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Penny's Run for the Connecticut State
Senate
Last winter our local Green Party chapter had discussed looking for a candidate for this
fall's election: we very much wanted to replace our current senator, whose voting record is not in any way representative of the interests of people in our area; and we wanted to have a Green on the ballot line to remind people that the Greens are here to stay, and are serious about winning elections.
Of course, we knew full well that no one in our chapter wanted to run for office...and knew too that if we recruited someone from outside the Greens, we
couldn't be sure of how committed that person would be to our agenda, or how aggressively they would pursue needed legislation once elected. Whenever I talked to people about this
dilemma, they would say, "Well, why don't you run?" And I'd say, "Riiiiight." But one day I heard myself asking my children, "What would you think about me running for office?"
They didn't say, "Riiiiight" like they were supposed to. They said, "Great!" And I knew that in one sense they were correct: if I ran, I
didn't have to hope for someone else to be as committed as I was to the issues that need to be addressed by our state legislature. And if the candidate
didn't take the campaign seriously enough, I'd know she couldn't
hang up on me when I called to complain.
So here we are, several months into running for state senate.
I've knocked on a lot of doors in that time, and addressed groups of people from diverse backgrounds. But
I've found that there are a lot of common concerns out there, that cut across lines of income level, party affiliation, race, sex, and almost everything else.
One thing that has become obvious something we have all suspected at one time or another
is that the labels "conservative" and "liberal" are mostly constructs used by media and politicians to manipulate us into thinking we are divided. We are not divided; we have much more in common than otherwise.
We all want fair treatment, respect and adequate compensation in our workplaces, a fair shot at making something of our dreams, a fair share of the
earth's bounties; and we all want to have fair access to security, not having to worry about crime or war or violence of any kind in our lives.
And the underlying principle in all Green Party platform items and issues is that of fairness.
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