Laurel Lambert Schmidt (Grn-IL-3)

Laurel Lambert Schmidt (Grn-IL-3)

 

Laurel Lambert Schmidt Green Party Congressional Candidate Illinois District 3

 

Biography of Laurel Lambert Schmidt from Laurel Lambert Schmidt for Congress

 

Hi all I am 26 year resident of Riverside IL, married with two grown children, Sarah a PhD candidate in astronomy and Jeff a high school math teacher. I have been active in local schools, community and church for the whole of that time serving as Girl Scout leader, PTA board member, church President and Community House Trustee. I attended Barnard College and have a BA from UIC in history. I am a former insurance underwriter and free lance writer, co-founded and chair the Near West Citizens for Peace and Justice and was co-Director of the Peace Justice and Environment Project. I now spend my time organizing for peace and justice, doing volunteer work for church and community.

A recovering Democrat, I joined the Green Party to give a voice to those who want to stop wars, save the planet and give fair and equitable treatment to all people. I want to:

• Bring all troops home from Iraq now and take care of our vets!
• Establish a time line for withdrawal from Afghanistan, using diplomacy and humanitarian aid instead of escalation.
• Work to affect world wide nuclear disarmament.
• Get the insurance companies out of the health care business and establish a single payer or Medicare for all system for all Americans. Health care is a human right!
• Establish fair standard for immigration and stop treating undocumented workers like criminals.
• Have the US commit to stronger international standards than those of the Kyoto Treaty to heal the effects of global warming.
• Ensure access to quality public education for all children.
• Pass the Employee Free Choice Act; use stimulus money for jobs.
• Subsidize and expand public transportation.
• Give tax breaks and incentives for the establishment of Green businesses and green jobs. Allow tax breaks so individuals and businesses can convert to clean energy. Phase out nuclear power.
• Re-establish a truly progressive graduated tax system.
• Enact strict regulations and taxes on the financial institutions that created financial disaster and cost so many their homes and jobs.
• Work in concert with the 10 Key Values of the IL Green Party.

10 Key Values of the IL Green Party

1. Ecological Wisdom

The Greens recognize that the Earth sustains all life processes. Green ecology moves beyond environmentalism by understanding the common roots of the abuse of people. Whatever we do to the web of life, we do to ourselves.

2. Social Justice

Greens want to replace the worldwide system of poverty and injustice with a world free of all oppression based on class, gender, race, citizenship, age, or sexual orientation.

3. Grassroots Democracy

The powerless suffer the most from resource depletion and toxic pollution. Greens believe in direct participation by all people in the environmental, political, and economic decisions that affect their lives.

4. Nonviolence

Greens reject violence as a way of settling disputes – it is shortsighted, morally wrong, and ultimately self-defeating. We are working to create a world where war is obsolete.

5. Decentralization

Power and responsibility must be restored to local communities within an overall framework of ecologically sound and socially just values and lifestyles.

6. Community-Based Economics

Greens seek a new economics that is based upon the natural limits of the Earth, and which meets the basic needs of everyone on the planet, under democratic, localized community control.

7. Feminism

The Green movement is profoundly inspired by feminist values. The ethics of cooperation and understanding must replace the values of domination and control over others.

8. Respect for Diversity

Greens honor the biological diversity of the Earth and the cultural, sexual, and spiritual diversity of Earth’s people. We aim to reclaim this country’s finest ideals: popular democracy, the dignity of the individual, and liberty and justice for all.

9. Personal and Global Responsibility

Greens demonstrate a commitment to global sustainability and international justice through political solidarity and in personal lifestyles based on self-sufficiency and living lightly.

10. Future Focus

Like the Iroquois, Greens seek a society where the interests of the seventh generation are considered equal to the interests of the present. We must reclaim the future for our children and ourselves.