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Green Party Senate candidate visits Oswego
Palladium Times
by John Keytack, staff writer |
"I'm the anti-war candidate in this race," said Howie Hawkins, "and
(Hillary) Clinton's record is pro-war." Hawkins is the Green Party's
candidate for the U.S. Senate from New York.
Hawkins made those remarks at a fundraising event Friday evening in
Oswego. The event was sponsored by local "Greens," as Green Party
members are sometimes known, at the Coffee Connection, 148 Water St.
Although he admitted that Clinton, a Democrat, has an advantage in the
race, Hawkins said that's only until voters compare their records.
That's when he said they'll find that his stand on issues compares
favorably with their own.
"Two-thirds of New York voters agree with our stand on the issues, not
with Clinton," Hawkins maintained. He said his platform consists of
ending the war and getting our troops out of Iraq immediately;
universal health care; and a global public works program that addresses
renewable energy, jobs, peace, and the environment.
Hawkins also brought copies of the book, "Independent Politics," which
were available for signing. Hawkins was the editor of the book.
"I propose a global public works program for renewable energy," Hawkins
said. "It would be created using the $300 billion from the military
budget, to fund new energy infrastructures based on renewables. This
would be a global engine for job creation and sustainable economic
development."
On the major issues of the war and health care, Hawkins said New
Yorkers should overcome the "inertia" of party lines and compare his
positions with those of Clinton.
"Clinton is for the war. She has voted for every Bush request for war
powers, war funding, and the erosion of civil liberties by the Patriot
Act," Hawkins said.
On health care, Hawkins said, "When her husband put her in charge of
adopting national health care in 1993, there were 100 co-sponsors for
the measure and two-thirds of Americans were in favor of it." Hawkins
added, "She finished it off, instead."
"Clinton was in favor of private health insurance that is publicly
sibsidized," Hawkins continues, "the same approach she advocates today.
Thirty percent of the cost in private health care is in the paperwork,
as compared to only three percent in Medicare. We spend twice as much
on health care in this country as any country on earth, yet we rank
thirty-seventh in terms of outcomes."
Was Hawkins discouraged by Clinton's defeat in the primary earlier this
week of her opponent, anti-war activist, Jonathan Tasini? "Tasini
polled sixteen percent against a popular incumbent, " Hawkins replied
without hesitation, "but only about one-sixth of eligible New Yorkers
voted in that race. That's winnable."
Hawkins was co-founder of the anti-neclear Clamshell Alliance in 1976,
and is noted as being one of the original founders of the Green Party
in the United States in 1984. He currently is a member of their
national board, the Green National Committee.
Hawkins is a long-time resident of Syracuse, where he has been an
activist in the peace, justice, and environment movements since the
1960's. He is a member of the Teamsters Union and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War. Hawkins is a Vietnam-era veteran of the U.S. Marine
Corps. |
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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