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Greens' Candidate Blasts Corruption
Malachy McCourt makes his gubernatorial point: Give power back to the people. |
Syracuse Post-Standard
Saturday, October 28, 2006
By Ngoc Huynh
Staff writer
Green Party gubernatorial candidate Malachy McCourt decried what he called the corruption of government by corporate greed during a visit to Syracuse Friday.
McCourt, 75, said the definition of government is very simple.
"It's a cliche," he said, "but it still applies: government of the people, by the people, for the people. Not for corporations; they are not people."
McCourt, along with Green Party candidates Alison Duncan and Howie Hawkins visited The Post-Standard editorial board Friday. Duncan is running for lieutenant governor and Hawkins for U.S. Senate.
Born in Brooklyn and raised in Limerick, Ireland, McCourt came from a poverty-stricken family - chronicled in his brother Frank's best-selling memoir, "Angela's Ashes." His mother was depressed and his father was an alcoholic. He and his siblings often went to bed hungry, sleeping in beds infested with rodents, lice and fleas.
At age 13, McCourt left school. But he said knowing how to read saved him.
At age 21, McCourt returned to the United States and worked at manual tasks including longshoreman and dishwasher. Later, he became an actor and worked in soap operas, Broadway shows and the HBO series "Oz."
McCourt said he believes in education, but not testing.
"Testing children gives no indication of education," he said. "Education has to do with the acquisition of knowledge so that we may become wise and look back into our lives and say I did all right."
He said teachers need even more recognition than the chairman of Coca-Cola. One way to do that is add $50,000 to teachers' salaries, McCourt said.
He also would provide more funding to care for the elderly, children and mentally ill. He said the Empire State implies monarchy and should be changed to People State.
Calling themselves the New York Peace Slate, the Green Party candidates want to pull U.S. troops out of Iraq and use clean and renewable energy.
"We need more trees, less 'Bushes,' " McCourt said.
Duncan, an audio visual technician and pre-med student, said support for the Green Party has been tremendous.
"People are looking for a protest vote," Hawkins said.
A Zogby International poll shows McCourt's support at 5 percent among gubernatorial candidates.
Ngoc Huynh can be reached at nhuynh@syracuse.com or 470-2179.
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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