The "Rebel with a Cause!" program shown on Nickelodeon ("Nick") Sunday evening was really great! Brattleboro got to shine again in a national forum as an enlightened community and place of action to make the world a better place.
Linda Ellerbee is one of the best journalists in this country. I remember her from news programs in the 1980s and have always been a fan of her work. I haven’t seen this Nick News program before and was very impressed with it. This program salutes the intersections of teen empowerment and thoughtful activism and notes the triumphs and difficulties with honesty, but really celebrates the youths who stand up to be counted and do real work to draw attention to important issues.
The Brattleboro CLEA segment was the first story in the program and in the various clips you see dozens of familiar faces in the audience at one meeting as well as a familiar dismissive scowl from at least one school board member. Residents stood up to be counted as supporters and we see the school board voting. The school board meeting footage was shot by BCTV and this reinforces the importance of community broadcasting and the involvement of community members who make it happen, or don't.
All of the segments were great. The others included a teen in CA protesting the treatment of prisoners being mistreated and denied legal rights in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib as well as the stripping of our Constitutional rights, a Chicago group calling attention to how animals are treated in circuses, young woman in Alabama who has a website and over 60 videos calling for the end of violence in the Middle East and U.S. instigation in our foreign policy.
Very cool to see Brattleboro’s courageous teens making the national news and for this very worthwhile cause. The editing and music make this program really exciting and I think is it the kind of thing we should see more of on BCTV hopefully with the participation if not the leadership of local youth.