Hi!
It's no secret that the Quinebaug Valley has a ton of issues to address, but it also has most or all of the resources needed to do so. We, the new local chapter of the Mass. Green-Rainbow Party, want to be a part of creating those solutions -- ones that work for all of us here in Southbridge, Charlton, Sturbridge and surrounding towns -- while making Beacon Hill pay attention and act as if our ecological, economic, community and personal health matter.
Only those blinded by ideology or selfish interest cannot see that the world is rapidly changing around us. The lifestyle we've known for most of our lifetimes is being rocked by changes in our energy system (the Fukushima quake-tsunami-meltdown, the Gulf disaster, power outages, Peak Oil and other resource shortages), a climate becoming more prone to weather extremes, an economy marked by soaring costs and insecure jobs, a political system dominated by corporate influence, a health insurance system that does not care about health, a financial system that greatly concentrates wealth in the hands of a few, and an industrial food system that destroys the land's fertility while making it hard for small farms to survive.
Yeah, that's a mouthful, and it seems like a daunting task to address them. But they were all created or worsened by people and can be changed by people -- namely, you and me. In fact, they must change if we hope to have anything resembling a stable, healthy society to hand to our children and grandchildren.
We know some people are afraid of taking a stand in a third party, but to us these issues are exactly why now is the time to build one. The Greens aren't entirely new -- we've been around for years in the U.S. {links here and here}, Europe and many other countries. What's new is the opportunity presented by these cascading issues -- and the major parties' outright denial of and/or halfway measures toward them -- to galvanize real change. That change, however, cannot come from above; at best, top-down solutions will only slow down the cascade, and they're more likely to accelerate it.
True change needs to come from US, the American people, people of the Quinebaug Valley, people who are tired of divisive politics based on fear, lies, feel-good slogans and corruption. Isn't it time to express our strengths -- our tolerance for diversity, our depth of stored knowledge and skill (whether formally educated or not), our creativity, our concern for the future, our talents for planning and communicating, our willingness to volunteer, our ability to see the "Big Picture" unlike any other species on Earth? We can, and must, use these skills to turn this society into one that truly benefits everyone, that protects Earth's ability to provide for our survival alongside other species, and that deserves to be called a democracy. All of those things start right here, in our neighborhoods, our schools, our Town Halls.
We'll be talking about a lot of these things on this blog, and tapping sources that know them far better than we do. But by far the most important part of this process is YOU, whether you're technically a Green or not at this point (obviously, we hope you are or will be, but we'll need all the help we can get on these things!) Please post your ideas and suggestions if you want to join us in this journey!
