Current Areas of Concern
The state party has been active in organizing on the issues of peace, anti-death penalty, minority language rights, gay rights, rural sustainability and academic freedom. The party has also worked with the Oklahoma Libertarian Party and the Oklahoma Constitution Party in seeking to reform Oklahoma's restrictive ballot access laws through the Oklahomans for Ballot Access Reform coalition (OBAR).
In 2000 the party unsuccessfully petitioned to place Ralph Nader on the Oklahoma Presidential ballot. In 2004, the party held a "protest petition drive" (gathering a nominal number of signatures as a form of protest) to place GPUS presidential nominee David Cobb on the Oklahoma Presidential ballot. Following this, the party joined with other members of the OBAR coalition in calling for Oklahoma voters to cast a blank ballot for President as part of a so-called "None of the Above" Presidential campaign.
In 2005, the state party was accredited as a state Green Party by the Green Party of the US. (see Green Party US Voting Page (external link).
In 2006, Green Party member James M. Branum ran to represent State House District #99 in northeast Oklahoma City as an Independent. He was endorsed by the local and state Green parties as their first candidate for public office in Oklahoma. He received 306 votes, or 4.81% of the votes cast in the three-way race. Also in 2006, Bob Waldrop was endorsed by the Oklahoma County Green Party in his non-partisan campaign for Oklahoma City mayor.
In 2007, the Oklahoma County Green Party endorsed Fannie Bates in her run as a Democrat for the Oklahoma County Commission.
The state party also called for a boycott in 2006 of Starbucks in solidarity with the National Lawyers Guild and other groups protesting the firing of workers who were members of the Industrial Workers of the World union.
In 2010, the Green Party endorsed Edward A. Shadid in his unsuccessful race for the Oklahoma State House. The following year, Mr. Shadid won a non-partisan seat on the Oklahoma City Council.
Read more about this topic: Green Party Of Oklahoma
Famous quotes containing the words current, areas and/or concern:
“It is a quite remarkable fact that the great religions of the most civilized peoples are more deeply fraught with sadness than the simpler beliefs of earlier societies. This certainly does not mean that the current of pessimism is eventually to submerge the other, but it proves that it does not lose ground and that it does not seem destined to disappear.”
—Emile Durkheim (1858–1917)
“Helping children at a level of genuine intellectual inquiry takes imagination on the part of the adult. Even more, it takes the courage to become a resource in unfamiliar areas of knowledge and in ones for which one has no taste. But parents, no less than teachers, must respect a child’s mind and not exploit it for their own vanity or ambition, or to soothe their own anxiety.”
—Dorothy H. Cohen (20th century)
“The least pain in our little finger gives us more concern and uneasiness than the destruction of millions of our fellow-beings.”
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830)