Activism

About twenty five years ago I went to see a showing of the Holocaust film, Shoah. For those who aren’t familiar, this is a ten hour documentary, normally shown in two parts consecutively, with a small meal break. The film is notably devastating in effect for its lack of gore, absent of explicit rendering of atrocity. All that unfolds hits the viewer as reverberation. The mind, and heart can and must fill in the blanks. What’s shown is verbatim testimony of the everyday execution of the tasks set before the hard working members of the newly ascendant Nazi party. Schedules, Daily Rounds, Routines of Construction and Mainenence. 

I became a student of this subject early in my adult life, and have filled too many hours with contemplation of this grave facet of history.  On one side of my lineage, all but my great-grandfather were exterminated in Poland. Those relatives never reached the camps, they were shot in front of their house, as far we know. Hard to believe that may be considered a lucky break of sorts, but so it goes.  What I’m going to relate now, in the light of this is so trivial, so minuscule, so remote as to almost be ridiculous. But for some reason it sticks in my mind as we see the daily unfolding of our incoming regime change.

Brattleboro, Vermont – On the morning of Friday November 4th, Project Feed the Thousands Campaign will kick off its 22nd annual food drive. The launch will take place at Brattleboro’s Price Chopper Supermarket on Canal Street, in the morning with a live broadcast hosted by longtime media supporter, WTSA 96.7 FM followed up by and afternoon launch at Brattleboro Food Cooperative in downtown Brattleboro, hosted by another generous media supporter, WYRY 104.9 FM.

“The community goal this year is to raise $90,000 in cash, as well as to collect enough provisions for 200,000 meals.” Reports Jeff Morse, Project Co-Chair and President of River Valley Credit Union. Various businesses and individuals, in conjunction with Project Feed the Thousands, will be accepting non-perishable food, personal care items and cash donations. All campaign contributions will then be distributed to many area food shelves to help thousands of people who struggle with hunger throughout southeastern Vermont and southwestern New Hampshire.

Come join us for our 3rd year of making a difference on Sunday afternoon, November 6th, from 1:00-3:00 pm, to craft items for the homeless population in the area. Using traditional crafts, we will make hats, scarves, blankets and sleeping mats from yarn and fleece fabric. Our group will meet the first Sunday of the month after this session.

Some people come to learn to knit or crochet, others arrive with projects already underway. Some are members of BAJC; some are not. All are welcome! We donate our projects to Groundworks Collaborative. 

If you get your news from television you’re probably not familiar with what has been going on in North Dakota and which is of great importance in these days of corporate trickery. The mainstream news wants to keep you ignorant. They’ll report on things but only when they cannot avoid it. Amy Goodman of Democracy Now was arrested and this brought attention to what is going on.

BRATTLEBORO – Groundworks Collaborative will be coordinating this year’s Seasonal Overflow Shelter (SOS) in downtown Brattleboro at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main Street. The shelter – open each winter from early-November through the end of April – provides a safe and warm place to stay for individuals experiencing homelessness during the winter season. Dinner is provided on a nightly basis.

The Shelter will open for the season on Tuesday, November 1st and will remain open through the end of April.

BRATTLEBORO – Groundworks Collaborative will be coordinating this year’s Seasonal Overflow Shelter (SOS) in downtown Brattleboro at the First Baptist Church, 190 Main Street. The shelter – open each winter from early-November through the end of April – provides a safe and warm place to stay for individuals experiencing homelessness during the winter season. Dinner is provided on a nightly basis.

Groundworks is committed to providing the Overflow Shelter every winter, and is currently entering into the tenth season, however this will be the last year located at the First Baptist Church. According to Groundworks Collaborative’s Executive Director Josh Davis, the organization has “struggled for the past two years with finding a permanent home for the shelter within the downtown footprint, particularly after deciding this past summer not to pursue a project planned for 39 Frost Street.”

Come join us for our 3rd year of making a difference on Sunday afternoon, October 9th, from 1:00-3:00 pm, to craft items for the homeless population in the area. Using traditional crafts, we will make hats, scarves, blankets and sleeping mats from yarn and fleece fabric. Our group will meet the first Sunday of the month after this session.

Some people come to learn to knit or crochet, others arrive with projects already underway. Some are members of BAJC; someare not. All are welcome! We donate our projects to Groundworks Collaborative. 

As many folks may know, or not know due to the ridiculous media blackout, there are hundreds of Indigenous tribes gathering in North Dakota to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline.

Hau we are the Inyan wakankagapi otip-Sacred Stone Camp from the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. We have partnership with the Oectc Sakowin- Seven Council Fires, Indians and Cowboys and anyone who is willing to stand with us against the Dakota Access Pipeline. This pipeline will cross the Missouri River and Cannon Ball River which is the life line to many tribes and non native, when this pipeline leaks it will destroy the water and land. Water is life ! So this pipeline is along the Missouri River and the KL pipeline was along the Ogall aquifer; both are important to save.

Our Revolution is being touted by progressives as the “future of our political movement” and features participation by our own revolutionary sweetheart, Bernie Sanders.  Bernie himself will be speaking at a kickoff forum tonight in Burlington, VT.  This seemed noteworthy, so I decided to stop into the OurRevolution.com web site to see what it was all about.  My first surprise was that it was a dot.com.  I had been expecting a dot.org.  But there you are, everything  is commercial these days, even “our revolution.” (Fine print reveals that “Our Revolution will operate as a 501(c)(4) non-profit organization.”)

Let’s say Trump is elected and his first meeting with Kim Jong-un goes terribly wrong. The belligerence on both sides reach unprecedented levels. The kid, feeling threatened, decides to lob an ICBM over the polar icecap towards Manhattan, but misses. Instead, it accidentally explodes over downtown Brattleboro during the school year just after lunch recess. In March 2013, the boastful “Supreme Leader” threatened the United States with a preemptive nuclear attack. He is known to have tested a 10 kiloton nuclear weapon to “reliably defend the sovereignty and the dignity of the nation.”

If you’re a student anywhere within the full five-mile radius of a 10 kiloton air burst, you probably won’t be needing your school books anymore.

Green Mountain Crossroads is organizing a vigil this (Monday) evening at 7PM at The Root Social Justice Center for LGBTQ-identified people who want to come together to grieve, share, support each other, and be together.

We will have peer listeners on hand for folks needing/wanting one-on-one support. We will also have some light food and candles.

More info here: https://www.facebook.com/events/591797724323154/ and here: facebook.com/greenmountaincrossroads

Contact Green Mountain Crossroads (info@greenmountaincrossroads.org) for more info or with questions. Let’s hold each other up today.

“If you’re not aware of your location in relation to the indigenous people’s liberation struggles of whose lands you’re on, then any liberation that you’re fighting for is still gonna be colonization.” – Klee Benally, Navajo artist and activist of Big Mountain, Black Mesa, AZ

The Root is working to gain a deeper understanding of what this means so that we can be in solidarity with indigenous liberation. We live, work, and organize on colonized land. The history of the Native people in the Connecticut River Valley has been intentionally and violently replaced. What we have learned about the place where we live is from a colonizer perspective. To decolonize our minds and our spaces it is crucial to un-learn the history of this river valley, so that we can better understand the Indigenous narrative.

In the light of our electoral horror-show, one question screams out to me loudest, will we ‘dodge the bullet’? My concern comes mainly by way of the candidate who incites hate, separation, anti-intellectualism, a repudiation of altruism..in short… standing for everything anathema to humanist values.  His constituents seems to revel in exercising base expression of privilege, xenophobia and opportunism.  His ultimate opponent in the race, whomever that comes to be, while clearly more sympathetic to so-called liberal values, also chills me, but seems less potentially catastrophic due to perpetuating the familiar.

For Sanders supporters feeling frustrated about media coverage of the Presidential campaign, please know that you can continue to support the cause from the comfort of your home any time you have even a small amount of time using the campaign’s sophisticated phone banking software.  All you need is a phone, a computer, and some time!  20-minute trainings happen online 2-3 times per day as needed.

Disobedience is a new film about a new phase of the climate movement: courageous action that is being taken on the front lines of the climate crisis on every continent, led by regular people fed up with the power and pollution of the fossil fuel industry.

With Naomi Klein, Bill McKibben and many others

BRATTLEBORO — The AIDS Project of Southern Vermont is inviting the public to help raise money and awareness May 14 at its 29th annual Walk for Life.

The event, set for 10 a.m. to noon at the River Garden on Main Street, will spotlight community efforts not only to support local people living with HIV/AIDS but also to reduce the risk of transmission to others.

The Walk for Life will feature speakers, songs by the student cast of the recent Brattleboro Union High School musical “Rent,” a brief period of remembrance and a light lunch.

Crafting for the Homeless- come make a difference!

Come join us on Sunday afternoon, May 1st, from 1:00-3:00 pm, to craft items for the homeless population in the area. Using traditional crafts, we will make hats, scarves, blankets and sleeping mats from yarn and fleece fabric.

Crafting for the Homeless is completing its second year of meeting on the first Sunday of the month at Brattleboro Area Jewish Community, Congregation Shir Heharim. This will be our last session until next fall.

Some people come to learn to knit or crochet, others arrive with projects already underway. Some are members of BAJC; some are not. All are welcome! We donate our projects to Groundworks Collaborative. 

Dear ibratt readers, here’s something fun to get into – an opportunity to ask a question to Congressman David Jolly (R-FL) and Congressman Alan Grayson (D-FL) about the issues that are most important to you. You can watch the Florida Open Debate for U.S. Senate on Monday, April 25, at 7:00 pm EDT. All questions will be chosen from among those that receive the most votes online.

Local band Groove Prophet takes to the bandstand to benefit Groundworks Collaborative 

BRATTLEBORO – Groundworks Collaborative presents the fourth annual Camp for a Common Cause, Friday, May 20 on the Brattleboro Common. 

For the past three years this event has been a joint fundraiser for Morningside Shelter and the Brattleboro Area Drop In Center; however the two organizations merged last June creating Groundworks Collaborative.  The family-friendly one-night campout continues to successfully raise awareness around homelessness in the greater Brattleboro area.   

What follows is a tiny but representative section from my website. All the statements here are either self evident and well established facts or they are borne from several thousand source articles or videos which have often been produced by mainstream media or other news outlets.

Do I draw conclusions from all these references? Do I feel that these references provide overwhelming evidence of a pattern? Do I feel these articles support the positions I and millions like me take? Absolutely.