Nick Thielker of Egremont sent the following letter to the Berkshire Eagle, which was published by that newspaper on election day – Nov 6, 2012.

It establishes the global and local imperative for change pretty well, I think, as local Greens in the Berkshires mobilize to grow politically larger and stronger.

The old boy network has a dog-eared procedural template, and is not adapting to paradigm shifts of energy, economics, education and more coming over the horizon. To navigate the well-worn labyrinth of Beacon Hill is to encourage business-as-usual in the birthplace of American machine politics.

In order to survive and thrive in these interesting times we must challenge the status quo, in order to truly meet our post-millennial needs in any kind of a timely fashion we must reject the old way of doing things. We need public servants who will explain to Boston that we are much more than a tourist destination and who understand that if you create a community that serves the needs of its residents then you’ll have a great place to visit, and inversely — if you create a community that serves the needs of the passerby you make your community more homogenous and less

livable.

Our politicians should be confrontational and impatient with corporate lobbyists, not trying to find ways to work with them.  Just once I’d like to see one of our elected officials actually stand up to GE and demand a swimable,fishable Housatonic River. In this age where too many of us who have great economic abundance are building fortresses rather than communities we need elected officials who will unwaveringly fight for economic equity. If our election process is ever going to be truly by the people, there must be representatives who will fight for campaign reform and re-enliven our venerable town hall traditions.

The extent to which a candidate is misrepresented, maligned or marginalized is equal to the extent to which a candidate is taken seriously as a challenge to the old boy network. If you feel that the old boy network has been glad-handing and rubber-stamping when it should be aggressively preparing for a considerably different world, pause a moment in the privacy of the voting booth, consider the actual needs of our community and cast your vote for Scott Laugenour for state representative for the 4th Berkshire District.