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Towards a just & healthy democracy in the Commonwealth... and beyond!
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Thu Aug 26, 2010 at 18:03:35 PM EDT
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(Glad to hear folks are pressuring Brown for serious climate action. I hope you also decide to shadow Kerry. His energy bill is a shameful backsliding giveaway to industry, and we must demand better. - promoted by eli_beckerman)
Sporting large, brown 'oily hands,' and carrying signs reading "Fight Climate Change Now," a dedicated group of climate activists spent nearly two hours 'shadowing' US Senator Scott Brown at fundraising events in Boston on Wednesday evening.
Four groups were involved in planning and carrying out the shadow event: 1Sky, 350.org, the Global Warming Education Network, and Paint Brown Green. Supporters of the groups first gathered outside of a fundraiser for MA treasurer candidate Karyn Polito, held at the Liberty Hotel, a former prison in Boston. Among other taunts, three of the activists chanted, "Climate change victims, hear them wail; climate change deniers belong in jail!" Senator Brown was not seen entering or leaving the event.
After 45 minutes of demonstrating outside the first fundraiser, the protesters marched past the offices of both US senators Kerry and Brown on their way to a second fundraiser, held for Brad Marston, republican candidate for US Congress, held at the Kinsale restaurant, on Cambridge Street in Boston. Commenting on Boston's weird recent weather, the activists chanted, "Six weeks of drought, then four inches of rain; how do you like your climate change?"
Then, just as the demonstrators were told that "security had been notified," the impossible happened: Senator Brown approached the restaurant on foot. Seeing her chance, activist Susan Shamel immediately went to the senator's side to voice her request for strong US climate legislation. Shamel and Brown spoke for nearly a minute before the senator waved to the other
activists and disappeared inside.
"He was supportive of my request for legislation, but blamed democrats for not bringing appropriate legislation to the senate for a vote," said Shamel. "He also said that he could not support a tax on energy," she went on. "I told him that revenues collected could be returned to the taxpayers, but he was skeptical of this approach," Shamel said. |
| Dan Shays :: Climate Activists' Senator Brown Shadowing Event Huge Success in Boston |
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Green Mass Group is an online forum for Green thought and collective action in Massachusetts. It is a community forum for justice, sustainability, democracy and health in the Commonwealth and beyond.
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"Now, is this the deal I would have preferred? No. I believe that we could have made the tough choices required - on entitlement reform and tax reform - right now, rather than through a special congressional committee process. But this compromise does make a serious down payment on the deficit reduction we need and gives each party a strong incentive to get a balanced plan done before the end of the year. Most importantly, it will allow us to avoid default and end the crisis that Washington imposed on the rest of America."
--President Barack Obama on the debt ceiling "deal"
"Despite Democratic control over the White House, despite Democratic control over the Senate, despite overwhelming opposition from the American people, a small minority of the members of the Republican-controlled House have successfully pushed an extreme right-wing agenda onto the American political landscape. It is an ideology which believes that despite the fact that the rich are getting richer, the middle class is shrinking, and poverty is increasing, all - all of the burden for deficit reduction should rest on working people."
--Independent Senator Bernie Sanders on the debt ceiling "deal"
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Then and Now
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Then...
"Last year Evergreen, a Massachusetts company, agreed to establish their first-ever United States based manufacturing facility here in Massachusetts. They did so, or are doing so, at Devens. They have now agreed and chosen to triple their size at Devens. Their next phase of expansion, right here in Massachusetts, a signature company in a signature sector, and we congratulate all of the folks at Evergreen and look forward to continuing to work with you...
We made a personal commitment to Evergreen for the sake of Evergreen, but also because we wanted to show that there are ways in which state government, in working together with private industry and with the utility companies, could begin to create a different kind of environment, a different kind of business climate here, to grow that sector, and it is happening. It's happening. Evergreen is one of the most prominent examples, but there are a whole host of examples."
--Governor Deval Patrick, April 7, 2008, boasting about state investment in Evergreen.
and Now...
"Evergreen Solar Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection yesterday, completing a stunning reversal of fortune for a high-flying alternative-energy company that once seemed to herald a new era for the Massachusetts economy... At its peak, Evergreen employed roughly 900 people locally and attracted more than $50 million in state support, as its stock price soared above $100 a share.
Yesterday, Evergreen's stock closed at 18 cents. The company shuttered its manufacturing plant in Devens earlier this year and now has only 85 employees left. Massachusetts is one of its top creditors, owed $1.5 million in rent."
--Erin Ailworth, Boston Globe, August 16, 2011
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