NEW WILMINGTON, PA. Green Party sets demands

The group is still seeking to get Sen. Rick Santorum's honorary degree rescinded.
By LAURE CIOFFI
VINDICATOR NEW CASTLE BUREAU
NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- While the crowd was small, the demands were mighty.
Westminster's Green Party held a rally Wednesday outside the campus center to list its demands of the Bush administration and to drum up support for its march in New Castle at 2 p.m. Oct. 18 in Kennedy Square.
"Time is running out for Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld," said Ken Jae, Westminster's Green Party chair. "They've ruined our credibility with the UN, and they've basically given the finger to just about every other country except Great Britain."
The party drafted its demands after much debate among the members, calling for such wide-reaching reforms as the repeal of the Patriot Act, a halt to military spending and restoration of social services, implementing alternative energy sources and an end to the war in Iraq.
Green Party members, however, say they don't believe our troops should be pulled out immediately.
Isaac Ludwig, the group's publicity chair, said they believe a plan should be put in place to help the Iraqi people.
Jae said he was not dissuaded by the small turnout Wednesday. He said there are signs up on campus about the Oct. 18 march, and other students are aware of their activities.
Seeking support
The organization is looking for support from various groups in the area, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in New Castle, he said. Other groups, including the Thomas Merton Center, Pittsburgh Professors for Peace and the Rosenberg Institute are sending representatives to the rally.
Party members say they are speaking with students at Slippery Rock University, Thiel College and Youngstown State University interested in starting their own Green Party groups.
Their first rally in April attracted more than 200 people to Kennedy Square in downtown New Castle. Jae said the coming rally is a warm-up for a larger one in Washington, D.C., that local party members plan to attend on the second anniversary of the Patriot Act's enactment.
The party is also still pursuing its interest in rescinding an honorary degree the college gave to U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum. Green Party members came out in May asking the college to rescind it after negative comments Santorum made about homosexuals.
Jae said college officials have declined to rescind the degree, but Green Party members are planning to gather signatures and send a request to Santorum to give it up.
Jae noted that the party's views aren't the views of the college.
Westminster College spokesman Mark Meighan said the college believes in encouraging students to form their own opinions and share them.
"While they aren't the views of the college, we respect their right to express them," Meighan said.
cioffi@vindy.com