Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

“Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security, and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all.”
Ban Ki-moon (b.1944)
South Korean politician and diplomat who served as the eighth Secretary-General of the United Nations 

     This week's Weekly Email Update is chock-full of ways you can get involved with the fight for justice and progress in Windham County: participate in a raffle to help your LGBTQIA+ community, protest the ICE data facility in Williston, VT, attend a lecture on Isis and the Crisis in Northwestern Syria, attend one of three upcoming film screenings, or help your community sustain access to free food by using your hands to mulch help-yourself gardens. We look forward to your input at an event or community meeting soon!

RAFFLE OPPORTUNITY

Radically Rainbow Queer Quilty Raffle: A Virtual Drawing to Benefit Out in the Open (formerly Green Mountain Crossroads)
Thursday, October 31st, 2019 is the last day to purchase raffle tickets. Tickets can be purchased here: https://secure.givelively.org/donate/out-in-the-open/2019-quilt-raffle and start at $5.
Halloween 2019 is your last day to get raffle tickets for this radically rainbow, subtly snuggly quilt created with love to support our rural LGBTQ community.
Your donation(s) benefit Out in the Open - formerly Green Mountain Crossroads and our rural LGBTQ-centered events (like the Pride Family Picnic, Queer Meditation Group, the Trans Femme Chill Club, and The Out in the Open Summit), media projects (like the Andrew’s Inn Oral History Project and the Out In the Open Radio Hour), community collaborations and more, are all made possible with your support. 
And on top of all of that, one of you will win this fabulous quilt! Immense gratitude to Chelsea Wiehl for making this beautiful, one-of-a-kind quilt, and to all of you who buy tickets, share this link, and invite your friends. Thank you!

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HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20th, 2019

Share the Harvest
hosted by Edible Brattleboro
Sundays through October 27th, 2019 at the Edible Garden at Turning Point (corner of Elm Street and Frost Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 11am-1pm. For information please email [email protected]. Please bring your own bags.
Edible Brattleboro’s "Share the Harvest" stand is open every Sunday from 11am-1pm, in their help-yourself garden at Turning Point, corner of Elm and Frost Street (diagonally across from NYET). All produce is free. 
Thanks to the generosity of local farmers and gardeners, Edible Brattleboro distributed approximately 2500 pounds of free produce last summer. Feel free to drop off produce from your garden during the Sunday hours. You may also visit either of Edible Brattleboro's two public help-yourself gardens to harvest whatever is ready. Simply look for the green flags and instructions on how to harvest. The two public gardens are located at the Co-op (rear parking lot) and Turning Point. Edible Brattleboro is fully volunteer run. If you would like to help out or would like more info, contact Marilyn at [email protected] or visit www.EdibleBrattleboro.org.

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ICE Protest: Close the Camps 
sponsored by Women’s March Vermont & Peace and Justice Center 
Sunday, October 20th, 2019. Gather at Vermont Technical College (201 Lawrence Place, Williston, VT, 05495) and March to the ICE Data Center (188 Harvest Lane, Williston, VT, 05495). 12:30pm-2:00pm.
Act together against those who would give us a future of division and white supremacist hate. Let us unite together people of faith, unions, anti-racist fighters, climate activists, youth activists and other progressives to target Trump’s anti-immigrant, deportation machinery. See the list of demands, signup here to co-sponsor or to volunteer on the Facebook event page here. There will be two stops on the march, one at the ICE offices at Sycamore Street and one at Hannaford.
The march will culminate at the ICE Data Center. The full march is 1.6 miles. People are welcome to join us at any point along the way.

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Putney Huddle: October Huddle with Meg Mott
Sunday, October 20th, 2019 at the Putney Public Library (55 Main Street, Putney, VT, 05346). 1:30pm-3:30pm.
Meg Mott, retired Professor of Politics, Marlboro College and Town Moderator for Putney, Vermont will lead us in a discussion on amending the constitution...
"Although the United States Constitution is a historical document, it was designed to accommodate the lessons learned under a constitutional democracy. Article V lays out the specific steps for amending the original document, a process that is cumbersome but surprisingly broad. As far as the Framers were concerned, only two items were no longer up for debate: the trafficking in enslaved person could not be extended beyond or halted before 1808; the Senate must be always be comprised of two Senators from each state, regardless of the state's population. Beyond those two items, everything else was fair game.
Since the Constitution was signed in September of 1787, there have been twenty-seven amendments. The most recent was ratified on May 7, 1992 even though the original language was presented to the States as part of the proposed Bill of Rights on September 25, 1789. Other Amendments, such as the Equal Rights Amendment, have gotten almost to the finish line before a legislative clock ran out. 
We'll consider the logistics of passing an Amendment and some of the difficulties of governing by constitutional fiat. For instance, the Eighteenth Amendment was a well-intentioned effort to reduce dissolute behavior and crime by prohibiting the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors. Fourteen years later it was repealed by the 21st Amendment. What makes for a good amendment, and what would be better addressed through policy or case law? Feel free to bring a proposed Amendment that you think deserves to be ratified."
There will also be a Local Love Brigade action, Announcements, and Sister District update.

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Staged Reading: It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
performed by Guilford Center Stage
Sunday, October 20th, 2019 at Broad Brook Community Center (3940 Guilford Center Rd, Guilford, VT 05301). 2pm. General Admission by cash or check is $12 at the door. Advanced tickets may be purchased with a credit card by visiting brownpapertickets at: bpt.me/4058965 or by calling 800-838-3006. More about Guilford Center Stage may be found at: facebook.com/GuilfordCenterStage. Although the entrance to the first floor and restrooms are now fully accessible, the theater is up a flight of stairs at present.
For its fall production, Guilford Center Stage will present a staged reading of It Can’t Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis. Todd Mandell and Richard Wizansky will direct a cast of 11 community actors in this adaptation for the stage by Tony Taccone and Bennett S. Cohen.
In keeping with its mission to present works which are place-based, the producers chose this work both for its topical theme and because Sinclair Lewis was living in Vermont when he wrote the book in 1935. In fact, the play is set in a fictional Vermont town. 
Sinclair Lewis was already one of America’s most famous authors, known for the social commentary of such novels as Main Street, Babbit and Arrowsmith, when his wife, noted journalist, Dorothy Thompson, visited Nazi Germany in 1931.  She interviewed Adolf Hitler, about whom Americans knew little, and sounded the first major warnings about the dangerous political situation there.  As a result of her work, Lewis wrote It Can’t Happen Here.
In the play, a demagogue, Berzelius “Buzz” Windrip, is elected President of the United States, after fomenting fear and promising drastic economic and social reforms while promoting a return to patriotism and “traditional” values.  The character of Windrip was directly modeled on Louisiana politician Huey Long, who was planning to run as a populist in the 1936 Presidential election, but the correlation to the rise of Fascism in Europe was the larger message, with many Americans hopefully saying, “It can’t happen here!”
Performing this staged reading will be: Christopher Emily Coutant, Barton Evans, Jenny Holan, Michael Fox Kennedy, Jonathan Kinnersley,  Bridget McBride, Arthur Pettee,  Peter Seares, Bob Tucker, Robin Wolf, and Rick Zamore. Julie Holland is stage manager; David Underwood is technical designer, and Joan Peters is costume and set consultant.
Performances are Friday, October 18 and Saturday, October 19 at 7:30 pm, and Sunday, October 20 at 2:00 pm.  The Friday show is a benefit for Broad Brook Community Center.

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Sheet Mulching Permablitz with Edible Brattleboro: A Hands-On Workshop 
Sunday, October 20th, 2019. Address will be provided upon registration. 2pm-5pm. Free; donations accepted with gratitude. Email [email protected] to register.
Fall is the time to prepare new beds for spring planting. We will teach this method of building healthy soil while we create our newest help-yourself satellite garden in the front yard of a private home in a sweet neighborhood near downtown Brattleboro. Come ready to move organic matter, move soil and get a little dirty. If you can, bring garden gloves and a spade.

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, OCTOBER 21st, 2019-SUNDAY, OCTOBER 27th, 2019

Climate Cafe- A Facilitated Community Conversation: Learning to Live with Near Term, Climate-Induced Societal Collapse
a project of Post Oil Solutions
Tuesday, October 22, 2019 at Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301), in the Community Room. 6pm-8pm. Free; light refreshments will be provided. For further please call 802.869.2141 email [email protected]
We need to talk! It is not a question of ignorance for most of us. We know that the climate is passing critical tipping points. We know that scientists are stating that the climate crisis is proceeding more rapidly and with greater severity “much sooner than expected,” “faster than thought,” and “decades ahead of schedule.” We know that official responses are insufficient, at best, and individual efforts, though well intended, are woefully inadequate to making the profound changes in our entire way of life that need to be made, right now. We know that Big Oil has no intention of walking away from the bloated profits it anticipates realizing from continued drilling. We know about climate-related calamities are happening daily in the world today—devastating weather events, droughts, food crisis, disappearing sources of water, wildfires, climate refugees, the vanishing species, and so on--and that tomorrow will be more catastrophic, no matter what we do today.
In other words, we know what is happening. And yet, so many of us go on with our lives as usual. There are perfectly good reasons why we remain in this state of the proverbial inactive frogs in the pot of increasingly boiling water. The problem we face is unprecedented, overwhelming, seemingly beyond our power to effect. It is understandable why we are stuck on dead center. What is to be done?
The purpose of the Community Conversation is to begin breaking the silence around the real possibility of social collapse. In order to get off dead center, we need to talk with one another about the most important thing that is happening in our lives. This is the essential first step we must take if we are to move on with our lives in a positive fashion. To grieve what we have already lost, share our fears and despair, rage and sorrow, guilt and anguish with others who are compassionate and supportive because they, too, are coming out of their closets of “soft” denial. 
Then we can begin to explore with each other how we might live in these times in proactive ways, perhaps how we might bring friends and neighbors together to talk about our situation and what we might do together in our communities to adapt to our new reality, engaging in emergency preparedness, being of service to others, reclaiming our interconnection with Mother, engaging in heartfelt activities, living a values-inspired way of life, planting seeds for a transformed civilization—in short, doing all we can, right now to live in the present moment the kind of everyday life that we find both worthwhile and rewarding, hopeful in the best sense of the word. 
For what invariably occurs when we come together as a community of kindred souls who are open and honest about our dire situation is that possibilities begin to emerge that weren’t previously visible when we were alone with our denial. That is the magic of acting with others as the interconnected beings we inescapably are.

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Heading for Extinction and What To Do About It
Maria and Ward Ogden, presenters
Wednesday, October 23rd, 2019 at the Putney Library (55 Main Street, Putney, VT, 05346). 7:30pm. With advance notice, childcare can be provided (contact [email protected]).
Concerned about climate change and not sure what to do about it? Join us for a presentation about Extinction Rebellion, the international, apolitical climate movement that is using non-violent direct action to enact change. The talk takes about one hour with optional Q&A time afterward.   Find out about the many ways you can join the climate movement!

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Benefit Concert for Community Asylum Seekers Project
Friday, October 25th, 2019 at All Souls Church Unitarian Universal (29 South Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7:30pm-10:30pm. $20 advance/$25 door. No one will be turned away for lack of funds. For more info, email [email protected] or call 802-490-2052. Tickets are available at Everyone’s Books in Brattleboro and Village Square Booksellers in Bellows Falls and online HERE.
Join Emma's Revolution for a #Resistance Concert to Benefit Community Asylum Seekers Project (CASP)!

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Protest Vigil at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Friday, October 25th, 2019 (and every Friday) at TD Bank Brattleboro (215 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT). In front of the building. 12pm-1pm. Signs will be provided
TD is a major investor in Tar Sands. TD helps to fund the Dakota Access Pipeline. What You Can Do (besides attending the vigils): If you’re a TD depositor, change banks! Founded in 2005, Post Oil Solutions is a 501c3 community organizing project in Southeastern Vermont whose mission is to help empower the people of the Central Connecticut River Valley bioregion in this era of global warming and climate change to develop sustainable, resilient , collaborative, and socially just communities leading to a self- and community-sufficient post petroleum society.

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Critical Mass Ride: Halloween Mass!
hosted by 350 Brattleboro, 350 VT, Brattleboro Community Bike Clinic, and VBike; Image credit: Hugh D'Andrade
Friday, October 25th, 2019 at The Brattleboro Common (Park Place, the intersection of Routes 5 and 30, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 5:30pm-6:30pm. 
We're continuing with our monthly rides with rotating themes on the last Friday of each month. This month's, it's Halloween Mass! Kids, families welcome, and costumes welcome! Critical (and "Kidical") Mass rides have a unique way of energizing folks around bike mobility, transportation solutions, and amplifying our collective ability and power to begin reclaiming our streets and communities. We need this, and we need YOU!
Agenda:
5:30pm: We'll be starting AND ending at the Brattleboro Common. We'll begin by getting organized, signing in, decorating bikes, and going over our route.
6:00pm: Begin Critical Mass ride. This will be a high-visibility downtown route!
6:30pm: End ride back at the Brattleboro Common
Help us spread the word & make this another successful critical mass ride!

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Isis and the Crisis in Northeastern Syria
hosted by Windham World Affairs Council and Centre Congregational Church
Friday, October 25th, 2019 at Centre Congregational Church (193 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 7pm-8:30pm. Coffee and snacks at 7pm, talk begins at 7:30pm.
Windham World Affairs Council invites you to a talk by Clare Morgana Gillis, PhD, Brattleboro resident and WWAC board member. Dr. Gillis will speak on “Beheading in the age of its technological reproducibility," examining Isis propaganda and its afterlife in news and in the popular imagination, and she will consider the effect of those images on human rights issues surrounding thousands of captured Isis foreign fighters now held in Kurdish jails in eastern Syria. Western countries have refused to take responsibility for their citizens, in some cases stripping them of citizenship. Now, as the USA has abandoned its Kurdish allies, a Turkish military operation inside Syria raises the possibility of mass prison breaks and a resurgence of Isis. The continued unwillingness of the international community to address the situation of those fighters ensures that the problem will continue.
Dr. Gillis is a Brattleboro resident and WWAC board member. She was educated at the University of Chicago and Harvard, where she earned a doctorate in history with a specialty in the early medieval Europe. She then worked as a foreign correspondent, covering protests and conflicts in countries such as Egypt, Libya, Syria, Iraq, Turkey and Mali.

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Film Screening and Discussion
Accidents Can Happen: The Women of Three Mile Island
hosted by New England Coalition on Nuclear Pollution
Saturday, October 26th, 2019 at 118 Gallery (118 Elliot Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 1:30pm.
Film maker, professor and ecofeminist Heidi Hutner will be speaking about women, gender, and nuclearity, and showing a short from her film: ACCIDENTS CAN HAPPEN: The Women of Three Mile Island. "A documentary about the silenced story of the women from the Three Mile Island nuclear accident. This is the tale of the mothers-- Linda, Joyce, Beth and Paula— ordinary American housewives who lived five miles from the nuclear power plant at the time of the meltdown. The accident turned their lives upside down and awakened them to the politics of the nuclear industry and the silencing of truth. The women fought back. This is their story--the true story of Three Mile Island."  www.accidentscanhappenthefilm.com/

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Film Screening: The Great White Hoax
hosted by Spark Teacher Education Institute
Saturday, October 26th, 2019 at Brattleboro Savings and Loan (221 Main St, Brattleboro, VT 05301) in the Community Room. 5pm-7pm.
Join the Spark Teacher Training Institute and Brattleboro Solidarity for a free film screening of The Great White Hoax, a new Tim Wise film. This film explores how US political leaders of both parties have been tapping into white fear and scapegoating people of color for decades to divide and conquer working class voters and shore up political support. 
Let's come together to understand the challenges we are facing in this time and learn about ways people are resisting supremacy and capitalism. 
Snacks will be provided!

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Mother Up! Monthly Meet-Up 
Monday October 28th, 2019 at KidsPLAYce (20 Elliot St., Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 5:30pm-7:30pm. A vegetarian meal and childcare for ages 10 and under will be provided. RSVP helpful, but not required. Contact Abby Mnookin for more info at [email protected].
Mother Up!: Families Rise Up for Climate Action is a project of 350Vermont that brings together families to talk about the tough realities of climate change and to participate in the transition to a healthier and safer world.

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Film Screening & Discussion: Paris to Pittsburgh
presented by the Guilford Energy Committee
Tuesday, October 29th, 2019 at Broad Brook Community Center (3940 Guilford Center Road, Guilford, VT, 05301). 6:30pm-9:30pm.
The Guilford Energy Committee invites you to a screening of the National Geographic film Paris to Pittsburgh. There will be refreshments and a discussion to follow, with Rep Sara Coffey who will update us on what's happening at the statehouse, and Guilford resident and energy committee member, Thayer Tomlinson, who will talk about her work with the United States Climate Alliance. This event is free and open to the public.
About the film: “From coastal cities to America’s heartland, Paris to Pittsburgh celebrates how Americans are demanding and developing real solutions in the face of climate change. And as the weather grows more deadly and destructive, they aren’t waiting on Washington to act.”

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Sheet Mulching with Edible Brattleboro: A Hands-On Workshop 
Saturday, November 2nd, 2019, in Brattleboro’s Help Your Self Garden at the Brattleboro Food Coop (2 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 10am-11:30am. The address will be provided upon registration. Free; donations accepted with gratitude. Email [email protected] to register.
Fall is the time to prepare new beds for spring planting. We will teach this method of building healthy soil while we create a new bed in our Help-Yourself garden at the Brattleboro Food Co-op. Come ready to move organic matter, move soil and get a little dirty. If you can, bring garden gloves and a spade.

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Southern VT Sister District Fundraiser 
Sunday, November 3rd, 2019 at Next Stage Arts (15 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT). 4pm. Tickets are available at the door at a sliding scale of $15-50 / adults or $5 / children. We will be serving homemade soup, salad, bread, and a cash bar with a silent auction for some exciting Save Our Nation Vacation rental properties. 
Southern Vermont Sister District presents a silent vacation auction of Save Our Nation rental properties, afternoon concert with the Seymour Sisters and Bourbon Shuffle, and dinner.
We will have available some of our past favorites including the Berkshire condo, Maine lake house and a cottage in the Hamptons and are also excited to add rentals in new locations including southern California wine country, Maui and Oaxaca Mexico. Vacation locations are still coming in and you can peruse all of the offerings when the online auction goes up at the end of October. To get early notification when the auction goes live or to bid online, sign up at: http://SaveOurNationVacation.org
We are excited to welcome back one of last year’s musical guests the Seymour Sisters. They started as a couple of friends who got together weekly for dinner and music. Later they played in the Northeast Kingdom during summers on Lake Seymour and branched out to house concerts.  The band features Kate Wolff on dobro, Laura Williams on guitar and lead vocals, Betsy Williams on bass and Beth Spicer on banjo, mandolin and guitar.  Specializing in synchronized rhythm and harmony, the quartet found music had a healing effect and helped them find and spread joy in difficult times.  They play a blend of Bluegrass, Old Time, Gospel and Folk music. They especially enjoy playing tunes by Red Molly and Gillian Welch, as well as their own original compositions.

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Windham County NAACP Freedom Fund Dinner
hosted by the Windham County NAACP
Saturday, November 16th, 2019 at the American Legion (32 Linden St., Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 5pm-9pm.
Tickets are now LIVE for our first annual Freedom Fund Dinner. This is our first Windham County NAACP fundraiser. All proceeds go to fund the branch and our youth scholarship initiative.  
To buy tickets and RSVP visit the link! https://windhamnaacp.app.rsvpify.com/
Agenda:
5pm-6pm: Public Lecture
6pm: Reception 
6:30pm: Dinner and Formal Reception

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US Immigration Policy in Historical Perspective
hosted by Vermont Humanities Council 
Wednesday, December 4th, 2019 at Brooks Memorial Library (224 Main Street, Brattleboro, Vt, 05301). 7pm-8:30pm.
One would think that current anxieties about immigration in the US have never been more intense, but history teaches us otherwise. Dartmouth professor Richard Wright examines the present-day contradictions of US immigration policy and places them in historical perspective. Part of the Vermont Humanities First Wednesdays free lecture series.

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RESOURCE FOR WeCAN: Rapid Response Text Alert System
When WeCAN began, Song & Solidarity set up a Rapid Response Text Alert System for WeCAN Groups. Directions for signing up are on WeCAN's website, here: https://www.wecantogether.net/rapid_response. We are grateful to Song and Solidarity for providing this service.

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STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS  

Women Veterans Weekly Coffee and Tea Social
Thursday Mornings at Brattleboro Legion Post 5 Inc. (32 Linden Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 9am-10am.
All female veterans are invited to join in the Women Veterans group coffee held at the American Legion.  All women veterans are welcome. You do not need to be a Legion member.

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Youth 4 Change
Meetings are held on the 1st and 3rd Mondays of the month from 5:30pm-8pm. 
For more information please contact Youth 4 Change at [email protected].
Agenda:
5:30pm: Drop in homework time and art making
6:00pm: Food
6:30pm: Meeting and Organizing
Youth 4 Change is for local-area youth 12-22 interested in political organizing around local/state/national social justice issues that are important to them. Brattleboro area advocates and educators are holding a space, and assisting youth in building a strong personal tool kit to organize for change. Using a variety of creative methods, we aim to enable youth with tools for resilience, courage and compassion, while fostering their ability to speak up about issues that matter to them, and to take action in the name of love and liberation for all people.  Come explore issues of racial, economic and gender justice through art, movement, first-hand accounts and contemplative practices. Connect with area youth around the issues that matter to you and strengthen your tool kit for action! 

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Windham County NAACP Regular Meetings
Monthly community meetings are held on the third Thursday of every month at The Root Center for Social Justice (The Whetstone Studio for the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) on the First Floor from 6pm-7pm. For more information please email [email protected]. All are welcome. 
The meetings are open to anyone interested in racial justice. The Mission of the NAACP is to secure the political, educational, social, and economic equality of rights in order to eliminate race-based discrimination and ensure the health and well-being of all persons.

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

Indigo Radio
Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FMTo stream live: Visit www.wvew.org 
Indigo Radio, deepening understanding and making connections! IndigoRadio is a group of area educators seeking to learn through engaging with others in our community and throughout the world. We will be talking about educational and social issues both globally and locally and connecting them to our lives and Brattleboro community. Find us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indigoradiowvew/. For archive recordings of past shows: https://soundcloud.com/user-654648353. 

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      Thank you, WeCAN friends, for your unwavering support of your neighbors in Windham County, for your activism, and for showing up to so many meetings and events over the last three years. We see you and we appreciate you! 


Joanna and Leslie 
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