Native people and their friends find it a cruel irony that colonizers celebrate gratitude on a day connected with their displacement from their homelands. I've heard them wondering how a group so determined to depopulate, deforest, and pollute could be said to be thankful in any meaningful sense of the word. How is it possible to be thankful for attempted genocide?
I'm grateful that Native people are still here, and that I've had the opportunity to hear their teachings about how to live respectfully on this planet. May we all heed their wisdom before it's too late.
If you read my blog from time to time, I'm thankful for you. You care about the war against the poor at home and abroad and likely take action to end those wars and bring justice to bear. Thank you.
If you were one of the 40,000+ people who voted for me to represent Maine in the US Senate, I'm thankful for you. You voted for a candidate independent of corporate influence, with Green values and a Green platform aimed at honoring and upholding life over profits. Thank you.
If you were one of the 1,400+ people in one of 47 states who donated to our campaign, I'm thankful for you. You expressed your confidence in our campaign's goals with resources you had, whether it was $1 or several thousand. Thank you!
If you were one of the 200+ people who volunteered on our campaign, I'm thankful for you. Without your skills and your belief that we can make a difference in our world we would not have been able to do much of what we accomplished. Hundreds of thousands of people heard our message of the need for government on behalf of people, planet, and peace because of your efforts. Thank you!
If you were one of the 20+ paid staffers on the Lisa for Maine campaign, I'm grateful to you. You gave far more of your time and your compassionate wisdom than we were able to pay you for, and you often brought your friends and associates along, too. We would never have earned 5% of the vote in Maine without your diligence and focus. Thank you!
If you are a member of my family, I'm grateful for your support, encouragement, donations (especially the in-kind donations of your expert work) and love. I couldn't have put in 14 months of concerted effort without the foundation of your love and confidence. When you said you were proud of me, that meant more than any accolade from the public. Thank you!
In this period of rest and reflection on my personal goals, my gratitude abounds. Thanks to everyone who went on working for a better world before, during, and after our grassroots campaign. Thanks to everyone who has sent me messages of appreciation for the role I played. You know for sure that I will keep on keeping on though the path is yet undetermined.
Finally, if you're a health care worker putting your life on the line constantly to keep the rest of us safe, I'm grateful for you. I'll do everything I can to stay out of your hospital so those who need medical care can receive it, and those who give medical care can stave off total exhaustion. I'm with Banksy, you all are superheros (even if you don't wear capes like they do in England).
Analysis using data from OpenSecrets by volunteer Brennan Barrington who commented, "As extreme as the difference looks, it's actually an understatement of the cost for the major party candidates, given how much was spent by outside groups not affiliated with the campaigns themselves."
This morning it does look like the US will have a new president. The clown president the corporate media elected last time turned out to have too many liabilities in a public health crisis (now beginning its second peak and already worse than the first peak here in Maine).
He did what he was hired to do, though, which was entertain and distract the masses from ongoing plunder by their corporate overlords. The new guy has always been a willing helper for the plunder project, but will surely be far less entertaining. Also, the new guy is elderly with occasional signs of dementia. His vice president, the first woman in that role, is widely presumed to be both an Obama-like figure -- an attractive, articulate, bi-racial presence that offers her liberal white supporters that coveted "get out of racism free" card without giving up an ounce of their white comfort and privilege -- and a VP most likely to succeed to the White House.
Will stochastic violence continue to be urged from the White House? Probably not.
Will the Black Lives Matter movement that arose during the tenure of our first Black president continue to take to the streets demanding an end to police murder of Black men, women, and children? No doubt.
Hamdia Ahmed of Black Lives Matter Portland delivers my closing statement in 4th debate
I take comfort in the fact that the Black thinkers I read and listen to mostly agreed on yearning for an end to the encouragement and empowerment of overt white supremacy by the demagogue with bad hair. I'm not in a position to deny their assertion that they and their loved ones will be a little safer going about their daily business. I also understand that institutional racism is pervasive and dangerous, and damaging to everyone's children.
While all eyes were fixed on the counting of absentee ballot received late through deliberate malfeasance on the part of senior management at the US Postal Service, our own Maine senate race concluded counting the 40,012 votes I earned running as a senator for people, planet, and peace. When all monies raised are finally reported to the FEC the chart above can be updated, but the final version is likely to show similar metrics in terms of cost per vote.
The incumbent advantage, i.e. who brings home the warship contract bacon, helped Senator Susan Collins squeak by with a majority in the first round of counting. Many of us were disappointed that ranked choice voting instant runoff rounds did not ensue, but the weak performance of the Democrat meant that even if all voters for me and the other independent Max Linn had gone to Sara Gideon -- a highly unlikely scenario -- Collins still would have beaten her.
Lotta people on this here web site saying the polls whiffed on Collins-Gideon (and I admit I did not see a Collins majority coming), but I think it's more a problem of bad poll reading than bad poll doing. [thread]
The GOP did a good job of turning out Trump voters in Maine and while voters were there they appeared to flip from undecided (a choice which polled between 6-9% consistently) to voting for Collins, likely not for the first time.
US Senate Candidate Lisa Savage Caught Red-Handed Having Popular Positions: A bombshell secret recording from Project Veritas revealed that "ultra-progressive" Savage supports positions that are popular among those living & voting in the US.#RankLisaFirsthttps://t.co/S0artDI3Rj
Whether the Project Veritas video interviewing me secretly about my 2nd amendment policies resulted in more turnout for Trump or even Collins is unknown; it was late in the game, and there's really no way of knowing if the death threats in the comments section came from actual Maine voters or, more likely, from paid trolls in other locations.
As we knew it would, our work continues. The movement to elect a senator for the people attracted scores of true believers, and getting to know them and their wise hearts was the best part of this arduous experience. Many of the elders in my base I had known and organized with for years, pushing back against the mammoth military funding that makes it so we can't have nice things we need like universal health care. Many of the younger folks came to our campaign from others like climate action, and electoral campaigns for progressive candidates the Democratic Party was never going to nominate.
Link to video on YouTube if embed doesn't work for you.
Their creativity and youthful enthusiasm were just what we needed as we approached the finish line!
I am and have long been an information worker, believing as I do that information control is the foundation of this rotten system that's killing life on our planet. I agreed to run for elected office because I hoped it would elevate some truth as corporate media would be obliged to convey what I said.
The four senate debates particularly fulfilled that hope, and even the fifth debate that the Hearst Corporation kept me out of provided a platform with 8,600 views of the video documenting my attempt to be included.
(Sorry, only available on Facebook.)
That night, 33 of us stood in the rain outside ABC-affiliate WMTW in Westbrook trying to deliver a petition with 2,600 or so signatures saying "Let Lisa debate." After laying the petition on the wet ground because the employee designated to turn me away would not accept it, we circled up and shared our appreciation for the effort and for each other. It had been a long campaign trail that was ending in days. I was footsore, very tired, and out past my usual bedtime, but lifted up by the love and gratitude for being "home" among so many wise hearts.
Our work continues. The movement we built deserves a place to thrive and I'm already at work building such a place. Our volunteer celebration next weekend will close out this chapter of my activism as a new chapter begins to unfold.
With my youngest endorser, "Girl on Fire" Fiona and family.
Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Lisa for Maine campaign. Stay tuned!
This week has been a busy one as our campaign continues to use social distancing in creative ways to get the word out. Dud Hendrick, Meredith Bruskin and Bruce Gagnon are seen here bannering in Belfast yesterday where they were also interviewed by a reporter for the local paper, Village Soup. It was the 3rd day in a row bannering as a group that also included Rob Shetterly, Starr Gilmartin, Connie Jenkins, Frank Donnelly, and Russell Wray at various times in Ellsworth and Bangor. Big thanks to all these dedicated volunteers!
Meanwhile, I went down to Bath Iron Works early on Monday and Tuesday morning to support the strike called by 87% of members in Machinists S6, the biggest union at BIW. Mark and I hung a large banner on the side of our van and did drive by support of picket lines at both the north and south gates. I livestreamed on Facebook as Mark slowly drove and workers responded with enthusiasm to support expressed from all over the country in the comments on the livestream (now saved as recorded videos here and here).
To undermine the union, BIW has been bringing in non-union laborers as contractors to avoid paying its Maine workers fairly. BIW kept $45 million in state taxes deducted from workers' paychecks under a law we lobbied against in the Maine legislature. Owner General Dynamics can well afford to give the skilled and trained workers at BIW fair compensation, and we continue to call for conversion to a demilitarized Green New Deal building things we need far more than war ships and that economists say would create thousands of additional jobs (see my op-ed in the Bangor Daily News about that here).
Also, please enjoy our new campaign song "Lisa for Mainers" composed by endorser Tom Neilson and performed by Tom and Lynn Waldron in this video on the LfM YouTube channel.
Our wonderful endorsers are urging support for our campaign within their own networks, including Kathy Kelly at Voices for Creative Nonviolence plus Margaret Flowers, MD who has offered to do a health care educational event with us! I am so grateful for everyone's support. If you haven't signed on as an endorser or asked your networks to consider doing so, you can find the tools to do that here on our website.
Stay tuned for our statement today on the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act before the House of Representatives, which is a good start but does not go nearly far enough. Defunding police to allocate resources known to reduce crime in our communities is a must, as is addressing the need for reparations to the descendants of enslaved Africans. Supporting the demand of Black Lives Matter to dismantle systems of oppression will be a major focus this summer as young people especially have vowed to not give up until their demands are met!
Big props to LfM Volunteer Coordinator Kelly Merrill, also a photojournalist par excellence, who has been covering BLM actions around the state during June.
Social distancing banner held by Charlie Backus & Palma Ryan - Portland May, 2020
Thanks to Bruce Gagnon for his work on gathering a list of supporters for our US Senate campaign!
Dear Friends,
We, the undersigned, are writing to you in support of Lisa Savage’s US Senate campaign in Maine against Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). The November election in Maine for that seat will be a Ranked Choice Voting (RCV) race. There will be no ‘spoiler effect’ this time.
Lisa is running as an Independent Green. In her long-time peace and climate change activism, she has specialized in linking the Pentagon’s carbon footprint and our climate crisis. She founded the Maine Natural Guard to do just that important work. As an educator, Lisa has experience as a public school teacher and former union negotiator.
In Maine, Lisa has also led efforts to convert the Bath Iron Works shipyard away from constructing lethal Naval Destroyers and toward creating sustainable technologies that help us deal with climate crisis. Lisa advocates converting to commuter rail, tidal power and other much needed systems. Studies show that such a transformation would create more jobs for people in Maine. Imagine having a national voice in the U.S. Senate calling for the entire military industrial complex to be converted – unless we do so quickly we will not succeed in dealing with our greatest threat, the threat of what we’re doing to our own environment.
Of course Lisa also strongly supports Medicare4All, erasing student debt, a $15 minimum wage and many other issues that are vital to the survival of working and poor people across the country. She’s lately spoken out against the recent massive bailouts for Wall Street under the guise of virus relief while many people have yet to receive their promised $1,200 check.
Speaking about the recent murder of George Floyd by police in Minnesota, Lisa said, “People are fed up with unaccountable policing that targets Black men, women, and children and deals out injury, death, humiliation, and destruction of lives without meaningful consequences. Hundreds of thousands have rightly taken to the streets in all 50 states, including here throughout Maine. We have seen countless examples of militarized police forces instigating violence as these crowds of frustrated and angry citizens seek to peacefully assemble and express themselves, as is protected in the very first amendment to the U.S. Constitution.”
We hope you will join us in doing what you can to help support Lisa’s important campaign. Rarely do we see such a vital opportunity to impact the national debate as Maine’s Senate race will be one of the most watched in the nation.
You can learn more about Lisa at her web site https://www.lisaformaine.org/. Many of us have donated to her campaign. We hope you will share this letter widely across your community so that others who share our deep concerns may learn more about Lisa. Twitter: @LisaforMaine Facebook: LisaforMaine
We are at a crucial moment in world history. We must work in every possible way to bring these issues to the public. We are grateful for Lisa and her team for their good work on all our behalf.
For people, planet and peace,
(Organizations listed for identification purposes only)
Dawn Neptune Adams (Penobscot activist) Bangor, Maine
Peggy Akers (Nurse practitioner, VFP Maine) Portland, Maine
Nathan Albright (Writer, Maryhouse Catholic Worker) New York, New York
Doug Allen (Professor, peace and justice scholar, and activist) Orono, Maine
Jim Allen (Alabama Veteran for Peace) Lanett, Alabama
Nancy Allen (Activist, Green Party member) Brooksville, Maine
Ashley Bahlkow (Currently nurturing family, working on land access & food justice initiatives and sharing garden space) North Yarmouth, Maine
Ajamu Baraka (National Organizer, Black Alliance for Peace) New York, New York
Ellen Barfield (Phil Berrigan Memorial VFP chapter) Baltimore, Maryland
Medea Benjamin (Author and codirector of CODEPINK) Washington DC
Frida Berrigan (2019 Green Party Mayoral Candidate & author of ‘It Runs In The Family: On Being Raised By Radicals and Growing Into Rebellious Motherhood’) New London, Connecticut
Justin Beth (Green Party of the U.S. Co-Chair, MGIP SC Member, PGIC Co-Chair) Portland, Maine
Toby Blome (Drone resistance organizer) El Cerrito, California
Commander (Ret) Leah Bolger (President World BEYOND War, past president Veterans For Peace) Corvallis, Oregon
Francis A. Boyle (Professor of international law at the University of Illinois, College of Law) Champaign, Illinois
Meredith Bruskin (FNP, Peace & Justice Group of Waldo County) Swanville, Maine
Chris Buchanan (Owner, CBC Carpentry) Searsport, Maine
Dr. Helen Caldicott (Anti-nuclear advocate) New South Wales, Australia
Jonathan Carter (Director, Forest Ecology Network) Lexington Twp, Maine
Ralph Chapman (Retired Applied Physicist & recent member of Maine's Legislature, the only Green Independent party member during his last term) Brooksville, Maine
Barry Dana (Native educator, past chief Penobscot Nation) Solon, Maine
Ellen Davidson (Activist & photojournalist) New York, New York
Joseph de Rivera (Senior Research Scholar, Clark University) Brunswick, Maine
Christine A. DeTroy (PeaceWorks) Brunswick, Maine
Jacqui Deveneau (Chair of the Maine Green Women's Caucus) Portland, Maine
Denise Dreher (Catholic Peace & Justice activist) Biddeford, Maine
Reginald A. Dunton (Grassroots activist) Freeport, Maine
Leonard Eiger (Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action) North Bend, Washington
Pat Elder (Military Poisons Project) St. Mary’s City, Maryland
Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon papers, Senior Fellow PERI, UMass Amherst) Kensington, California
Catherine Erdman (Peace activist) Temple, Maine
Jodie Evans (Co-founder, CodePink) Venice, California
Margaret Flowers (Co-director Popular Resistance) Baltimore, Maryland
Bruce K. Gagnon (Peace & justice activist) Brunswick, Maine
Manuel Garcia, Jr. (Climate blogger & retired physics professor) Berkeley, California
Ann Garrison (Independent Journalist) Oakland, California
Betsy Garrold (Retired Nurse Midwife, former Maine Green Independent Party Co-Chair, President of Food for Maine’s Future, homesteader, lobbyist, Mother) Knox, Maine
Carol Gilbert, OP (ICAN) Washington, DC
Starr C. Gilmartin (Licensed Clinical Social worker) Trenton, Maine
Holly Graham (Singer/songwriter, activist) Olympia, Washington
Chris Hedges (Pulitzer-prize winning journalist and author) Princeton, New Jersey
Susan Hellewell (Artist and retired science teacher) Bingham, Maine
Dud Hendrick (VFP Maine) Deer Isle, Maine
Eric Herter (Filmmaker, VFP Maine) Brunswick, Maine
Matthew Hoh (Marine Corps Iraq war veteran, 100% disabled veteran, Senior Fellow at Center for International Policy) Raleigh, North Carolina
Fred Horch (Green Independent Candidate for Representative to the Legislature) Brunswick, Maine
Tamara Hunt (Family & Child Welfare Advocate, Public Policy USM Graduate Student) Portland, Maine
Connie Jenkins (Catholic peace and justice activist) East Blue Hill, Maine
Ken Jones (Retired USM educator) Swannanoa, North Carolina
Kyle Kajihiro (Board Member, Hawaiʻi Peace and Justice) Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
Tarak Kauff (Editor in Chief of Peace & Planet News) Woodstock, New York
Kathy Kelly (Co-coordinator, Voices for Creative Nonviolence) Chicago, Illinois
Lynn Kelly (Retired physician) Mankato, Minnesota
Ed Kinane (Upstate Drone Action, anti-militarism activist) Syracuse, New York
Thomas Kircher (Interfaith Chaplain) Biddeford, Maine
John Kiriakou (Former CIA Counterterrorism Officer & Former Senior Investigator, US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations) Washington DC
Pat LaMarche (Former Maine gubernatorial candidate & 2004 candidate for V-P) Carlisle, Pennsylvania
Nydia Leaf (Granny Peace Brigade) New York, New York
Debbie Leighton (PeaceWorks) West Bath, Maine
Richard Brown Lethem (Artist, VFP) Brunswick, Maine
Sass Linneken (Community organizer) Bangor, Maine
Stan Lofchie (VFP Maine) Brunswick, Maine
Alfred L. Marder (US Peace Council) New Haven, Connecticut
Betsy Marsano (Working to overthrow the duopoly for over 30 years) Belfast, Maine
Kenneth E. Mayers (Major USMCR ret’d, VFP) Santa Fe, New Mexico
Natasha Mayers (Editor in chief of Maine Arts Journal: UMVA Quarterly, Union of Maine Visual Artists) Whitefield, Maine
Kelly Merrill (Activist, journalist, organizer) Portland, Maine
Karl Meyer (Coordinator Greenlands Catholic Worker community) Nashville, Tennessee
Peter S. Morgan Jr. (VFP Maine) Raymond, Maine
John Morris (Retired teacher, VFP Maine) New Gloucester, Maine
Chris Nelson (Chico Peace Endeavor) Chico, California
Tom Neilson (Singer, songwriter) Greenfield, Massachusetts
K. J. Noh (Scholar, Journalist, Peace Activist) San Francisco, California
Jon Olsen (Former co-chair MGIP) Jefferson, Maine
Koohan Paik-Mander (Coordinator, Just Transition Hawaii Coalition) Hanokaa, Hawaii
Mike Michalski (Former Marine opposed to war) South Portland, Maine
Rosalie Paul (Peaceworks) Brunswick, Maine
Ilze Petersons (Peace & justice organizer and activist) Orono, Maine
Sam Pfeifle (Vice-Chair, MSAD 15 School Board) Gray, Maine
Cecile Pineda (Author) Berkeley, California
Ron Placone (Comedian & YouTube host) Pasadena, California
Ardeth Platte, OP (ICAN) Washington, DC
Doug Rawlings (President of VFP Maine chapter) Chesterville, Maine
John Rensenbrink (Professor of Government Emeritus, Bowdoin College, co-founder Maine Green Independent Party & US Green Party) Topsham, Maine
Richard Rhames (Family farmer, Public access TV activist) Biddeford, Maine
Kim Rich (Water District Trustee) Portland, Maine
Judy Robbins (Let Cuba Live), Sedgwick, Maine
Coleen Rowley (Retired FBI Agent, former Minneapolis Division Legal Counsel and Whistleblower) Apple Valley, Minnesota
Robert Schaible (Chairperson, Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights) Portland, Maine
Gladys Schmitz, SSND (Retired RN and Retired teacher) Mankato, Minnesota
Ginny Schneider (Maine WTR Resource Center) South Portland, Maine
John & Carrie Schuchardt (House of Peace, Ch. 45 Veterans for Peace) Ipswich, Massachusetts
Alice Slater (Board, Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space) New York, New York
Ursula L. Slavick (Deering High teacher, former Portland Teachers’ Association president, Haiti School fundraiser), Portland, Maine
William H. Slavick (Professor, retired Pax Christi Maine coordinator; 2006 Senate candidate; social justice, Palestinian rights activist), Portland, Maine
Gar Smith (Author, editor, and cofounder of Environmentalists Against War) Berkeley, California
Robert Shetterly (Americans Who Tell the Truth) Brooksville, Maine
Dr. Jill Stein (Two-time Green Party presidential candidate) Lexington, Massachusetts
Herschel Sternlieb (Peace activist) Washington DC
Mary Beth Sullivan (Social worker) Brunswick, Maine
David Swanson (Author & peace activist) Charlottesville, Virginia
Pat Taub (Blogger, writer, teacher, peace & justice worker) Portland, Maine
Ann Tiffany (Upstate Drone Action, anti-militarism activist) Syracuse, New York
Dwayne Tomah (Passamoquoddy language keeper) Perry, Maine
Jesse Ventura (Former Independent governor of Minnesota) Dellwood, Minnesota
Karen Wainberg (PeaceWorks) Brunswick, Maine
Morgana Warner-Evans (Workers' rights advocate & mental health professional) Portland, Maine
Janet Weil (Activist, climate & militarism) Portland, Oregon
Steven Welzer (Co-editor, Green Horizon Magazine) East Windsor, New Jersey
Barbara West (Women's International League for Peace & Freedom) Bath, Maine
Tom Whitney (Let Cuba Live) South Paris, Maine
Russell Wray (Citizens Opposing Active Sonar Threats - COAST) Hancock, Maine
Colonel (Ret) Ann Wright (Former US diplomat) Honolulu, Hawaii
Kevin Zeese (Co-director Popular Resistance) Baltimore, Maryland
Violet Rose Zitola (former National Co-Chair, Green Party of the US) Cambridge, Massachusetts
Johnny Zokovitch (Catholic peace and justice activist) St. Louis, Missouri
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Add your name as a supporter of our campaign to elect a senator for people, planet, and peace!
