Peter Vickery gave me chills today, when he painted the picture of what will happen on October 18th this fall, when Mark C. Miller becomes the first-ever Green-Rainbow Party candidate elected to the State House. Mark, who received an extraordinary 45% of the vote against an incumbent Democrat in his first time running for office,  spending just over $3,000, would raise $20,000 this go-round, and run a 90-day sprint to reach the 4,000 Unenrolled voters in his district.

Mark followed up this grand introduction by pointing out one key difference from his 2010 run — this time he’d have a campaign manager, Peter Vickery. He then proceeded to outline what he was struggling with as a candidate, and what he was yearning to bring to the 3rd Berkshire District. And there was no simple rhetoric available to him, no campaign playbook for messaging his vision for Pittsfield, the Berkshires, and the Commonwealth. He is looking to run a transformative campaign, sparking the economic, cultural, and political transformation that Pittsfield and the rest of the state is burning for.

Transformation is what we need, and Mark’s victory will indeed be a transformative act. It’s easily within our grasp if we rise to this exciting — joyous was Mark’s word — 90-day challenge and make it happen.

Part of the challenge will be communicating the idea of a transformative campaign in a way that connects with the average voter in Pittsfield, and re-connects with those who have given up on the political system entirely. It will be a crowded field for this open seat, and there’s a mountain to climb to win it. But we have 93 days in which to do it. 93 days to change Massachusetts politics forever.

Local Green Paki Weiland makes a cameo in this Democracy Now! report on the Greek government’s intervention blocking civilian ships from leaving Greek ports to travel to Gaza:

Paki was arrested twice for fasting and protesting the U.S Embassy and the U.S. Ambassador to Greece, and her story and that of the Greek intervention was picked up in The Daily Hampshire Gazette and The Republican. From the Gazette:

The Canadian vessel in the fleet, “Tahrir,” was detained off the coast of Crete and returned to port on Monday. The Irish and Norwegian boats were sabotaged when their propeller shafts were cut before setting sail. The activists asserted that Israel was behind the sabotage, but the Israeli Embassy in Dublin denied those claims.

Additionally, Greek protesters rallying against austerity measures in Syntagma Square in Athens have taken up the flotilla’s cause and organized a march to support the effort to reach Gaza.

Interesting times!

The New Economics Institute, in lead-up to the 100th Anniversary of writer and philosopher E.F. Schumacher’s birth on August 16th, sent out excerpts from a 2008 essay about Schumacher’s relevance today:

“The Relevance of E. F. Schumacher in the 21st Century”

By John Fullerton

Our global economic system is broken not because of the credit crisis; it is broken because it is predicated on perpetual, resource driven growth with no recognition of scale limitations.

What we are not hearing, at least in the mainstream media, is a critical reframing of the questions that address root causes….. We are not hearing a debate about the sustainability of a perpetually growing global economic system nested within our finite biosphere.  We are not hearing a debate about the wisdom of allowing financial power (and systemic risk) to be increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few financial institutions of increasing complexity and scale.  We are not publicly questioning the wisdom of the system we have allowed to evolve in response to capital’s quest for ever increasing financial returns.  Nor are we debating where to look for creative responses.

However, nothing could be more important at this critical time.  What we must grasp is that the financial crisis we are reacting to is but a cyclical side show to the bigger issues we face regarding the sustainability of our economic system.  We should see the present financial crisis as a wake up call to this far greater challenge.  We should search with an open mind for the wisdom we need to transition our economic system onto a sustainable path, grounded in ecological reality, with a respect for human justice and a deep appreciation for all life.

Continued after the jump

From Max Page of PHENOM (Public Higher Education Network of Massachusetts):

The Massachusetts Budget – A Work of Shame

Democrats all – the Speaker, Senate President, and Governor – are patting themselves on the back for passing a budget that had three main features: crushing cuts to virtually every aspect of state government that services regular people, a major attack on public employee unions and their collective bargaining rights, and – best for last – not a dime of “shared sacrifice” from the wealthiest in our state.

Yes, those “crazy liberals” from Massachusetts have for the third year of this recession failed to ask for a single dime of “share sacrifice” – the favorite phrase of the political class who seek to undermine government and its duty to enrich our public life and lift up the neediest in our society – from those who have the most in our society.  The last time the state raised taxes, what did it do?  It raised the wrong tax – the sales tax – the one that is most regressive, affecting the poor more than the wealthy.  And before the budget debate even began this year, those good Democratic leaders decided that no amount of cuts to libraries, schools, parks, services for the mentally ill would be painful enough to get them to violate the sacred commitment to the wealthy – no tax increases.

We have a bill to raise $1.4 billion a year, mainly from the wealthiest in our state. See ourcommunities.org.  Now we just need the movement to get our “representatives” to see the light.

-Max Page

P.S. Public higher education was cut by $60 million, and financial aid by another $2 million.  The catalogue of shame is detailed at our reliable friend, the Massachusetts Budget and Policy Center.