Tuscon, continued

Today will be a very busy day in Tuscon. Workshops all morning, plenary session all afternoon, interspersed with press conferences. I learned A LOT yesterday about water conservation and initiatives, environmental racism. I presented a workshop on nuclear issues which was videotaped by a delegate in New Jersey.

Today I will be attending the campaign school this morning and then will be part of a panel as a member of the GPUS Peace Action Committee. I will spend about 5 minutes talking about the Stop the Divine Strake Coalition and the work associated with that. I will then attend the plenery session of all the delegates in the GPUS. During that time I will be excused to attend two press conferences:
1pm: All state and local candidates – Kathy Dopp, Desert Greens candidate for Summit County Clerk, will be a featured speaker.
3pm: National Women’s Caucus press conference – I will be a featured speaker.

C-Span is likely to cover these events. I’ll post any links to press coverage I find.

Here is my speech (subject to change):

“It was **we, the people**; not we, the white male citizens but **we, the whole people**, who formed the Union. And we formed it, not to **give** the blessings of liberty, but to **secure** them; not to the **half of ourselves** and the **half of our posterity**, **but to the whole people – women as well as men.** And it is a downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government – the ballot.”

Good afternoon:

Those were the words of Susan B. Anthony in 1872 upon being convicted of voting in the Presidential election. While women have “come a long way,” they still have a long way to go. Green women are here today in a display of unity in a political system that needs serious overhaul.

My name is Deanna L. Taylor and I am a candidate for Salt Lake County Council in Utah in District 5. I am a member of the Desert Greens Green Party in Utah and my website is deannataylor.org. I decided to run for office because I saw that there was a gender imbalance in the county council.

I have been a single mother and have had to depend on government for basic needs. I and my children have experienced periods of poverty, no health insurance, and have been victims of discrimination due to our economic conditions.

Women do the work of giving birth to, feeding and caring for the whole world. Yet, women and their children suffer the most from the effects of war and poverty situations. Women and children comprise 80% of the refugees in the world and are impacted most by globalization, often having no or too little pay and too much work expected for that compensation.

Women make only 75.5 cents for every dollar that men earn, according to the U.S. Census Bureau from 2002-2003. And according to the Institute for Women’s Policy REseaerch, the poverty rate for female-headed households increased to 28 percnet in 2003, and poverty among adult women rose to 12.4 percent. Over 17 million women have no health insurance.

According to UN statistics for 2005 more than half the U.S. population was women. Obviously women should be represented in elected office in proportion to their numbers in the population on the local, state and national levels, creating gender balance in politics. According to Karyn Strickler, writer and political activist, “without the achievement of gender balance in politics, women will be forever in the status of petitioner, not decision maker.”
The U.S. system is failing American women. Not only that, because of the hundreds of billions of dollars the U.S. spends on the arms industry, women in countries world-wide are starving, dying, being persecuted and even imprisoned.

Women do 2/3 of the worlds’ work and are the hardest workers. When we stop, the world stops.

As an elected official in my state I plan to educate my constituency on these values and issues and to work towards getting more women involved in issues that affect them. I plan to engage more women to work towards being empowered to voice their opinions more openly.

I am seeking office as a Green Party Candidate because I believe in the key values of social justice and equal opportunity, feminism and gender equity, and respect for diversity. I run in solidarity with my sister Greens in a united effort to promote a more balanced, honest, and gender balanced political system.