News from Washington County

We had an interesting political development in the southern part of Washington County, New York. The incumbent major-party candidate for Highway Superintendent was defeated by a man running on a minor-party line that he created. And the incumbent Town Supervisor, also running as a major-party candidate, was almost defeated – and may have been defeated when the absentee ballots are counted – by a woman running on a minor-party line that she created.

When you couple this with “Occupy Wall Street” and “Occupy …” all the other places where demonstrators have set up tent cities, you realize that change is in the air. How will this affect you? How will it affect your neighbors?

Next week I’ll be driving down to the New York City area. If Occupy Wall Street is still demonstrating I intend to talk with people there. I hope that they realize that when the demonstrating is done, they need to go back to their communities and do what the two candidates in Easton did – create a case for their cause that will hold up at the ballot box. To do this, they will need real understanding of the problems facing the country – not the simple slogans of a protest march. They will also need to be able to articulate that understanding and to listen to those who disagree with them.

Real change is coming. A major part of current and future economic problems is not the greed of Wall Street executives, but the fact the the fossil fuel on which our society depends is running out. It’s cost will keep going up, and this will limit economic growth. In other words, economic growth cannot continue to infinity. Those who understand this have the ability to produce real change.