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LaMarche Says Build Affordable Housing, Not Bunkers. |
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COBB/LaMARCHE 2004 September 30, 2004 Contact: Blair Bobier, Media Director at 541.929.5755 or 414.364.1596 Green Party Vice Presidential Candidate says Cheney is paranoid. Green Party vice presidential candidate Pat LaMarche, who is on the tenth day of her two week Left Out Tour, sleeping in homeless shelters and on the streets, said today that this country needs to create more affordable housing and criticized Dick Cheney for building an 8 story underground shelter at the vice president's residence in Washington, D.C. LaMarche and D.C. area Green Party members held a 16 hour overnight vigil outside the vice president's official Washington residence last Saturday. While LaMarche and other activists protested the Bush-Cheney administration's refusal to act on the affordable housing crisis, construction was taking place to build an additional residence for Mr. Cheney-8 stories underground. "The real problem with the current administration is that they are more concerned with covering their own behinds than putting a roof over the heads of the people," said LaMarche. Since September 21, LaMarche has slept in shelters in Maine, Boston, New York City, Tennessee, Arkansas and Colorado. She slept in a tent city in Rhode Island and spent last night with Mexican migrant workers in Sonoma, California. All along the way, LaMarche and local Green Party members have been raising donations of food, books, blankets and toiletries for shelters. LaMarche says it is time to move beyond temporary shelters and build affordable housing. "Building affordable housing is cheaper than funding shelters, which often require people to partake of services they either don't need or don't want. And when we build affordable housing, we help people become self-sufficient. That should be the goal of any government program," said LaMarche. LaMarche will end her Left Out Tour in Cleveland, Ohio, on October 4, the night before she debates vice presidential candidates from three other presidential campaigns. Mr. Cheney will not be one of those candidates. "The problem with Bush and Cheney is that they are paranoid and are afraid to meet the people they are supposed to be taking care of. They won't even appear in a debate unless the questions are censored and sanitized and there are no candidates present who might raise thorny issues about the millions of people living on the streets of America, including many veterans who have served this country," concluded LaMarche. LaMarche has been chronicling her experiences from the Left Out Tour at http://www.votecobb.org/leftouttour. More Information: search: elct, spol, ecpol, bpol |