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<div>Dear Virginia Greens,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div>As I prepare to step down from my role as GPVA co-chair I
would like to take a few minutes to thank all of the members
of the party for the many ways they have supported me during
the last four years. This has been one of the most rewarding
and most educational experiences of my many years of
adventuring. I wish especially to thank Audrey Clement and
Tamar Yager, the co-chairs who served with me; Audrey during
my first year was an indispenable resource, as I came to the
job with virtually no idea of what it entailed and relied on
her guidance almost constantly; Tamar in the last three
years has been a font both of wisdom and of encouragement,
one that I could scarcely have survived without.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I would also like to take this opportunity to reflect on
what has been achieved and on what challenges lie ahead. It
has been especially gratifying to see the state party grow
during the last four years, from six active locals in
January 2014 to eleven now. We have run many state and local
candidates, elected a school board member in Appomattox, put
our presidential candidate on the ballot, updated our
bylaws, offices, and procedures, and welcomed many new
members ready to take up positions of leadership.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It hasn't all been wine and roses. As you know, two of
our newest locals left us after the election, taking with
them people we will greatly miss. And as always happens
during the quadrennial political cycle, many of the people
who were inspired to build the party—when the presidential
election made politics seem exciting—found when the election
was over that their interest waned and their energy
dissipated. It did not help that a concerted effort has been
sustained since the election to scapegoat the Green Party
and its people for the rise of the great bug-bear, Trump.
The vote-shaming this time around was vicious, and
well-organized by the so-called liberal media. I and other
can attest that Greens paid a genuine social price for their
commitment to fighting the duopoly.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It has been perhaps most painful to watch the incessant,
almost reflexive tendency of Greens to turn their fire upon
one-another. The national party in particular has been riven
by open warfare among factions who have placed their own
vision and ambitions ahead of the unity and mission of the
Green Party. Here in Virginia too we have seen the circular
firing-squad formation all too often. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>It is not just disappointing to see would-be comrades
fall apart when they ought to be holding each other up—it is
simply intolerable given the situation we are in. People in
a burning building don't have the luxury of disputatious
behavior. I beg every member of GPVA to step back and review
with me the trajectory we are on:</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>AGRICULTURAL COLLAPSE: The so-called Green Revolution
that doubled food production to match the doubling of human
population in my lifetime was built on resources now
dwindling, resources that cannot be readily renewed or
replaced: soil, aquifers, and oil. Corporate agriculture has
literally killed our food system, and without a rapid shift
to regenerative agriculture the entire globe will soon
re-enact Syria's drought-and-famine-induced social upheaval
and civil war.[1][2]</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>ECOSYSTEM COLLAPSE: The planet has lost roughly half of
its animals, large and small, and the numbers are declining
at an exponentially increasing rate. In
agriculturally-developed parts of the world the insect
population has declined by 80%. The oceans are poisoned,
acidifying, warming, saturated with plastic; ocean life is
dying. Deadzones have quadrupled in size.[3] Marine life,
halved.[4] Phytoplankton, the foundation of the ocean
food-web and source of half the world's breathable oxygen,
has declined by 40% since 1950.[5] </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>GLOBAL WAR: Not just U.S. but world spending on war has
increased every year for the last 25 years.[6] A
destabilizing world is awash in weapons, including nuclear
weapons. The U.S. global military operation has steadily
expanded to every continent, in dozens of countries, from a
thousand overseas bases.[7] War has cost our country
$trillions since the turn of the century, bankrupting the
real economy.[8] Under both duopoly parties the U.S. has
pursued confrontation and intervention rather than
peace-making, to the point we now find ourselves once more
on the precipice of global nuclear annihilation and an
east-west cold-war.[9]</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>CLIMATE DISRUPTION: The above crises threaten destruction
_before_ climate change is factored in, and that is only
just beginning. It is now clear the worst-case projections
of just a few years ago were too optimistic; we are all but
certain to see a 4C rise in this century—that is the new
"optimistic" scenario; it could be much worse.[10] A rise of
4C is by itself sufficient to cause mass extinction and
global eco-system collapse.[11] </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>FAILED DEMOCRACY: The United States is a democracy in
name only, for only the wealthiest citizens have any
meaningful influence on government.[12] Citizens are
presented with elections, especially for president, as
meaningless as in any banana republic; essentially the same
domestic and foreign policy is continued regardless of the
"party" nominally in power.[13][14] For this reason and
because it is effectively discouraged, most people don't
vote.[15] Those that do are generally misinformed about the
policies of the people for whom they vote. This is
deliberate.[16] The inevitable consequence of
disenfranchisement of the electorate is their general loss
of faith in—and commitment to—our democratic institutions.
When democracy fails and crises compound, people welcome
authoritarianism, and we are seeing an unprecedented rise of
authoritarian political movements on both the right and the
left, leading to the inexorable erosion of our civil rights
and the undermining of our Constitution.[17][18]</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>DESPERATE AMERICANS: The oligarchs who are running the
country have not just disenfranchised but dispossessed most
Americans. Half are now in poverty or in the "precariat,"
lacking material security and predicability, one paycheck
away from desperation.[19] Wall Street hums along while most
Americans remain stuck in the Great Recession that began in
2008, financial security out of reach, their future
increasingly without hope of improvement. Unable to have any
meaningful control over their lives or to escape relentless
anxiety, Americans are susceptible to addiction, alcoholism,
racism and bigotry, and ideological extremism. The suicide
rate has exploded, especially among the middle-aged.[20] The
loss of social cohesion is a grave threat to our collective
future.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>IN SHORT: We live in a time of general institutional,
social, and ecological collapse, under circumstances that
call into question the prospects for the continuation of any
decent human existence. The situation is dire.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>WHY BE A GREEN? </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Anyone who understands and can face the reality of our
situation has only two choices. One, a rational one, is to
make for oneself the best of a bad situation, securing the
best personal circumstances one can to await the end—in
effect, to become a survivalist, working on one's own
bunker. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The other choice is to commit to the possibility of a
decent future for the whole human community, and to work as
one can with others to make that future possible and real.
But the work to be done is of a particular kind: it is
political work. Moreover, under the circumstances it must be
radical political work.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>This is not news to people. All around us people are
founding organizations and formulating initiatives to fix
what they know is broken. Formerly middle-class whites
become Tea Partiers or worse because they know they have
been robbed by—someone; they aren't terribly clear about who
and are easily deceived about it, but they are not alone in
that respect. Millenials too understand that they have been
robbed, and they are infusing socialist, anti-fascist, and
other movements with an urgent energy. Libertarians have a
clear vision of the machinery of totalitarian governmental
authority that has been building for a generation, while
Whigs and others focus on the deep and abiding corruption
that passes for business-as-usual with our elected
officials.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Some of these groups are, like the Green Party, committed
to our Constitution and our democratic institutions, and
some are not. This is a real dividing line. But what is most
important, what is indeed unique about the Green Party is
that it is founded, like our Constitutional system, not on
this or that program, policy, or "ism," but on an integrated
philosophy and vision of good self-government, one capable
of encompassing the full spectrum of challenges we face. The
Four Pillars of Grassroots Democracy, Social Justice,
Non-Violence, and Ecological Wisdom are the roots from which
the solutions we must have can actually grow.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Most people see the same problems, but not the same
solutions. This is as true inside the Green Party as outside
it. If hope for the future rests on everyone agreeing
beforehand to the same solutions, then hope is lost. We
cannot rationally suppose that socialists and libertarians,
vegans and ethical omnivores, urbanites and farmers,
business people and artists, atheists and religious, will
somehow find the magic formula that fits every vision so
well that there is nothing left to fall out over. Never
going to happen. Nor should it.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>We must recognize that ideological diversity is also a
value—a strength—and that the future belongs to those who
can come together around an _institutional_ commitment to
core values. The future belongs to those who can muster the
strength of character to place their losses alongside their
victories on the same shelf, as trophies of a career spent
fighting the good fight. The future belongs to those who
carry the petitions on the street-corners, who write and
answer the emails, who schlepp to meetings and cast a
thoughtful vote. The future belongs to those who argue their
case with passion, but who, after the vote is taken, set
their passion aside and link arms in comradeship and
equality.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The future belongs to those who commit to their
humanity—and to everyone else's. I am a Green because I like
to look in the mirror occasionally, without being ashamed of
what I see. It doesn't then matter whether, on that day, I
have won or lost.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Although the Green movement is global, and we are
affiliated with the Green Party of the United States, our
work is near at hand, in Virginia, and in our locals. At our
summit in August we affirmed that our focus should be on
building our locals as robust organizations in their own
right, and I believe this is the most important work we can
do. When a Fredericksburg or a Blacksburg or a Richmond or a
Virginia Beach begin to see Greens among their elected
officials, among their fellow citizens at local government
meetings, and to hear what Greens have to say and how they
view the future for their communities, then we will begin to
achieve the future we seek. From that foundation we will
assert meaningful influence on the state and on the nation.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>The strength of the GPUS is in its constituent state
parties and caucuses, the strength of the state party is in
its locals, and the strength of the local is in its people.
My take on the troubles that have riven the national party
and, to a much lesser extent, caused turmoil in our state
party, is that they result from a failure to remember this
principle. It is precisely the Pillar of Grassroots
Democracy. When people are in positions of leadership at the
state or national level for very long, they inevitably tend
to embody the institution in themselves. It is from this
vantage that some begin to feel entitled to maintain a
disputatious posture, and before long the poison of discord
and factionalism begins to spread.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>For this reason, my primary focus as co-chair has been,
first, to reform our party to its original shape, as a
federation of locals, with each local having an equal voice
in the state organization. The locals cannot thrive when the
state party becomes the province of a handful of strong
personalities perennially running the show. Second, I have
sought to support and elevate new voices in the party, so
that our cadre of leaders and committed contributors is as
large and diverse as possible.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I anticipate that at our meeting in two weeks we will
elect outstanding new people to key positions both in our
state offices and as delegates to our national party.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I'm not going anywhere, mind you. I'll be working in
Lynchburg on our own local, and as well lending my
experience and knowledge to the running of the state and
national parties. But in the future I envision for the Green
Party of Virginia, I am a bit player at most.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>And so I want to end with thanking most of all every new
member of our party, and to say that in you our real hope
now rests. Us oldsters will be marching right alongside you,
but the reins are in your hands now. May the wind be at your
back.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sincerely,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Sid</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>************</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>NOTES</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>1. <a
href="http://www.dailyimpact.net/2013/02/08/usda-foresees-collapse-of-agriculture/"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.dailyimpact.net/2013/02/08/usda-foresees-collapse-of-agriculture/</a></div>
<div>2. <a
href="http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/society-will-collapse-by-2040-due-to-catastrophic-food-shortages-says-study-10336406.html"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.independent.co.uk/environment/climate-change/society-will-collapse-by-2040-due-to-catastrophic-food-shortages-says-study-10336406.html</a></div>
<div>3. <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jan/04/oceans-suffocating-dead-zones-oxygen-starved</a></div>
<div>4. <a
href="https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/crisis-global-oceans-populations-marine-species-halve-size-1970"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.wwf.org.uk/updates/crisis-global-oceans-populations-marine-species-halve-size-1970</a></div>
<div>5. <a
href="http://www.dw.com/en/plankton-decline-hits-marine-food-chain/a-19162596"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.dw.com/en/plankton-decline-hits-marine-food-chain/a-19162596</a></div>
<div>6. <a
href="http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.globalissues.org/article/75/world-military-spending</a></div>
<div>7. <a
href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_military_deployments</a></div>
<div>8. <a
href="http://thehill.com/policy/defense/359501-overseas-wars-have-cost-us-43-trillion-since-2001-report"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://thehill.com/policy/defense/359501-overseas-wars-have-cost-us-43-trillion-since-2001-report</a></div>
<div>9. <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/the-new-cold-war-is-already-more-dangerous-than-was-its-predecessor/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.thenation.com/article/the-new-cold-war-is-already-more-dangerous-than-was-its-predecessor/</a></div>
<div>10 <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24672"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.nature.com/articles/nature24672</a></div>
<div>11. <a
href="http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/11/18/Climate-change-report-warns-dramatically-warmer-world-this-century"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2012/11/18/Climate-change-report-warns-dramatically-warmer-world-this-century</a></div>
<div>12. <a href="https://act.represent.us/sign/the-problem"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://act.represent.us/sign/the-problem</a></div>
<div>13. <a
href="https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trump-isnt-another-hitler-he-s-another-obama-51ea7db498b4"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trump-isnt-another-hitler-he-s-another-obama-51ea7db498b4</a></div>
<div>14. <a
href="http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/352929-trump-and-obama-have-plenty-in-common-on-american-foreign-policy"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/352929-trump-and-obama-have-plenty-in-common-on-american-foreign-policy</a></div>
<div>15. <a
href="http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/15/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/15/u-s-voter-turnout-trails-most-developed-countries/</a></div>
<div>16. <a
href="https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-supporters-appear-to-be-misinformed-not-uninformed/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-supporters-appear-to-be-misinformed-not-uninformed/</a></div>
<div>17. <a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/john-weeks/rising-authoritarian-wave"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.opendemocracy.net/can-europe-make-it/john-weeks/rising-authoritarian-wave</a></div>
<div>18. <a
href="http://www.occupy.com/article/letter-american-left-antifa-not-your-friend"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.occupy.com/article/letter-american-left-antifa-not-your-friend</a></div>
<div>19. <a
href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/80-percent-of-us-adults-face-near-poverty-unemployment-survey-finds/"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://www.cbsnews.com/news/80-percent-of-us-adults-face-near-poverty-unemployment-survey-finds/</a></div>
<div>20. <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36116166"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-36116166</a></div>
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<div><br>
</div>
<div>
<div class="gmail-m_1636042889874374719gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">********************
<div>B. Sidney Smith</div>
<div>GPVA, Co-chair</div>
</div>
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