Green Party supports right of non-citizen immigrants to vote; Greens also pass planks to protect planet, give elderly right to 'assisted suicide'
GREEN PARTY OF CALIFORNIA NEWS RELEASE
SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Ca. (Sept. 13, 2006) - Non-citizen immigrants who are residents should be allowed to vote in California local elections under a resolution approved by the Green Party of California at its Fall state convention, the party said today.
In addition to a sweeping Immigrant Rights plank, about 60 delegates representing the 142,000 registered Greens in California approved a Elderly Civil Rights plank, which urged approval of an assisted suicide assistance law similar to that passed in Oregon in 1997 and recently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The pro-senior proposal supports policies to:
- Allow elderly with "adequate eyesight and physical coordination" to drive motor vehicles.
- Provide financial assistance for "indigent elderly" to provide for their "basic needs."
- Require two medical declarations by "appropriate medical specialists" to activate Durable Powers of Attorney and Successor Trustee powers.
- Allow "mentally competent elderly the right to ask their physicians for assistance with ending their lives in the event of unbearable pain from an incurable medical condition."
Prior to approving the Immigrant Rights proposal, which calls for full legalization for all immigrant in California "with no Apartheid treatment," the GPCA General Assembly voted to urge the Governor to pardon Santos Reyes, a Latino laborer who is serving life in prison because he signed someone else's name on his driver's test.
Finally, the Green Party approved a "California Clean Air" plank, which calls for promoting "alternative sources of energy." The plank also approved of hybrid systems, but only if there are "upper thresholds for lower emissions relative to the previous five years.
Greens said that an "Environmental Ombudsman Office" should be created to "decide" environmental cases, and that legal cases and legal settlements involving air pollution should be reported publicly as well as through regular reports to state and federal governmental agencies. The proposal also suggests an end to the "emission credit" system.
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Contacts:
Crescenzo Vellucci, State Press Office,
916.996.9170,
Sara Amir (Los Angeles),
310.270.7106,
Dr. Bob Vizzard (Sacramento),
916.206.8953,
Daniel Brezenoff (Southern California),
310.422.2211,
Susan King (San Francisco),
415.823.5524,
The Green Party of California
PO Box 2828
Sacramento, CA 95812
Phone: (916) 448-3437
Web: http://www.cagreens.org
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