Cheri Honkala, vice presidential candidate for the Green Party, spoke about the platforms on which she and presidential candidate Jill Stein will be running at Webster’s Bookstore and Café, 133 E. Beaver Ave., last night.
Honkala said she did not think she would be chosen for the vice presidential candidate because of her 200 arrests and participation in non-violent civil disobedience.
She said it was the most difficult decision of her life and said hundreds of her mentors told her it was her responsibility to run, so she accepted the nomination.
Honkala said the Green Party had to receive 40,000 votes to get on the ballot, while the Democrats and Republicans had to get only 2,000.
“We should catch up with the rest of the world,” Honkala said. “Finland has 15 political parties. Don’t you think it’s time we have more than two?”
She said the Green Party should be included in the debates between current President Barack Obama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and said this was what they thought true democracy to be.
Honkala also said the Green Party believes in immediately forgiving student debt.
“We think students are indentured servants, and they shouldn’t graduate from college to go nowhere with this huge amount of debt,” she said.
Luis Caza (senior-anthropology) said this was one of the most important stances of the Green Party because he said he would be graduating with $100,000 in debt.
Honkala said the party also believes in eliminating the Federal Reserve and creating a community banking system to create a world that’s about cooperation instead of competition.
“People are beginning to take their glasses off and really begin to see behind all of the theater,” Honkala said. “They’re becoming actively involved in putting this country back together to where it should be.”
Douglas Mason, a Centre County Green Party volunteer and Penn State adult learner in the GO-60, said he also likes the party because of their vision in helping the environment.
Mason said the party will show people that they have social, political and economic interests in common with the environment.
Honkala said the party hopes to receive 5 percent of the vote in the November 2012 election.
“We’re going to occupy the ballot,” she said. “And four years from now, it’s going to be an entirely different ball game.”
