[Membership] Here is where I get off

[Charlene]

Oh, and my numbers:

H 978-838-2340
C 857-540-1183

Charlene

On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 6:13 PM, Charlene <charlene at camelotcohousing.com>
wrote:

> Hi everyone,
>
> I have responded to David privately at this time.
>
> I think we all will be having conversations in the coming weeks/months
> about this election and how to proceed, as well as the effect it is having
> on each of us personally, and our communities.
>
> Grief and discouragement are understandable and even necessary at this
> time. I know I am feeling some of the first, anyway.
>
> I hope we will each do our best to support each other, and want to do my
> best to support each of you as you have supported me. I invite anyone who
> feels the need for a listening ear, to give me a call. I will be happy to
> listen to whatever you have to say, and to be nonjudgmental in doing it. I
> may ask you to do the same for me. :-)
>
> NRGR folks, I look forward to seeing you tomorrow night--yikes, I've got
> to get started on my campaign review!
>
> Charlene
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 10, 2016 at 1:11 PM, <davidspanagel at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>>
>> Dear, Dear Friends, and Compatriots in Green politics,
>>
>>
>> I love the Ten Key Values, and I am committed to continuing my work
>> advancing them to my best ability.  I deeply respect and admire the many
>> activists and thinkers that I have had the privilege to work alongside ever
>> since I joined the party eleven years ago.  I feel good about my
>> substantial involvement in leadership positions of the Green-Rainbow Party
>> for these past five years.  My work on Charlene DiCalogero’s campaign, too,
>> has been deeply rewarding and I am extremely proud of how much she
>> accomplished in her first electoral bid (20% of the vote against an
>> entrenched incumbent State Rep).
>>
>>
>> Nevertheless, the rest of the results of the 2016 national election (on
>> top of the consistent pattern of results in statewide and national
>> elections we have contested so energetically but futilely for the preceding
>> decade), have forced me to reevaluate how I can best live out my deep
>> commitment to the Ten Key Values going forward.
>>
>>    - I think Jill Stein was the best candidate that the GPUS could find
>>    to nominate for President in 2016, but I am also chagrined that she was so
>>    poorly prepared to take on the responsibilities of that position (had she
>>    miraculously won the election).  In terms of “qualification” to serve, I
>>    feel even worse about the winner.  Despite Jill’s valiant efforts, our
>>    party’s noble principles, and that array of easily despicable opponents,
>>    however, not even in the safest of states (Massachusetts) could Jill manage
>>    to attain more than half of the 3% threshold of votes cast that the GRP
>>    needed to retain our status as a party.  I have voted for Jill 7 times (2
>>    presidential primaries and 5 general elections).  Her impact (and ours)
>>    seems paradoxically to decline with each attempt.
>>    - The mirrored experience at a more local level in Danny Factor’s
>>    case (seeing such an outstandingly decent and intelligent man invest so
>>    much of his talent and precious time in a quest that yielded barely over 3%
>>    of the votes in his district) only reinforces my sense that our laudable
>>    aims and our unrealistic tactics are mismatched, given the larger context
>>    of American political structures and all the obstacles that we face as a
>>    third party (one that cannot even sustain its status as such for more than
>>    a couple years at a stretch).
>>
>> These outcomes are so discouraging that I cannot continue participating
>> as a party leader.
>>
>>
>> I was quite convinced that the US would elect Hillary Clinton as its next
>> President, and that our work would proceed in the context of continuing to
>> build a genuinely progressive alternative organization as a spur to
>> counteract the corporate tendencies of the centrist heart of the Democratic
>> Party.  Trump’s success on the heels of a hate-filled campaign that *flaunted
>> its disregard for every one of our Ten Key Values* both mortifies me and
>> calls me to take a different approach.  Rather than focus only on
>> continuing our peripheral struggle to establish a truly progressive party
>> that will hold governing Democrats accountable to many of their own
>> principles (which do overlap some with the Ten key Values), we are faced
>> with a more implacable situation (Republican dominance of all three
>> branches of the Federal government!).
>>
>>
>> I see a fundamental choice looming and I anticipate a painful need to
>> part ways, at least tactically, with our party: when Elizabeth Warren runs
>> for re-election in 2018 I will want to devote my talents to securing her
>> continued representation of our state in the US Senate, and indeed at this
>> moment I see her as the best hope for a principled intelligent progressive
>> candidate to be elected US President on a Bernie Sanders-like platform in
>> 2020.  I cannot in good conscience continue to advise other prospective GRP
>> policies or candidates, knowing that my own intention is become a “Green
>> for Warren” sooner rather than later.  Had Bernie Sanders won the
>> nomination, I’d have made this move months ago.
>>
>>
>> Therefore, to achieve a greater degree of personal flexibility, and to
>> pursue what I perceive to be a stronger likelihood of having any effective
>> impact on the broader spectrum of American, state, and local political
>> issues and discourse, I have decided to relinquish all of my policy-making
>> roles and responsibilities within the Green-Rainbow Party.  Effective
>> immediately, I am resigning from:
>>
>>    - the GRP State Committee (whose January 2017 quarterly meeting in
>>    Worcester I was expected to co-facilitate – steps should be taken
>>    immediately to find another partner to work with Brian Cady on that task);
>>    - from PCWG (the Presidential Campaign Working Group - which is
>>    nearly finished with its appointed duties anyway, except for compiling a
>>    final report to be submitted to the CDLC and AdCom – I will gladly share
>>    any and all documents and knowhow with whomever inherits these various
>>    responsibilities in the lead-up to the 2020 election);
>>    - from CDLC (the Candidate Development Committee - where I have been
>>    serving in 2016 as “Administrative Secretary,” and maintaining some aspects
>>    of the CDLC and Candidates listserves, as well as updating the GPUS
>>    Candidates Database – I will gladly share any and all documents and knowhow
>>    with whomever inherits these various responsibilities); and
>>    - from the MDVR (Membership, Diversity, and Volunteer Recruitment
>>    Committee - which I have not actively participated on since my term as
>>    Membership Director anyway).
>>
>> I would appreciate being removed from all pertinent mailing lists and
>> listserve administrator obligations attaching to any of the above roles,
>> while allowing for some transition time as needed on a case by case basis.
>>
>>
>> I *do* plan to continue as:
>>
>>    - a party member and a registered J voter
>>    - to be a regular financial contributor at the same levels I have
>>    maintained in the past
>>    - to work hard on behalf of local Green candidates in our state who I
>>    feel are running reasonably viable campaigns for local and state
>>    legislative offices in my region
>>    - to continue to serve as “sexton and local host” (providing
>>    logistical support and an important financial discount) for major GRP
>>    events held at the First Unitarian Church of Worcester (such as the May
>>    2017 State Convention – please keep me on the Convention Planning
>>    Committee’s listserve, since that may help any logistical support that I
>>    can continue to provide at the Convention)
>>    - to remain a publicly identifiable “Green” if and when I run for
>>    another municipal public office, and
>>    - to remain an active member of the Nashua River Green-Rainbow
>>    chapter (assuming they will continue to welcome me, assuming they are not
>>    too disappointed at the consequences of my other resignation decisions,
>>    specified above).
>>
>>
>>
>> It gives me no small measure of anguish to know that I am letting some of
>> you down by taking these actions; that I am making your work just a little
>> bit harder in the process.  Please know much I cherish all that we did
>> accomplish together, all that I learned from working with you, and all the
>> valuable relationships I built over the past dozen years through my
>> association with leading members of the Green-Rainbow Party.  I suspect we
>> will work intimately together most of the time going forward, but on those
>> few occasions where I may be tied to a different candidate or approach than
>> the GRP has chosen, I will still be wishing you and the party all the best
>> of luck.
>>
>>
>> Sincerely,
>>
>>
>> David Spanagel
>>
>
>
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