day. In Kensington, itâs common to see people > living > out of shopping carts or for pregnant women to sleep outside. Thereâs > barbed > wire around the food bank. > But I love Kensington because thereâs a > lot of pride in the amazing people who live there. You have to be a > fighter and > survivor to be able to stay alive in the neighborhood. Many people refuse > to > leave and have been fighting against the gentrification thatâs going > on. > Since 2009 there has been a > 54% increase in the number of Green Party registered voters in Kensington. > What > does this say about traditional assumptions that the environmental > movement is > mostly a white, middle class movement? > Kensington has been home to refineries > and factories and a lot of polluted land. Thereâs a high rate of > miscarriages > and all of the hospitals have asthma units. Itâs no accident that the > question > of the environment is an issue that people of color have always been > involved in > but they donât get the kind of spotlight as some other environmental > struggles. > But the Greens embrace everyoneâthatâs what it will take to save the > planet. > What has been your experience > with community gardens? > I used to think that community gardens or > farms were just for environmentalists who used the community garden > process to > creep into poor communities in order to gentrify them. But now Iâm very > active > in our local campaigns to reclaim unused land. In Kensington, weâve > taken a big > piece of vacant land âwe call it a community farmâin which the only > rule is that > anybody who eats from the farm has to participate in giving back to the > development of that farm. > The fight of the next generation is going > to be over who determines how land is used and who does that land belong > to. > Community gardens and farms should be turned over to the local people in > the > form of a community land trust where the people who live in the local area > determine the rules for that land. If they donât want a Wal-Mart coming > into > their neighborhood, they should be able to prevent that. If they determine > that > a piece of land should be used instead to grow vegetables and the food > should be > given away free because neighbors are hungry then they should be allowed > to do > that. > When we marched from New Orleans all the > way to Detroit for the US Social Forum in 2010 we were amazed that there > was a > community garden in every poor neighborhood that we passed through. More > and > more, thatâs how people are feeding themselves. > Many people think of the > Green Party as being concerned only with the environment. Is that > accurate? > The Greens have a long history of > promoting respect for the earth based on the understanding that weâre in > very > serious trouble if we donât heal our environment. But the Green Party is > not a > single-issue party as can be seen from the fact that they selected me as > their > Vice Presidential candidate. The Greens are linking people together around > issues such as peace, health care, the âschool to prisonâ pipeline, > police > brutality, and community land trusts, just to name a few. > What is the Green New > Deal? > The Green New Deal is modeled after > Rooseveltâs New Deal during the Great Depression. We believe that this > Green New > Deal is absolutely possible and that itâs not a pie in the sky kind of > plan. > The Green New Deal has four pillars: An > economic bill of rights, green transition, real financial reform, and a > functioning democracy. For more specifics, check out jillstein.org. > Millions of immigrants do not > have the right to vote in the United States. You are running for an > elective > office. Do you reach out to them anyway? > Absolutely. Weâre outraged that President > Obama is the Deportation Presidentâhe has deported more people than any > other > President in history. Immigrants are a big part of our national fabric now > and > we canât move forward without a morality based on âeverybody in, > nobody out.â > When I ran for sheriff in Philadelphia part of my platform was that I > would > refuse to cooperate with ICE in deporting our brothers and sisters. I have > worked with many immigrant families who are sleeping in cars, sleeping > under > bridges, working in deplorable conditions only because they donât have a > right > to things like housing and health care. This shouldnât happen to anyone > in a > country of such abundance. > We are translating as much of our > literature as possible into Spanish, we are talking not just to domestic > press > but international press and to all of the various different newspapers and > radio > stations. Throughout the country, we are reaching out to immigrants to > insure > that theyâre a part of this conversation and a part of this campaign. > I should add that this campaign isnât > just about the upcoming election. The Green Party is going to put together > task > forces which will bring together people impacted by issues such as health > care, > foreclosures, peace, education, and, of course, immigration. We want to do > this > in a way that involves the people who are most affected, coming together > in a > room to come up with their vision of what theyâd like to see in America > and then > draft a road map on how weâre going to get there. > Itâs often said that we live > in a post-racial world. What do you think? > Racism certainly still > exists but thereâs also a growing equality of poverty and misery. > Because we > live in a country of such abundance we can provide everybody a job, food, > housing, and a productive place in society. Once weâre all living > humanely, we > can learn to love and appreciate each other. > How would you assess the > position of women in the United States? > Things are getting much more difficult > for women in this country. Women have had to take on additional burdens > because > weâve had an economic draft into the military, weâve seen our partners > or our > children fill the jail cells. So weâve had to take on the extra burdens > of > trying to work and trying to raise families, very often by ourselves. The > only > way we can have true equality for women is by insuring that we have full > employment, universal health care, and free education for every woman and > every > man. > Jill Stein is a doctor. Sheâs studied and > teaches internal medicine. She has talked about environmental health her > entire > life. She has done all of this and raised two young men who recently > graduated > from college. Iâm a single mother, a formerly homeless mother of two > children. > Neither the Democrats or Republicans have ever had an all-female ticket > which is > just another reflection of the fact that they have never had things like > health > and housing and education at the core of their platforms. > What did the Green Party have > to go through to get on the ballot in your home state of > Pennsylvania? > We had a huge fight in > Pennsylvania where the Democrats only have to get 2,000 voter petitions > signed > to get on the ballot, the Republicans only have to get 2,000 voter > petitions > signed and we had to get 40,000. We had to work from six in the morning > til ten > oâclock at night and then another group of people had to stay up all > night long > to verify the petitions. We did all that in a state that has a huge number > of > unregistered voters. > What is significant about the > Green Partyâs experience in gaining ballot access and matching campaign > funds in > so many states? > The Green Party will be on the ballot in > at least forty states. Weâve qualified for federal matching funds in > most of > those. That has never been done before by an independent party. Itâs not > just a > statement on behalf of the Greens, itâs a statement on behalf of the > American > people. Theyâre tired of going nowhere except down. > Is America a > democracy? > We are far from having any kind of > democracy in this country. The money we raise, even with matching funds, > is just > a drop in the bucket compared to the funding Obama and Romney are getting > from a > handful of billionaires donating to Super PACs. We were able to get on the > ballot only as a result of major fights in each of those states. It > hasnât been > a democratic processâthere are different rules for independent parties, > rules > that are created by Democrats and Republicans, the one corporate party in > this > country. > The Republican Party is > famous for its Southern strategy. Does your campaign have a Southern > strategy? > We know that in order to uplift > the nation, we have to uplift the South. So we place a lot of emphasis on > participation and involvement and getting out the vote in the South. The > Greens > have a history of running folks for office who have come from the South: > David > Cobb from Texas, Cynthia McKinney from Georgia. Weâre doing a lot of > campaigning > in the South and even though weâre not on the ballot in Georgia my > running mate > Jill Stein just came back from an extensive period getting the message out > there. > What is the significance of > the Occupy movement? > The Occupy movement has been a very > important development in our country and around the world where people who > are > frustrated with and angry about not having a future began to call out the > one > per cent. Occupy isnât just about reform. Itâs a call for > fundamental > transformation. Jill and I see ourselves as the Occupy candidates. > Everybody > should go out and occupy the ballot. > You know you wonât win. Why > are you running? > First of all, we donât know that we wonât > win. Jill and I are completely in this to win it. History doesnât go in > a > straight line, it goes in leaps. It can happen here. But the win is also > in the > growing participation of people to take their country back by kicking the > drug > that has been sedating themâthe two faced one party system of Democrats > and > Republicans. If we can create a huge exodus from these corporate-backed > parties, > that too will be a win. > Will the Green Party getting > on the ballot in Pennsylvania and many other states hurt > Obama? > What is going to hurt Obama is that after > four years in office people can now see that he is pro-war, > anti-immigrant, and > nothing but another tool of the one per cent. If we continue to vote for > the > corporate-controlled, one party system in this country it will continue to > hurt > all of us. Weâve got to stop talking about âchangeâ and be the > change that we > want to see. That means occupying the ballot in as many states as > possible, not > worrying if itâs a âswing state,â not worrying about whether or not > weâre going > to be âspoilers,â this whole thing is already rotten. We have to be > pioneers and > not be afraid of the unknown. > What is your vision for the > future? > My vision is watching the sleeping giant > come to life. Itâs just a question of education and organization and > consciousness. Once it wakes up, itâs gonna take it from there. Most of > the > things we talk about in the Green New Deal we can make possible in our > lifetime. > It is not unrealistic. What is unrealistic is to expect the one party > system to > do anything to uplift the American people. > Iâm a formerly homeless mother. I have > two children and I have slept in cars, under bridges, in abandoned houses > and > for the last twenty-five years I have taught people how to build homeless > encampments and take over abandoned churches, abandoned houses, in an > effort to > stay alive and create leaders and help them develop the kind of > consciousness > they need to participate in helping to build this larger army in order to > take > this country back. Thatâs who I am, thatâs what Iâve been doing for > twenty-five > years, and I only see my run for Vice President as an extension of > that. > For more information: jillstein.org > Lee Ballinger, > co-editor of Rock and Rap > Confidentialauthor of the > forthcoming book Love and War: My First Thirty Years of Writing, > interviewed > Honkala for CounterPunch. He can be reached at: [email protected] > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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