OntheWilderSide

The only way that the Green Party can regain ballot status in NY is to get 50,000 votes for their Governor candidate in 2010. This opportunity comes only once every four years, and it only applies to the Governor’s race. Gaining ballot status will enable the Green Party to run more peace candidates, more single-payer candidates, more anti-fracking candidates, and more sustainable energy candidates. The last time that the Green Party of New York State had ballot status it set the record for running the most Green candidates of any state.

The letter to the editor section of the newspaper remains the second most read part of the paper. The Green Party hardly ever shows up in the regular section of the paper. But with your help, we can show up in the letters to the editor. This is especially true outside of NYC.

An upfront call to vote for Hawkins may run into trouble getting past the editor. So it is good idea to talk about a larger issue and then point out where the Greens stand on it.

Check your paper to see what the word limit is. The two samples below are under 300 words. Daily papers often have a limit as to how often your letter can appear. Some may not publish letters about candidates a few weeks or month before the election – so submit early and often. Weekly papers are often most open to having repeated letters from the same author. Localize the letter if you can – make reference to local events.

The letters below are about health care and peace.  Feel free to come up with your own topics. You can also check the media section of www.howiehawkins. org to see Howie’s news releases.

Good luck. Build a Green World.

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Letter one

Health care is one on the greatest problems facing America.  I believe health care should be a right – just like it is for the residents of every other industrial society. 

Unfortunately, the Congressional Democrats went in the opposite direction. They decided to mandate that every American buy health insurance. Yet the existence of health insurance companies is why we spend far more money on
health care than every other country yet have the worst performing system among all the industrial nations.

Insurance companies drown the health care system in red tape. They increase their profits when they deny us services. High health care bills are the biggest reason why people file for bankruptcy – yet more than 75% of those filing for bankruptcy had health insurance that refused to pay the bills when an emergency arose.

I agree with Howie Hawkins and the Green Party that we need an expanded and improved Medicare for All. Everyone covered, no one left out, no high deductibles or premiums. We get to choose our doctors, not our employer or
insurance company. One program would pay all bills, just like Medicare, so we can eliminate the $400 billion we waste on insurance companies’ bureaucracy each year.

A study funded by state lawmakers found that a single payer system would save New Yorkers by 2019 more than $20 billion annually compared to our present system. It will be $28 billion cheaper than the system Congress just
enacted.

I plan to vote for health care for all this November.   I plan to vote Green Party.

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Letter two

I want to bring our troops home from the Middle East. I don’t believe that war is an effective energy policy.

The Democrats told us if they were in power, they would end the wars. Well, they have used their control of the White House and Congress to increase our troops in Afghanistan and expand the war into Pakistan. We still have more
than 50,000 troops left in Iraq and just as many mercenaries working for companies like Haliburton.

And now President Obama wants the biggest military budget ever. More than $700 billion – a trillion if you add in all the real costs. It is a crime against humanity that we spend more on the military than the rest of the world combined. This is not the America I want.

The Green Party wants to bring our troops home not only from the Middle East but from the hundred other countries where they are stationed. The Green Party believes our troops should protect our country – not be the bullies of the planet to help oil companies and other multinational companies exploit other countries. They believe in protecting civil liberties and treating all people with respect.

All our tax dollars wasted on war profiteers hasn’t made us any more secure. We should spend our money instead in putting people to work, dealing with climate change by investing in carbon-free energy systems, funding our local
schools and child care centers.

I plan to support the Green Party this November. The Green Party are America’s Peace Party.

Related Articles

• Guv cand Hawkins (G-NY): No Cuts to Social Security, End Bush Tax Cut (www.onthewilderside.com)
• Guv cand Hawkins (G-NY) Thanks Petitioners, and Asks for November Help (www.onthewilderside.com)
• Green Party New York: Guv cand Hawkins on what lies beneath Obama’s “Mission Accomplished” Speech (www.onthewilderside.com)
• Green Party (NY) Celebrates Medicare’s 45th Bday by Calling for Expansion to all Americans (www.onthewilderside.com)
• Guv cand Hawkins (G-NY) speaks at Vestal Library, Broome County 6/30/10 (www.onthewilderside.com)
• Hawkins urges Working Families to join the Greens following the surrender of WFP leadership (wnymedia.net)

Filed under: News Tagged: | Congressional Democrats, green, health care, howie hawkins, Middle East, politics, Single-payer health care, united states