Eesha Williams's Blog, page 52
April 3, 2020
Virus Can't Stop Community Radio
Community radio stations in Greenfield, Northampton and Brattleboro are broadcasting new editions of locally produced shows despite the epidemic. The stations are WMCB, WVEW, and WXOJ. They all play "Democracy Now," an important alternative to NPR news. Anyone who lives in the Valley can have a show on these stations.
Fight for the Trees
Unless activists stop the plan, thousands of acres of Green Mountain National Forest will be logged soon. The forest is about 10 miles from Brattleboro. They are coming hard with the chainsaws to Green Mountain National Forest, Chris Matera told the Valley Post. What a sorry sight it will be to look down from the top of Mount Snow and see clear-cuts instead of that beautiful intact forest we see now.
March 27, 2020
Some Valley Prisoners Freed Due to Coronavirus
No nation keeps such a high percentage of its people in prison as the USA. Due to the coronavirus, the prosecutors in the counties that are home to Northampton and Brattleboro are releasing some prisoners. I have released some due to coronavirus, Tracy Shriver told the Valley Post in a phone interview on March 26. She is the prosecutor for Windham county, which includes Brattleboro. Shriver said she has freed more than one and fewer than 100 people due to the epidemic. She declined to provide...
March 20, 2020
Peace Rally Planned
Unless it's postponed due to coronavirus, there be a peace rally in Brattleboro on April 15. The rally will be outside 2 Main Street from 10 a.m. until 3 p.m. With 4 percent of the world's population, the USA spends as much money on war as the rest of the world combined. This year the USA will spend $1.6 trillion on war. That's 47 percent of the federal budget, meaning about half your income taxes go to war. This data is from:
www.warresisters.org/sites/default/files/fy2021piechart.pdf
More...
March 19, 2020
Reggae Singer from Jamaica to Play in Brattleboro
When N.L. Dennis was singing in a recording studio with Toots and the Maytals, Bob Marley stopped by to listen. Marley praised Dennis's delivery. Today, Dennis lives in his native Jamaica and joins hundreds of Jamaicans who come to Vermont every summer in search of better paying work. Most of them work on vegetable farms and at apple orchards. Dennis works as a reggae musician. He will perform a public concert on July 31 in Brattleboro. The concert will be at 8 p.m. at the Stone Church night...
March 13, 2020
Wins for Workers, Nature
Thanks to the work of activists in Springfield, 1.5 miles of abandoned train tracks will be turned into a rail trail. "The design for the McKnight Community Trail is in progress," Liz Stevens told the Valley Post on March 8. She is part of an all-volunteer group that has a web site at www.WalkBikeSpringfieldMA.org. "The actual construction of the trail is expected to happen in 2023.... On March 6, I walked on a section of the trail with Andy Krar, the city engineer, and saw work being done...
March 6, 2020
Brattleboro Climate March is April 22
On April 22 at 3 p.m. there will be a climate march from the Brattleboro town common to the corner of Elliot and Main streets. One of the groups that's organizing the march has a web site at www.350Vermont.org.
The biggest cause of climate change is over-population. Population is growing fastest in Africa. But in 2014 (the most recent year for which data is available) the average person in the USA produced 16.5 tons of carbon dioxide. The average person in Mali produced 0.1 tons that year....
February 28, 2020
1,400 Acres Saved
This spring, 1,400 acres of forestland near Keene will be permanently protected from development, Mark Zankel told the Valley Post on February 25. He runs the New Hampshire chapter of the Nature Conservancy. The land is in the New Hampshire towns of Gilsum and Surry, both of which border Keene. All three towns are in the Connecticut river valley. Keene is about 20 minutes from Brattleboro by bus.
February 21, 2020
Local News Round-up
In Holyoke on February 21 at 4 p.m. there will be a rally in solidarity with Native Americans in Canada who are fighting construction of a fracked gas pipeline. The rally will be at 12-6 Mt. Park Road. More information about the rally is available by calling Gia at (413) 512-1192. More information about the pipeline is on the web site of the tribe that's leading the fight to stop it:
www.wetsuweten.com/territory/pipelines
*********
