Michigan Greens Call For NO Vote on Proposal 1
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Also Support Values-Based YES on Proposals 2 and 3
At Saturday's Statewide Membership Meeting, the Green Party of Michigan re-confirmed its support for two statewide ballot proposals and its opposition to another.
The members attending the meeting agreed by consensus with the State Central Committee's decision to urge Michigan voters to say NO to the so-called "Transparency and Term Limits" Proposal 22-1, and YES to Proposals 22-2 (Promote the Vote 2022) and 22-3 (Reproductive Freedom for All).
Robin Laurain of Lansing, female state co-chair and the Green candidate for MSU Board of Trustees, bases her support for Proposal 3 on her long experience as a nurse. "Making abortion illegal does not stop abortion. Women will find a way to have one.
"As a nurse, I have witnessed the results of an incomplete abortion. It is dangerous to both the mother and fetus. It can result in death and birth defects."
Sherry A. Wells of Ferndale, GPMI's Elections Co-ordinator and nominee for the U-M Board of Regents, agrees. "Every time I see the photo of the 'aborted fetus' my mind recalls the photo of the naked woman, head and knees down and bottom up, dead from a botched abortion."
Wells urges voters: "Vote YES! Give women and girls back the rights to control their own body that the US Supreme Court just took away from us. I call that the Sperm Rights and Protection Ruling -- any man's sperm no matter the circumstances of it being deposited into any female body."
Wells also has strong views on the other two proposals. About Proposal 1, she says: "I stopped writing Michigan Law for Everyone at its 5th edition because term-limited legislators -- especially State House members, with campaigns every second year -- weren't in long enough to know how to pass anything that didn't come out of the mouths of highly-paid lobbyists . . . primarily insurance companies.
"AND I'd be suspicious for no other reason than the cast of characters supporting it."
Of Proposal 2, she comments: "If Republicans are so concerned about costs, they can stop making us pay $36,000 per year per inmate in prison for basically being black or brown or other group (low-income folks) they look down upon." She also hopes ACLU and other pro-voting groups will follow LWVMI's lead, and do more to explain how voters can choose to split their otherwise straight ticket and vote for particular third-party candidates.
Voting YES on Proposal 2 is in line with one of GPMI's Ten Key Values, points out male co-chair John Anthony La Pietra: Grassroots Democracy. He hopes Michigan voters see more and stronger voting-rights proposals soon, such as either or both of the MI Right to Vote petitions circulated earlier this year.
The GPMI platform, reflecting the Key Values of Feminism and Social Justice, is short and clear in favor of a YES vote on Proposal 3. Regardless of what a packed court may say, "Women have the right to choose abortion; they also need the health care and practical ability to make choice real." If Greens had been in the Legislature, says La Pietra, "Michigan women wouldn't have had to wait 90 years for action to repeal the old ban."
He adds, "Michigan badly needs more government transparency; we've flunked two tests in a row by the Center for Public Integrity, and last time we were at the very bottom. But while Greens have varying views on term limits, we say NO to Proposal 1 for the way sponsors stopped their momentary signature drive when the Legislature adopted a watered-down version of the petition. Or did they spike that punch in their own favor?"
La Pietra concludes: "The Green Party works from Ten Key Values, and takes no corporate or PAC money. So we don't delay or block action on vital issues in order to keep them roiling in the news and us rolling in big-dollar 'contributions' from the rich. The support we seek is from grassroots voters."
For more information about GPMI, its values, its platform, and its candidates -- and how *you* can get involved -- please visit us online:
www.MIGreenParty.org
www.facebook.com/migreens
https://twitter.com/migreenparty
https://www.instagram.com/migreens/
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Official Press Release of the Green Party of Michigan
www.MIGreenParty.org
www.facebook.com/migreens
https://twitter.com/migreenparty
https://www.instagram.com/migreens/
PO Box 2754; Grand Rapids, MI 49501
resources:
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coverage of all three proposals:
https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-government/2022-michigan- ballot-issues-tracker-what-know-about-election-proposals
https://crcmich.org/research
LWVMI on how to split or mix your ticket:
https://lwvmi.org/voting-for-political-parties/
GPMI candidates for 2022:
https://migreenparty.org/2022-candidates-for-office/
GPMI platform for 2022:
https://migreenparty.org/green-party-of-michigan- platform-2022/