Windham County Action Network (WeCAN)

“The greatness of a community is most accurately measured by the compassionate actions of its members.”
Coretta Scott King, American author, activist, and civil rights leader 

“Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing.”
Rollo May, American humanistic psychologist 

     These past few days (weeks, months, years) have been tiring and taxing for us all. The best way to combat the darkness, as you know, is with light, so let's share our light with each other in the hopes of coping and connecting. Please join your community for an impromptu gathering this evening in Brattleboro. 
Light for Dark Times
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at the Pocket Park near Malfunction Junction [Main Street near the Brattleboro Co-Op (2 Main Street] in Brattleboro, VT . 6:30pm-7:30pm. Bring candles and your voice. 

Now is the dark time & the cold time too;
Gather round, circle of friends.
The comfort of your singing will see us through;
Until the dark time ends.

We hope to see you there. 

HAPPENING TODAY, SUNDAY, OCTOBER 28th, 2018

Share the Harvest (LAST SUNDAY!)
sponsored by Edible Brattleboro, A Project of Post Oil Solutions
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at the Turning Point Garden (the corner of Elm Street and Frost Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 11am-1pm. Please bring your own bags.
Join Edible Brattleboro from 11am-1pm in our garden at Turning Point, on the corner of Elm and Frost Street (diagonally across from New England Youth Theatre) for free, locally grown veggies, herbs, and more. Please bring your own bags. All produce is free thanks to the generosity of local farmers and gardeners. We welcome donations from your garden. We also welcome donations of your time either on Saturdays or Sundays to keep the stand open through October.

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40 Days of Fire
part of the Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege series
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at the All Souls Church (29 South Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 12pm. A light lunch will be served at 11:30pm. Events are free and open to the public. 
Something different is planned this month at the All Souls Church film series — a live event on Sunday, Oct. 28, instead of a film.
The church will host Mark Hughes, leader of “40 Days of Fire,” which he describes as “a statewide racial justice community organizing campaign designed to educate and empower folks to participate in this important work in Vermont.”
The event will be the October offering in the church’s ongoing program “Looking Inward at White Power and Privilege.” A free light lunch will be served at 11:30 and the free program will start at noon.
Mark Hughes is the co-founder and Executive Director of Justice For All VT (JFA), which he describes as a grassroots organization that peruses racial justice within Vermont’s criminal justice system through advocacy, education, and relationship building. JFA is a member of the Vermont Human Rights Council among other coalitions.
The organizations’s “40 Days of Fire” campaign is a joint effort with “Rights and Democracy,” a Vermont organization designed to build a popular movement to “to advance rights and build a real democracy,” according to its website.

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Advanced Backyard Composting Workshop 
Sponsored by Living Earth Action Group. Made possible by a Grant from New England Grassroots Environmental Fund
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at Main Street Arts (5 School Street, Saxtons River, VT). 1pm-4pm. Cost: $5-20 (suggested donation 'at the door'). No one turned away for lack of funds.  Register in advance: [email protected], 802-387-5779. Directions: 5 School Street, Saxtons River. Main Street Arts is at the intersection of School and Main Street. The house is the 2nd house on the right, but park cars at the elementary school.
"Crafting a recipe for an aerated backyard compost system is a critical element to successfully transform the rotting pile of food into a healthy soil amendment that also protects wildlife. An overview of the soil food web will help you understand how and why to create compost that benefits your soil while managing kitchen and yard waste. Learn how to construct a pile that applies principles of structure and density to ensure that your living compost can hold air and water, creating the conditions that diverse microbial populations need to thrive. Suitable for all levels of understanding, and applicable for all sizes of family and neighborhood compost systems."
Instructor: Cat Buxton is a community organizer, compost consultant and soil health educator. She runs Grow More, Waste Less and is founder of the Vermont Healthy Soils Coalition. She serves on the Board of Directors for Rural Vermont, the Soil Carbon Coalition, and Upper Valley Food Co-op.

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Rights and Democracy Canvass
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 at the Putney General Store (4 Kimball Hill Rd, Putney, VT). 1:30pm.
Join Rights & Democracy as we head door to door to talk to voters, many of whom do not turn out to vote for mid-term elections.  We only have two more weeks to have an impact on these 2018 elections.
Please sign up to canvass invite your friends on Facebook!  This is a great way to increase our voice in Windham County Vermont and continue to build our vision.
What will we get when we arrive at the RAD Canvass?
• Training on door to door talking points when speaking to voters.
• List of voters and address.
• Literature to leave at each door.
RAD is working hard to elect Christine Hallquist governor, reelect Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman and Treasurer Beth Pearce, and support all of our endorsed candidates.
These candidates have pledged to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour and enact paid family leave, champion universal health care, support high quality, affordable and accessible early education and child care, tackle systemic racism and oppression, ensure clean water for all, create a clean energy future that provides livable-wage jobs, and more.

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Rally and March of the Trial of the Century
Sunday, October 28th, 2018 in Chester, VT and Greenfield, MA.
On the Green (184 Main Street, Chester, VT). 2pm-4pm. 
At the Greenfield Commons/Hawks & Reed  (289 Main Street, Greenfield, MA). 4pm-6pm.
Join the Rally & March for the Trial of the Century this Sunday, October 28, the day before the trial. Juliana V. United States, is scheduled to begin Monday in Federal Court in Eugene, Oregon.
Rallies are being organized all over the country and we invite you to join one closest to Windham County, VT. In the case, 21 young people will confront the federal government in court. They will demand a science-based National Climate Recovery Plan that will end the reign of fossil fuels and lead to swift decarbonization of the environment.
Our freedom depends on a climate system that will sustain all life. Let's show the government that it has a duty to prepare and implement a Climate Recovery Plan to protect our basic and most fundamental rights!
If you are not nearby, please use the link to search for a rally near you: www.actionnetwork.org/rally for the trial of the century.

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HAPPENING THIS WEEK, MONDAY, OCTOBER 29th, 2018-SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 4th, 2018

SIT Africa Dean Dan Lumonya: Notes from Uganda's Political Crises
Wednesday, October 31st, 2018 at the Robert Gibson River Garden (157 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). 12pm.
SIT Study Abroad Academic Dean for Africa South of the Sahara Daniel Lumonya offers Notes from Uganda’s political crises: Exception or Pattern? He will discuss Idi Amin, a young artist’s take on Uganda’s political elite, and a president stuck in power for thirty-five years, addressing questions like: What are we to make of Uganda’s enduring political crisis? Is the present crisis an exception, or is it part of a larger pattern? What does this say to us about the world in which we presently live?
A citizen of Uganda, Daniel Lumonya completed a bachelor’s degree in social work and social administration at Makerere University in Uganda in 1991 and a master’s degree in social sector planning and management at the same university in 1999. Dan is on the cusp of completing his PhD in development sociology at Cornell University. His dissertation research focuses on the political economy of the maize market in rural eastern Uganda. More broadly, Dan's research interests revolve around small farming systems and agrarian transitions, globalization, and state civil society relations. He taught at Makerere University in Kampala for fourteen years and was academic director with SIT on its Uganda and Rwanda semester and summer programs between 2001 and 2015. Dan has extensive experience with NGO and government program monitoring and evaluation in Uganda and has traveled extensively in the region.  

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Protest Vigil at TD Bank
sponsored by Post Oil Solutions
Friday, November 2nd, 2018 (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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Together: A Free Half-Day Retreat for Survivors of Adult Sexual Violence
Saturday, November 3rd, 2018. 2pm-7pm. Space is limited! Please call  802-257-7364 for the location and to reserve a spot. Dinner included.
Come join us for a day of togetherness, support, solidarity, and art & nature-based healing activities and workshops. This free, confidential retreat is open to all self-identified women who have experienced adult sexual violence. 

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Get Out The Vote: Honk and Wave
Sunday, November 4th, 2018 in Putney, VT.
Meet at the Putney Library (55 Main Street, Putney, VT) at 1:30pm for sign making.
Then, gather at the corner of Main Street and Kimball Hill at 2pm for the Honk and Wave. 
Join us at the library at 1:30pm make signs and then head to the corner of Main Street and Kimball Hill at 2:00pm to remind people to vote with a good old fashioned honk and wave. Candidate signs are welcome.
https://www.facebook.com/events/1865708200203916/

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Fourth Annual Out in the Open Summit for Rural & Small Town LGBTQ Folks
Friday, November 9th, 2018-Sunday, November 11th, 2018 at Hilltop Montessori School (99 Stafford Farm Hill, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). Housing, childcare, and free/reduced registrations all available. The full draft agenda and registration are available at greenmountaincrossroads.org.
Full- and half-day optional Friday Field Trips include: prisons & repression in the LGBTQ community; nose-to-tail pig butchery; volunteering at The Root Social Justice Center; volunteering at Milkweed Farm; and oral history with Country Queers founder Rachel Garringer (currently accepting a waitlist).
Saturday and Sunday sessions include: emergent strategy, crafting a rural LGBTQ manifesto, food justice, bees have three genders, art for demonstrations, and more!

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Men, Patriarchy, and Capitalism
hosted by Brattleboro Solidarity
Thursday, November 15th, 2018 from 5:30pm-7pm.
Thursday, November 29th, 2018 from 6pm-7:30pm.
Thursday, December 6th, 2018 from 6pm-7:30pm
Thursday, December 13th, 2018 from 6pm-7:30pm
all meetings will take place at the Brattleboro Food Co-op (2 Main Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) in the Community Room (please use the 7 Canal Street Entrance). Readings will be provided. Refreshments will be served. This is a free event. Please email us at [email protected] to sign up.
Men, please join us in doing this work! From the European witch hunts of the 1300's to rape culture, male violence has been a troubling theme of modern history. Thanks to the visibility gained by social mobilizations such as the MeToo movement, one would be hard-pressed to argue that we have made much progress in decreasing it. In mainstream discourse, male violence is explained away as the actions of deviant individuals, "bad apples." This explanation avoids questions that implicate the system in which we live. In order to really understand where male violence comes from, we need to situate our understanding in a larger analysis of history.
Grounded in readings from (but not limited to) Angela Davis, bell hooks, Silvia Federici, and Jackson Katz, we will focus on the following questions: 
- Is male violence a men’s issue for men to analyze, discuss and end?
- What are the connections within the current political climate to historical events?
- How do our thoughts and ideology shape our actions and interactions?
- Does capitalism affect how men act in the world?

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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 were reminded of the Rapid Response text alerts system as President Trump moves towards firing Mueller. In the event Mueller is fired, MoveOn is planning a nation-wide simultaneous protest. The trick will be to get the word out fast if/when the time comes. We are grateful to Song and Solidarity for providing this service.

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STANDING REGULAR MEETINGS

Lost River Racial Justice, Black Lives Matter-South, and People Of Color Caucus Regular Meeting
Reoccurring racial justice organizing meetings every 2nd Monday at The Root Social Justice Center (The Whetstone Studio of the Arts, 28 Williams Street, Brattleboro, VT, 05301) on the First Floor. 6pm-8pm. Childcare provided. Fragrance & nut free space.  

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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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Alternatives to Suicide 
Every Wednesday, 6pm-7:30pm at the Hive Space (24 Flat St, Suite 202, Brattleboro, VT, 05301). Second Floor, up one flight of stairs.
Alternatives to Suicide is a mutual support group open to anyone who has experienced thoughts of suicide. The group is guided by a charter of values provided by the Western Mass Recovery Learning Community. The group is non-clinical and does not link suicide with illness.  Participants are free to talk about and find meaning in their experiences in/on their own terms. 

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ONGOING EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMMING 

Indigo Radio

Sundays at 12pm on Brattleboro Community Radio 107.7FM
To 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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Just a reminder...if you are currently experiencing anxiety you can call:
National Institute of Mental Health's (NIMH’s) National Anxiety Hotline: 88-ANXIETY (826-9438)
The Panic Disorder Informational Hotline: 800-64-panic (647-2642)
Emergency situations: If you are experiencing a crisis please call 911 or one of the numbers listed below, or go to the emergency department at the nearest hospital.
National Resources:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-8255
National Hopeline Network: 800-784-2433

Be well, friends, and remember that we are all in this together. 

Peace,

Joanna and Leslie 

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