As I put each part of the political year behind me, I more fully learn a basic lesson: Politics, if performed properly, can be a valuable community-building exercise. When I came to Maine I was already a political activist, but from the outside. I was in the national leadership of The Greens and saw the two major parties as impenetrable obstacles to citizen-based politics. On top of that, I was in a role talking at rather than with the general public — convincing them of what was "right" — a role I was never comfortable with. But here in Maine, I have reaffirmed what our Founding Fathers knew, the power of real grassroots politics. Community is at the core of it. My first encounter with community and politics working together was the infamous New England town meeting. Here people sort out their differences and come up with the way they will run their town for the next year. There is an overriding sense of responsibility for one's town, and of a need to sort things out and move on. Next came the caucuses. As some of you may know, the latest State Democratic Convention voted, in a fit of anti-status quo sentiment, to put aside some of the caucus system, but that is an error I'm sure they will correct in two years. The caucus system is one of the last vestiges, along with the town meeting, of institutionalized grassroots democracy. The members of the community get together over coffee …

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