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Address to NCCo Library Advisory Board - 10/6/04
FOP Forum - 9/27/04
Newark Methodist Women's Group Candidate Forum - 9/18/04
Introduction for David Cobb - 8/27/04
Minquadale Fire Hall Forum on Public Safety 8/17/04
Making the Vision of Universal Health Care a Reality Now 5/27/04
Cannon 2004 GPDE Convention Speech 5/22/04
GreenViews TV Appearance 4/18/04
Address to Joint Sunset Committee on DSWA 4/13/04
Salem Nuclear Power Plant 3/28/04
Making the Vision of Universal Health Care a Reality Now
Dear members of APRI, Voces Sin Fronteras, the Latino Political Action Committee, the Delaware AFL-CIO, and members of the public, as a community-based counselor in NCCo, I have worked over 20 years with children and families suffering from various physical, mental health and substance abuse problems. With the advent of the so-called managed
care system I have directly witnessed for years now how people, especially the lower middle class, the working poor, the unemployed and elderly, have become increasingly unable to afford or access needed medical care or, if they can somehow get services, those they receive are often inferior in quality. I have seen many people try to make due without medical services and needed prescription medication only to end up in the emergency room of our hospitals when the condition becomes too large to ignore. Not surprisingly, given the economic problems and race-bias problems that still infect our society, the highest percentage of those who forego medical care are the low-income and people of color. This has got to stop.
But even organized labor, which for decades has played a vital role in the struggle to guarantee the average person decent health care, has had to endure over recent years, an erosion of health benefits and an increase in co-pay costs for too many of its members. This, along with the other facts I've mentioned, shows that health care in Delaware -- and in the rest of the United States, for that matter -- is sick. In fact, here in the Diamond State, health care
is in the cardiac unit at Christiana Hospital. It's there because health care needs a new heart, a human heart, so that the medical system in Delaware and elsewhere can start putting care before profits!
I am personally in the lower middle class economic bracket but am one of tens of thousands of Delawareans who have seen their private medical insurance both shrink in coverage and increase in out-of-pocket costs. I feel I must try to maintain this overpriced, sometimes inadequate private insurance so that the health and welfare of my two children is protected the best I can. Still, on several occasions, both my wife and I have forgone medical
services and prescription medications when their cost has been prohibitive. Thank God, our needs have not been life threatening. But I know I'm just one of a fortunate few and that this could change any minute.
The Green Party, and I as their candidate for NCCo Council, fully and strongly support H.B. 62 to establish a single-payer universal health care system in Delaware. We are one of the original endorsers of APRI's laudable efforts to bring about this very needed change in our health care system. I
and the Green Party support establishing a national universal health care plan now. But, with the needs of people so de.sperate, we cannot wait for the Democrats and Republicans in Washington to act. Let's make the vision of universal health care a reality in Delaware now!
Thank you
Cannon 2004 GPDE Convention Speech
Madam Chair, other members of the Green Party of Delaware Coordinating Council, my sister and brother Greens and others:
As you know, my campaign for New Castle County Council’s 9th district seat is a serious one. I plan to be the grassroots voice of community concerns wherever I go, I intend to hand out literature in every housing development in my district, and I aim to put the other candidates on the spot by speaking truth to power. There is nothing symbolic about my campaign. I’m going to win.
But my campaign isn’t just about me. This is because, as a Green Party candidate, I’m not just running as an isolated candidate but as part of a organization that wants to challenge the whole existing political system and the two parties -- Democrats and Republicans -- that dominate that system. In doing this, I’m part of a team of Green candidates in northern Delaware -- the other two candidates being Vince Sottile and John Atkeison -- who together represent the state party’s evolution over the last four years into an increasingly influential force. And so as we three candidates -- the Tres Amigos Verde -- hit our respective campaign trails, we will not just be campaigning for ourselves but for the continued building of an alternative political force in the county and state. Once we win these elections and get a foothold in the power structure, every good ole boy and good ole gal in Delaware will be on notice that change has come to town.
To understand the significance of what we’re on the verge of doing, please take the time to recall how far we’ve traveled in the last four years.
In 2000, we had just achieved ballot status and many of us were very wet behind the ears. Still, we campaigned in the state to elect Ralph Nader for president and Craig Shumaker for NCCo Executive. In the course of doing this, we taught ourselves the nuts and bolts of how to run methodical campaigns while simultaneously being cutting edge in the dissemination of new ideas. By the end of the 2000 campaign season, the Green Party had put itself on the map. Craig Shumaker’s 15% of the vote in the County Executive election proved that.
In 2002, with more experience under our belt, we once again entered the electoral arena. This time we chose to consolidate the whole party behind Vivian Houghton, our nominee for State Attorney General. The aim of that campaign was twofold. First, we wanted to run the most sophisticated third party campaign for a state-wide office in memory. Second, we wanted to increase the party’s size while simultaneously creating the infrastructure for post-election coalition work with other organizations. On both counts, the campaign was successful. We attracted such a sizeable portion of the electorate that the campaign’s outcome remained completely uncertain until the last vote was counted. Not only that, but in the campaign’s wake a new Green chapter formed in Kent County and a Wilmington chapter was finally gotten off the ground. Additionally, the number of progressive organizations that the Green Party has worked closely with since Houghton’s campaign includes organizations as wide-ranging in concern and composition as Common Cause, the A. Philip Randolf Institute, Pacem in Terris, Green Delaware, UHelp, the Delaware ACLU, the Union of Black Trade Unionists and others.
So, there is no doubt that as a party we are on the move! And it is this movement that provides the background for my campaign and also for the campaigns of Vince Sottile and John Atkeison.
Let me talk now, though, specifically about my campaign. Why I am running. The vision that drives the campaign forward.
Those of you who know me know that the decision to run for New Castle County Council’s 9th district seat wasn’t one I found easy. I’m close to my family and love spending time with them. Given that I was already an activist, the idea of taking more time away from my wife and children to run for office at first didn’t appeal to me. Because of this, I initially said no when people raised the possibility of my running for council. But eventually, after discussing the situation with my wife Terry and children Andy and Catie, I decided to run, and now I’m glad that I did. The possibility of getting elected to New Castle County Council and, in the process becoming a voice for political change there, is an exciting one -- not just for me personally but for the Green Party as a whole. My main campaign goal is simple: I plan to draw strength from the creative dissent flowing from the hearts and minds of the county’s politically disillusioned residents. The status quo is getting us nowhere. The need for a revolution in values is in the air.
Let’s take a quick look at 5 areas -- corruption, race relations, the economy, and the environment -- to see where the county’s current political values have gotten us. Then we can all feel the shame together.
First, corruption.
For the 14 years, New Castle County Council has been wracked by continuing financial and corruption scandals. From ex-councilperson Chris Roberts’ indictment on bribery charges to the current county government’s use of taxpayer money to cover the defense costs of county officials under investigation for illegal activities, the trend in county government remains the same. That trend is this: developers and political cliques remain in control while government “by the people and for the people” has been replaced by government of the backroom deal.
Rather than such a plague of corruption, what we need are --
(1) An Ethics Commission that has the power to bring county government corruption to its knees,
(2) “Sunshine laws” that allow public inquiry into government affairs, and
(3) New political voices that are not afraid to speak truth to power, to uncover unethical and illegal government behavior, and to work closely with people at the grassroots level in order to defeat the two dominant parties’ self-serving politics and to create in its stead a new political “people’s force.”
A second morass that the county’s current political values have created is the county’s ongoing inability -- like the state’s -- to reverse race-based economic inequity. A local economy like our county’s, in which on an average blacks are paid 39.2% less than whites, is an economy that needs fixing. Another unnerving race-related fact is that although African-Americans make up only 14.9% of the total county workforce, they represent 42.8% of the county’s unemployed workers and have an unemployment rate more than twice that of whites. For Hispanics, the unemployment differential is even worse -- it is three times that of whites. To say such inequities must be confronted with greater efficiency than previously is an understatement.
Even without reference to race, serious questions must be raised about the county’s and state’s economy and the existence of negative economic trends that undermine the stability of working families. As downsizing continues -- at General Motors, DuPont, etc. -- better-paying jobs evaporate and are replaced by lower-paying service jobs. One result of this for New Castle County is that 56% of the state’s poverty population lives in our county. In response to this, county council must do what it hasn’t yet dared to do --
(1) We need to fight aggressively for a living wage policy for all workers in the county and
(2) We need economic programs that resist downsizing. One method of doing this would be refusing to give any tax breaks or other economic incentives to any company that won’t sign a contractual agreement with local government not to outsource their jobs to lower-paying locations or firms.
These are precisely the kinds of bold measures that I and the Green party are willing to support.
Now let’s look at county environmental issues.
First of all, New Castle County ranks among the worst 5% of U.S. counties that emit toxic substances like mercury, benzene and arsenic compounds. No wonder Delaware stands no. 5 in the national cancer rate rankings, and that our county is the worst in the state
What makes this environmental and health situation even worse is the county’s total inability to develop a sensible waste disposal policy. According to county estimates, 94% of the county’s recyclable materials go unrecycled and instead are dumped in landfills -- landfills which themselves have been “dumped” into lower income and poor communities, causing odor and health troubles in area neighborhoods. Meanwhile, the Delaware Solid Waste Authority stubbornly ignores professional reports that suggest curbside recycling can help to cut down on dump problems. But to cut down on these problems, the Waste Authority and other local officials would have to support a simplified but efficient curbside recycling program that was efficient and designed to limit costs. Unfortunately, under the influence of big business, local officials long ago adopted a pro-high-tech perspective on waste disposal that emphasizes a big-is-better attitude -- look at the craving to expand Cherry Island as an example. Meanwhile, officials show disdain for so-called smaller scale solutions like mandatory curbside recycling.
As we all know, the problems of chemical dumping and waste disposal are everywhere around us and they play a major role in the air pollution and ground and water contamination that continue to create local health hazards while damaging the local ecosystem. Meanwhile, county council favoritism toward big developers has caused gridlock, unplanned housing growth, the ruin of open lands, and high crime rates directly related to overcrowding.
Given such problems, we don’t need one or two new council members -- we need a whole new council!
In conclusion, I’d like to make a few brief comments about the Delaware Green Party’s overall goals. It’s obvious, I think, from what I’ve said so far that we’re a local party with a keen eye for local issues. It’s also obvious, I think, that as a party we’re completely unlike the Democrats and Republicans in our vision. In fact, we are not just a party, we are also a movement -- a movement for social-economic change.
As a movement, our commitment to equal rights for all people is as fierce as were the similar commitments of the civil rights and black power movements of the 50s and 60s.
As a movement, our belief in economic justice is as strong as was that of the 1930s union organizers.
As a movement, our allegiance to environmental sanity is as vital as our sister movement -- the women-led campaign to protect India’s tribal forests -- is today a half world away.
And as a movement, our devotion to peace and our opposition to the chaos of US policy in Iraq and the rest of the Middle East is as fervent and knowledgeable as any critiques developed during the anti-Vietnam war movement forty years ago.
This is the spirit I bring, in a locally focused way, to my campaign. This is the spirit that the Tres Amigos Verde are bringing into all of our campaigns. Our message is one of freedom, hope, struggle and community.
Finally, let me say how humbled I am to be one of the bearers of the Green message in this election and how humbled I also am by the prospect of representing the people of New Castle County. Also, I want to thank everybody for being so supportive -- the Newark Local for nominating me . . My campaign committee including Phil Goldstein, Karen Lienau, Richard Connelly, David McCorquodale, Vince’s daughter Lisa who is my web mistress, Vivian Houghton and Bob Bohm . . . Most of all, I thank my loving partner, Terry, and our children, for respecting my sense of calling to seek a seat on NCCo Council. In the deepest possible sense, none of this would be possible without my family. I love them.
Thank you.