KEXP Presents Mind Over Matters; Sustainability Segment: Jill Stein

this is diane warren your host on the sustainability segment of mind over matters of k x p seattle ninety point three of them an online ad xv died orgy my guess this morning as dr jill stein front runner for the green party nomination for president of the united states jill stein is a mother a physician and longtime teacher of internal medicine and pioneering environmental health advocate she is the co author of two widely praised reports in harm's way toxic threats to child development and environmental threats to hold the aging she has twice been elected to town meeting in lexington massachusetts and his run for governor representative and secretary of state in massachusetts in her two thousand and six race for secretary of state she won the votes of over three hundred and fifty thousand massachusetts citizens jill stein is here today to tell us why she is running for president of the united states and what she hopes to accomplish welcome why did you decide to run for president of the united states the things that plagued the breaking point i guess for me was last year when the president put medicare and social

security on the chopping block to have a solution to what was really have concocted crisis around the debt ceiling the crisis we didn't need to have in the first place and that's the point i've had them i felt it cannot be allowed to go unchallenged and i became active in the green party in ensuring that we would have a voice of opposition and that they would be real challenge in a presidential election not only do the dismantling of social security and medicare but for everything out that live under attack around it from the people to the planet to our demography are still live or even our economy you know really the hall's nine yards but for me that was the breaking point for thievery incredible foundation of jaffa a hand hearing that it could be under attack and in the corridor of participating in the green party process to get the money out there i got recruited help ensure that how i came to be writing you know

i got into this originally maybe twenty years ago every medical doctor and a mother very concerned about why would being in the clinic and in my community the epidemic fall of chronic to the family they had depended on out particularly on children between the learning disabilities autism asthma obesity you again and all the things that didn't used to be the problem that they are today so the long and the short was i learned in the trenches that you can help the pollution that are good for people good for the planet good for the economy a win win all around for health environment and jobs and you can go thirty years later you're congress but unless you've got a lot of money in handling hear the koch brothers are alec or you know something on that order it doesn't count that having like a fading and money saving solutions unfortunately it's not what wins the day in our political theater which is basically driven by big money now i learned in the

field over many years that it's i wanted to help change very broken health care system and he hobbled in the environment that drive that are broken economy are increasingly broken education have said that we have to first fix the broken political system in order to do it how do you see your experience contributing to your ability to govern in a big way at a young woman had come to me every an apparent head oh my god you're normal i didn't know that they had politicians like you and i think my experience of not being in the backrooms of not being a preacher of corporate sponsored prospects i think that's exactly what we need and what americans are really longing for real politics of integrity and you know recent polls show that something like forty nine percent of people are saying that we need a third party agree with seriously consider voting for it

because it feels like the current political system is that corrupt so i am quick to point out that the kind of experience that unfortunately paints moved the politics i'm really proud not to have on the other hand my experience as an activist air of a health care provider someone very concerned about health and the environment and creating an economy that in countries without the support of our health and the health of our community and our planet they could all work together i can put on the table that people are really hungry and four well having worked to build basically democratic on the ground grassroots movement to get some of the most toxic pesticides off the shelves a national movement they've been part of cleaning up coal plants or helping to lead that movement in

my faith having helped lead the recent moves and for redistricting actually an attitude that doubled to keep representing communities of color i have a lot of experience of the kind that we need we can building the power of grassroots democracy to make our communities and our planet and our economy more traffic green and figure for the future what do you see as the most important issues currently facing our country there are so many things i think of the way the political for them i gather the deliberate cried after cry and by that i mean the political establishment which the old democratic and republican so you could say that the mother of all issues here really i think is recovering our demography for that we can do the right thing when people actually what kind of medicine practice think i usually say i'm practicing political momentum now because of the mother of all

that let's move forward from the area without a they think that the biggest issue here for people that they end up and actually reassert our democracy and reject the drumbeat that keep piling up over and over that we have to be very afraid that you cannot vote your values you've got the voter fears i think the reality is that if you people have to get out from under the collective of that mind control because you know the politics of fear has only brought everything were afraid of that is you know the collapsing economy the expanding war the attack on our civil liberties the burning of the entire generation of indian indentured servant with the student debt crisis the politics of fear have given us everything were afraid of and in fact we have to get public the fear with the politics of courage that always what has driven the progressive agenda forward it's always been at independent political party at the time and abolition

is with the liberty party at the time of women suffrage you with the women party for the advancement of union i think it can be a job than a forty hour work week and faith worst places it was the socialist labor and progressive party they have the politics of courage and made history by working an alliance basically between social movements and independent political party that changed history together and we've got to do that again and people need to reject this idea that you can't vote for your values if you don't vote for your values you're basically giving a mandate for forty four years so i think that is the most that overarching issue in front of us but for the specific clearly it's transformed the economy so that year that provide the jobs that we need every well yeah the green economy that we need we call it the green new deal and eventually would put twenty five million people back to work who need full time living wage jobs but we will ensure that those jobs are

community based jobs that not only in unemployment they create the green economy on an emergency basis that we need and put a halt to climate change and then other adapt quickly getting rid of debt and making public higher education free we wiped out the data bank who caught the crash of the economy seth we could forgive the bankers we can forgive the debt of the core of the victims of that weight problem and you can forgive today sure the public higher education that pretty accurately it's incredible it returned many times over on the dollar we need to end the war and bring the troops home from these illegal immoral war it down five the military bring our troops back from the bases in over a hundred forty countries around the world where we don't need the end the drone wars and we need to move to a medicare for all health care system that covers everybody comprehensively with dorothy toy to you the consumer and they're having an insurance company bureaucrats decide what their health care is going to be and which

ortho vegas actually trillions of dollars over the next decade to be there when revolution that the american public want we have to stand up and drive them forward i'm diane warren and my guest is dr jill stein front runner for the green party nomination for president of the united states and you're tuned to the sustainability segment of mind over matters and katie eckstein it going to be a fan and on the web and katie xv died or a j you mentioned your green new deal could you just listed the elements of that green new deal your degree new deal covering the green economy what we think of the tradition of the great economy but it also cover the vote on economic areas of the economy for the week a integrated yale community a divide what they need to make themselves available economically socially and ecologically throw a big party and obviously the green ecological aspect that looked totally you know we're talking about queen manufacturing local organic agriculture

public transportation as well as the former transportation like biking and if i thought that all that and then of course to clean renewable energy which have the added benefit of making wars for oil obsolete go to the broad area and in the house where the economy of the things that we need in order to be a totally untenable entire community teachers nurses childcare elder care abuse prevention and rehabilitation affordable housing so the whole myth of jobs at the community level that jumpstart our economy's actually really localized them sam meet the fundamental things that we need in order to be sustainable and have a tough economy what you will see more about your view of our health care system and whether you are in favor of the new health care law that the obama administration has put into place yeah you have a doctor living in this debate where the program had been piloted i have a fairly a potent personal experience of hiv law and

what i can believe that the law helped some people it hurts some people and in the end it have allowed the cost of health care to iraq it into basically felt the direction we have a health care initiative that they're also under a self destruct mode and have not changed at all medical they quickly here feel that at the end of the day you're not insured you have a piece of paper but at the paper had enormous holtzman it really truly get back you're not leading your health or your financial security it's clear we need to move to a real full motion that is to a medicare for all system often called a single payer if like medicare cut the age of eligibility is drop to basically the moment of conception so that everyone get covered all the time and you not to go there is that oh

my god it's just not politically feasible well the reason for that is because look who's running congress and the white house feel the insurance companies and the pharmaceutical company that's why it's not politically feasible feel like to make it politically feasible by electing people who are not creatures of that corporate sponsor politic that live green party people like myself and the other the grieving offered to give medicare for all is that it costs too much and in fact exactly the opposite under medicare for all you've paid a huge amount of money which right now have poured into this massive private health insurance bureaucracy that thirty percent of every dollar so that all get right back into health care rather than deeper pushing center thing appears that and that's why we can afford to cover everybody and over time you shave trillions of dollars because they're going to play has been rising cost of actually pretty much go the way to stabilize the thunder thinkers that and then the final thing i should add that

the big elephant in the room on health care is that seventy five percent of our health care dollars i actually spent on chronic diseases that are rather completely avoidable if we do the right thing the upfront these are preventable diseases that can be prevented at community level how they played by doing what your mother has which is you know having a healthy food supply healthy and affordable food supply which are recoverable an active transportation systems for that activity is built into our community and by doing pollution prevention is because things like air pollution and the bare feet away in art and food and things like that the garden real drivers of chronic diseases well flo by creating green jobs and that goes back to the green new deal by moving to a green economy we get exactly that we ensure that everybody had access to healthy fresh local organic the priority the green economy that you can't bike and walk to work in copenhagen forty percent of people do

that the ability that you should be able to walk to cool actress i should be integrated into our lives and we came to pollution prevention by moving to the green orbs of energy and so it's a win win win move to the green economy it created the foundation of a healthcare system for that we can actually be healthy and afford it and get jobs well you've alluded to this but what are the specific steps he would take to address climate change great question because that evoke burt and i would do maybe they go for one thing moving to the green economy is very critical because then we now have whole new ballgame and the economy again today is really the driver in addition we need to prioritize an international agreement that for the agreement at durban that the white house basically got ill i would initiate a turban to feel that we could get back to the drawing board and create get a binding international agreement to draw down on carbon

urgently i should play that's related emergency i would instruct the epa to you and all the resource of the power that we have to ensure that we're not creating new destructive form of energy and you delegate well so that we would not develop fracking we would create a nationwide ban actually tracking we would not open up our offshore fragile areas and the arctic and our national park to mining and drilling become public to the private and publicly which are so terribly destructive i would instruct the epa to basically do the opposite that i would put an end to further mountaintop removal i would instruct the epa to truly regulate coal we need to begin the commissioning those dirty and dangerous coal plant and we need to begin the commissioner nuclear power plant the president is building more of each we need actually begin moving expeditiously in the opposite direction

and that's really what i would do i want to do on day one which is to take the monsanto appointment out of the white house and out of our agencies the president appointed monsanto lobbyist to important positions in the fda has created and eight monsanto boosters in the un to promote agriculture i should include by the way in my judgment the epa would also be that the giants should be used here to actually protect the public on the matter of genetically modified food and you know there should be a ban until five times the gmo it can be a shared for be environmentally faith can pay for our health we do not have a means of assuring that if they felt they should be under a indefinite moratorium right now there's one other thing i should add which is canada's minister of climate and help an added on the subject of marijuana and hemp i would instruct the department of justice for one thing to stop interfering in states that have already

begun to legalize marijuana to decriminalize the end to legalize medical marijuana this is both a matter of health in the case of medical marijuana it's a matter of environment because you don't get a very important not only food authorities but also important for the green economy if they felt in other which you can manufacture virtually everything from paper to cure a diaper than car apart and incredible potential for food and fiber and potentially also for biofuels that needs to be explored it can be grown with minimal water inputs and that's not the needs are light years to fight that well for the very important resource for sustainable agriculture and local economy fell i would include that in the agenda of like quiet for protecting our climate and of course the war on drugs is shale and drive the demonization of african american men and have been

used to imprison to incarcerate predominantly african americans and people of color and latino felix been implemented an incredibly intelligent and briefest way and contributes to the ongoing palm of racial inequality and racial profiling so we needed a first step toward ending the failed war on drugs bye making marijuana and hemp awfully get off of the vote which is what fiat would argue five should be the debate before canceling thought that is making them illegal there should be fine because they fear for their of current may not you are listening to the sustainability segment of mind over matters and katie excuse seattle ninety point three of them and on the web add k e x p dot org she and diane warren and my guest is dr jill stein front runner for the green party nomination for president of the united states one of your quotes is that we don't need to run america like a business or like the military we need to run america like a democracy the steps to take to run america more like a

democracy very good grasp of america like the biography there are many things we can do to move our self in that direction from can be done very quickly from can be done over a longer period of time though too quickly for example the president could all the fec that we need to start using our air waves in the public interest to distill public airwaves and we could require free airtime for qualified candidate once you do that because of running a political campaign i wanna pull the rug out from under them politics becomes affordable for everyday people who were not corporate sponsor and having millions of dollars hundreds of millions of dollars and then he'd have to become such a definitive advantage which it is right now because the cost of campaigns is getting on the air and informing people about your campaign for that one thing that could be done right away to bring back free airtime we clearly need to move to get money out of politics more

definitively through a public financing of campaigns by rejecting the lobby of contribution an offer by rejecting the ability of elected official every tackled and held a proponent for lobbyist there needs to be an end to the revolving door that is something that can be treated fairly simply and straightforwardly as well we need to put an end to corporate personhood that require a constitutional amendment but that is doable for the american people certainly are not happy campers are getting right now we need to give the right of personhood back the people for whom they were intended by the constitution it would never intended that corporations would write of human beings and we need to insure that our right to vote is dead voter id laws should not even be a possibility we need a constitutional right to vote that ensures that everyone has the right to vote and make it easier and more convenient to do so we need to ensure that our voter integrity with a landmark paper ballots rather than the the electronic voting systems that can be wired from the anti

us and we need to vote within buildings that actually give our vote meaning we need to abolish the electoral college an implement a ranked choice voting system that actually would you rank your choice if you don't have to worry about your vote inadvertently helping to lead one to help you get to put your first referred the underdog in the underdog would have your vote and then reassigned to repackage that as no brainer with them if indeed youth many countries around the world and many believe around this nation we can do that we can offer move to proportional representation that insurer that if the green party had twenty percent of the vote that we get twenty percent of the representative in congress then shares have meaning and truly help so it's not rocket fire about how to make our democracy if just having the courage to stand out in that it happened and that it happened now because the clock ticking traditionally third party candidates are so called third party candidates only gain a

small percentage of the vote what do you hope your candidacy will accomplish you know i think our campaign to accomplish great things and all bets are off and what it will be you know the odds are certainly not in our favor that we're going to turn the white house into a greenhouse this election but on the other hand the odds were certainly not in favor of those young people who got out in tahrir square and basically dismantle a dictatorship that had been entrenched for four years there was much more entrenched in our political system and the way that we think in tunisia you have the threat of people who thought that there is no future in the direction that we're going and they took that very seriously because these are young people and they are constitutionally very empowered to make change as people tried to do in two thousand and eight and discovered it was going to help them with in the corporate sponsored political first time i think people are waking up and drove now he's that we really need that change more desperately than ever gonna happen from outside of the

two party corporate her thumb so i would say all better off well what we've got a conflict right now of a declining economy declining environment the attack on our civil liberties incredible disparities of wealth which continuing to bail out the banks about one out of every two family america either in poverty or close to a young people are taking this very carefully they're up to their eyeballs and that can't get a job to pay that debt back you know i met a young man yesterday who was waiting on the table to repay seventy thousand dollars in loans for college master's degree still waiting on cable just not observe that the body can get into the economy and that story and i'm afraid it's just all too common folk people are taking the issue seriously that we badly need change anything we really go viral about that you know there are enough students out there they're not a proponent of taking the climate there are enough working people who are just not getting by on minimum wage jobs which are the jobs that are coming back now in the so called economic recovery that we're having at the minimum wage recovery

people out there to get it so that if we were to go viral we could turn the white house into agreement but barring that what ever we get i think moved north in the right direction and if i win in my view if the women are of two percent or fifty two percent it had a win simply to recover our voices fit with the demography with our guest is the corporate voice not a voice that democracy by art i mean you know their people powered third party the green party or other people power of independent politics that we can make a huge leap forward in the collection complete by standing up and inflicting that we take our future back and by making their voices heard by making our voices heard we help drive evolution into the agenda and makes him on bob lobel what's the message you'd like to leave our listeners i would you know encourage people go to my website which is still kind of order and join the team because you know this is

an unprecedented crisis in an unprecedented opportunity to turn it all around in some ways you could say we're living at all but we could how'd it all because the green new deal that fixing the economy the environment and our health truly brings it all back sten that just how can you question what to do in this division with that all have it all which would you prefer it's really clear that if we stand up in this election we can make this a tipping point or i should say we can change a breaking point into a tipping point and take back the promise of our democracy and a peaceful john green future that really is within our reach if we are standing up for now we'll do some messaging here thank you die and great talking with you you have just been listening to dr jill stein front runner for the green party nomination for president of the united states for more information check on the web at dubie davi davi about jill stein dot org again that's j i l

l s t e i n diet or gee there will be an open house for jill stein in seattle on saturday may fifth from sixty nine pm at the seattle labor temple twenty eight hundred first avenue between clay and broad street the public is invited to attend jill stein will also speak on monday may seventh at seven thirty pm and university temple methodist church fourteenth and northeast toward third street in the university district for more information go to gp dashed at a dutch us again that's gp dashed of year they got us the sustainability segment of mind over matters program you've just heard lee on the streaming archives section of katie x these website at atx feet out orgy for the next fourteen days in addition sustainability segment interviews are available as podcasts go to k e x feat adora tree click on demand and then podcasting i'm diane warren thanks for listening and be sure to turn into the sustainability segment again next week a ninety point three

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