TealGreen 2002
Penny Teal for State Senate
Connecticut Green Party
Contacts:
Beverly Brakeman, CT NOW Executive Director
Penny Teal, Candidate, (860)536-4980, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
September 16, 2002
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.