About Us
Southwest Colorado Green Party was founded in 2000 as a local Dolores and Montezuma County affiliate to the Colorado and National Green Party. We have taken a leadership role in promoting grassroots democracy by sponsoring informational forums and panel discussions on important political, social, and environmental issues. Three Green party members have been elected to public office in Montezuma County. A registered Green currently sits on the Cortez City Council.
The Green Party of Colorado was established in 1992 by political activists to serve as a vehicle for progressive ideas and issues. Party members began to draft a political platform as a living document, including planks on health, energy, environment, restructuring employment, indigenous peoples, non-violence, social justice, technology, and transportation. Broad mission statements are offered for each of these topical areas, as are short and long-range goals for the advancement of these positions. These objectives are updated as needed, according to the bylaws of the party.
The Green party of Colorado became a Qualified Political Organization in 1994, when it allowed voters for the first time to register with the party. In 1995, the Green Party participated in a coalition of other minor political parties to reform ballot access laws in Colorado. The coalition succeeded in influencing changes in laws regarding candidate petition requirements, and also attained the right of minor political parties to place presidential and vice presidential candidates on the state ballot via a registration fee, as the major parties are allowed to do. This effort continued as the Voter Task Force evaluating alternative voting methods, led to the passage of HB 08-1378, which allows Colorado municipalities and special districts to use Instant Runoff Voting.
Locally, the Southwest Colorado Greens sponsor the annual High School Forum for candidates and public office holders. This event, open to all area High Schools, gives students up-close contact with the people in their government and the political process. The ongoing Cans For Youth project recycles aluminum cans and donates the money to area programs supporting youth. A subscription to Orion magazine has been donated to the Cortez Library every year since 2002. The winter solstice party and summer picnic are social gatherings to which the community is invited. We have also, sponsored specific issue forums on a wide range of subjects.
The Southwest Colorado Greens hold a general meeting on the third Wednesday of every month from 6:30 - 8:30 PM. Our meeting location is at the Wilson Building, 10 W. Main Street, 2nd Floor, in Cortez. Visitors are welcome at all meetings. For further information call 565-8283.
Meeting notices are posted on this website, in local newspapers, and by email. If you would like to be included on the email list, let us know at swcogreens@gmail.com Notices are kept to a minimum to reduce email glut, and sent "blind carbon copy" to protect privacy. Our mailing list is not shared with anyone, even like-minded groups.
Click the links for additional information about the national Green Party, gp.org, the Green Party of Colorado coloradogreenparty.org. Read about the 10 Key Values of the Green Party.
Latest Posting:
April 2010
Southwest Colorado Greens on Health Care
It has been 17 years since health care reform was attempted during the Clinton administration. That effort was stopped by the influence of special interest groups. Free enterprise took its course, and once again an attempt has been made to overhaul a sick health care system.
The Democrats have just passed health care legislation, but it is hardly to their credit. What is not been mentioned are the pressures to which they succumbed. Recalling that the insurance and pharmaceutical industries killed Clinton’s reform effort, the Obama administration made no effort to end corporate domination of the health care system. Instead, the administration made a pact with these two industries, insuring that the system was designed to meet their needs before those of the public. That is why these industries supported Obama’s reform, and that is why the legislation includes no public option – the one effective way to curb ballooning insurance premiums.
The arrogance of the insurance industry is seen in Anthem Blue Cross's proposal for rate increases in California of up to 39 percent. This was done even while the current health care bill was being debated. Apparently, they feel powerful enough to ignore any outrage that may stand between them and their profits. This is the same industry that coldly cancels policies when people get really sick. This is also the industry that has given more than twenty million in campaign contributions to members of the House and Senate that wrote the current bill, and spent $145 million on lobbying since the beginning of 2008. Follow the money to learn who calls the shots in Washington.
The Southwest Colorado Green Party believes that the solution is to have a single payer system. The insurance industry, which does not provide any improvement in care, should not be the primary route for accessing medical services. Single payer would not mean the end of optional private health insurance. It would mean simplification of an incomprehensible system, one that just became even more complicated.
Mandatory insurance is another problem with the new legislation, and one that was essential for the support of the insurance industry. No one wants to be forced to purchase something that used to be optional, especially when the money goes to an unproductive bureaucratic layer that ranks profit over health and massively increases the costs of health care. Single payer (or Medicare for all) would reduce costs, again, massively. Universal access to basic medical and health care services should be the goal. Call it socialism if you will. It is no more socialism than Medicare, the interstate highway system, or public schools. Real socialism seeks to end private markets.
It has been the failure of our government to effectively regulate health care delivery that has brought about the current situation. Both political parties have betrayed their duty to promote the public good, and caved in to special interest arm-twisting. The resulting laissez-faire regulation has created a system requiring not fine-tuning, but major overhaul.
Meanwhile, life expectancy in the United States is 49th in the world. Less than a year behind is Libya, which spends 6 percent, per capita, of what is spent on health care here. The World Health Organization ranks the United States’ health care system as 37th. What are the billions of health care dollars getting us?
Corporate and special interest spending to buy political influence has been fully unleashed by the Supreme Court. Follow the money in the next congressional election. True health care reform has been a victim of the lack of campaign finance reform.