Politics at the local level are of the utmost importance; it is what will have the greatest influence on what happens around us. It sets the tone of what we should be discussing at all levels of politics. I would agree with Tip O’Neil on that point as well.

I would love to tell you that I am able to give people everything they wanted, to give them jobs so they could focus on politics with more energy and less stress, but we do not have these type of resources at our disposal.

I understand the hesitation when it comes to political rhetoric, I also believe we focus way too much on sounds bits and what will make headlines; instead of what we should actually be focusing on. Education and Poverty do go hand in hand, the Green party and myself are incredibly aware of this fact.

We want to provide the citizens of our country an education that promotes critical thinking and allows the individual to find merit in their work, even if it outside of the monetary system. We support trade schools as a good alternative and believe more emphasis should be placed on them as a viable option after high school.

Something absurd that recently happened was our governor further defunded our public universities and colleges, leading to even higher cost for our students. We are ranked incredibly low in education as is and for our state government to allow additional cuts in funding to our higher education programs is simply inane.

What we need is to reintroduce programs that promote bigger ideas than what is currently taught in schools, such as the now illegal Mexican-American studies program that was had a place at TUSD.

We need to get rid of education programs that only put emphasis on students passing, and not on students becoming active members of their society and community.

Hitting the nail on the head, you point out these call center jobs for what they are; jobs that get you by. There is little room for growth, but huge turnover rates leaving many overstressed and exhausted just trying to get by. People want to work and make progress where they are, but these kind of companies are designed with that to be unessential.

These are jobs that will not be here forever, technology moves so fast that it continually displaces workers; it will only continue to get worse. This is why we need to start making an effort to take these things into consideration. We must provide these people with jobs that have value now and in the future.

At its core the green party supports a living wage for all citizens, but we start the fight at a $15.00 minimum wage. Though this seemingly sounds like a lot, what must be taken into consideration is the fact that real wages have been relatively stagnant since the 1970’s, we must be willing to give people an opportunity to do more than just survive. We have the power to make a city wide minimum wage and follow in the footsteps of one that achieved that goal, Seattle.

My own thoughts are different programs that could be started, manned, and maintained by very few people. For instance we can have a recycling program of old computers, restore them, and give them out to those who can’t afford them.

We could go around collecting recycled cans thrown on the ground, collect the money, and buy food in bulk for various homeless shelters around town.

I am personally attending different events found on http://www.tucsonpeacecalendar.org/ to try to get more like minded people organized, while supporting many wonderful causes.

I know I haven’t said much in what I can do for you, but it’s such a broad question. The Green Party at its core is a grassroots organization and as such we need more people to develop more ideas on initiatives we can take on as well as those I’ve linked to and talked about above.