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Penny Teal Endorsed by National
Organization of Women
TealGreen 2002
Penny Teal for State Senate
Connecticut Green Party
Contacts:
Beverly Brakeman, CT NOW Executive Director
Penny Teal, Candidate, (860)536-4980, plteal@yahoo.com
September 16, 2002
News: NOW Endorsement: Now
Endorsement Article in The Day
Green Candidate Endorsed by National Organization of
Women
MYSTIC (September 3) ~ Dr. Penny Teal, Green Party candidate
for state senate in the 18th district, has been endorsed by
the National Organization of Women's Connecticut chapter as
the candidate of choice for this November. Teal said she couldn't
be more pleased, as she sees her platform as representing
women in ways most politicians won't even consider.
"This endorsement means a lot to me, personally,
because I know that women have more issues than simply
reproductive choice," said Teal. "My mother raised
two children in dire poverty, only because women were
and still are, for the most part expected to work for
lousy wages. From the time I was twelve, my sister and I
were home alone till past bedtime, because my mom couldn't
make enough to live on without working second shift...and
still she had to rely on food stamps to keep us alive. My
sister and I were insured through our father; my mom had no
coverage whatsoever. Nowadays she pays a small fortune for a
lousy policy."
The main issues in Teal's campaign are universal health care
coverage, living wage guarantees from any companies
receiving development subsidies from the state, corporate
reform, and sustainable development. "And the issue
that ties all these things together, of course," Teal
noted, "is public campaign financing. That one change
will make all others suddenly politically feasible, because
it will remove the impediment of elections-for-sale from our
state government."
"Women more than anyone else in the region are impacted
by our tourism-driven economy, with its multitude of
low-wage jobs. And affordable, universal health care
coverage is a women's issue in that many jobs typically held
by women don't offer benefits; some examples are childcare
providers, waitpersons, maid service and hairdressers."
"Needless to say, these same jobs offer little to no
retirement package, and that makes corporate crime a women's
issue," Teal added. "What are older women to do if
Social Security is privatized? They can't retire on the hope
that the stock market won't collapse, in this greed-driven,
scandal-ridden economy."
Teal said she supports a woman's right to choose whether or
not to bear children, but feels that education for males and
females, availability of contraception, and better economic
security for women could go a long way toward making
abortions unnecessary. "An ounce of prevention is worth
a pound of cure," she quipped, then added that there is
a dire need for more positive images of young people in the
media, particularly in advertising, to remind them that they
are complete human beings, not just sex objects.
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