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January 27, 2017
In This Issue:
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Place Your Own Text Here.
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February 2, Noon, Brown Bag Lunch. Speaker: Fire Chief Walter "Tim" Nelson. North Amherst Fire Station Community Room.
February 11, 12:30 p.m., LWVA Birthday Lunch. Speaker: Linda Matys O'Connell, Director, LWVMA. Ginger Garden.
February 17, 12:15 p.m., Communications Team Meeting. The Works, North Pleasant St. All welcome.
February 20, 3 p.m., Book Discussion of Shakespeare's As You Like It, Applewood.
March 16, 7-9 p.m., Candidates Night, Large Community Room, Bangs Center.
March 24, 7-8:30 p.m., Civics Fest, ARMS Auditorium.
April 30, 2-4 p.m., "Sing Into Spring," a Family Concert for Single Payer Health Care. More details later.
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How A Small Town Makes Big Things Happen
is a series of talks initiated as part of the Amherst League of Women Voters' 75th birthday observance. In its fourth year, the informal Brown Bag gatherings hear leaders of town departments and offices talk about the work they do. The series, which began this winter with a talk by Police Chief Scott Livingstone, continues on Thursday, February 2, with a talk by Fire Chief Walter "Tim" Nelson, held at the North Amherst Fire Station's Community Room at noon. Feel free to bring your lunch.
The 78th Birthday of the Amherst League of Women Voters will be celebrated on Saturday, February 11 at 12:30 p.m. at Ginger Garden Restaurant, 351 Northampton Road, Amherst.
The Guest Speaker will be Linda Matys O'Connell, one of the Directors of the Massachusetts League. Linda is a communications consultant and self-efficacy coach. A graduate of Mount Holyoke College and Brown University, Linda recently graduated from the influential Western Massachusetts Women's Fund's Leadership Institute for Political and Public Impact. For more information on Linda's career in western Massachusetts and beyond, click here.
CivicsFest Save the date Friday March 24th, 7-8:30 p.m. in the ARMS auditorium for the first annual Amherst League of Women Voters CivicsFest. A celebration and competition centered around government and politics, this year's theme is American Institutions. High Schoolers are invited to form teams of 3-4 for a debate portion of the evening, and adults are invited to form teams of four for trivia. The evening, hosted by new State Rep. Solomon Goldstein-Rose, will also include theater performances, music and food. Free to participate in and to watch. For more info, click here.
The LWVA Program Planning Meeting was held on January 24th, 2017. The group came to consensus on the following recommendations to the LWVMA. The group also brainstormed local programming, which will be shared in the near future.
The ACTION PRIORITIES agreed on are:
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Health Care
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Equality and Justice - specifically Criminal Justice Reform and Affordable Housing
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Civic Education
The ACTION ITEMS:
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Mandatory Civics Course
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Support criminal justice reform bills as proposed by Colleen Kirby
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Promote health care bills, specifically:
1."An act establishing improved Medicare for All in Massachusetts" SD698 (lead sponsor Senator Eldridge) HD 3249 (lead sponsor Rep. Garlick)
2. "An act to ensure effective health care cost control" SD1281 (lead sponsor Senator Cyr); HD1501 (lead sponsor Rep.Benson.)
A NEW STUDY: We support the LWV Needham study proposal on Ballot Question Process. We are willing to hold consensus meetings on this topic when/if the time comes.
Results of the Amherst Consensus Meetings on Charter Schools are available at the LWVAmherst website. To access the results, click here. This link has been quirky lately; if you get "Page not found", click on Interests tab and a lonk to the results will appear.
Members: would you like a copy of the minutes of Board Meetings? Rebecca Fricke is constructing a list of email addresses of members wanting this information. Contact Rebecca here if you'd like your name added to the list.
Energy Presentations now available at lwvamherst.org. Anne George, presenter of "Keeping the Lights on," and J.F. Manwell, presenter of "Offshore Wind Energy: A New Frontier for Massachusetts" have given permission for their power point presentations to be available at our website. To access them, click here.
"Civil Rights in the Age of Trump": a brief report
At "Freedom and Justice for All? Civil Rights in the Age of Trump," questions were clearly and fluently answered by law professor and Amherst League member Sudha Setty. The event, held January 25, was co-sponsored by
Critical Connections,
the Karuna Center for Peacebuilding, and the Amherst League of Women Voters.
Mehlaqa Samdani, executive director of Critical Connections, led off with a series of well-focused questions; audience members, after talking together in small groups, later added many more questions. Limitations of space prevent a detailed report, but I will provide a few examples. As the pictures show, the event was well-attended. Amherst Media taped the event, so the full two-hour event will become available.
Professor Setty made clear, for instance, that the federal government is not the source of the police powers of state and local police. Thus, local and state police are not legally bound to enforce federal policies like those surrounding immigration enforcement and deportation. The Supreme Court has held that the federal government cannot use the threat of loss of funding to compel such obedience unless the funding applies to a closely related matter.
The President does have wide powers over the border and over immigrants. Refugees already approved for admission but not yet in the US can be turned back, but those in the US have rights to hearings before they are deported. There is a great need for legal counsel for such people. A Muslim registry is, Setty thinks, unlikely since (for one thing) the registration program initiated by G.W. Bush was extremely expensive and none of those deported were deported as a terrorist threat. Internment camps are a possibility but it is unlikely the Supreme Court (even with an additional member) would support them.
Impeachment is unlikely, given that the impeachment power is held by Congress, and the current Congress would not be inclined to use it. It is difficult to know what position the President will take in some areas (such as marriage equality) because he has expressed conflicting views. Political theater is at times the best explanation of presidential statements. Surveillance is a real threat we should all be alert to. And Sudha Setty's last advice: Find an issue you are passionate about, willing to commit to for medium or long haul, and put your energies there!
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| Audience for "Freedom and Justice for All?" |
The organizers of "Freedom and Justice for All?" with Sudha Setty, the speaker
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GET INVOLVED! HELP WANTED!
Communications Team: Want to help increase League visibility in our community? or improve the dissemination of news within our League? The LWVA Communications Team will meet to discuss these and other issues on FRIDAY, February 17, 12:15 p.m. at The Works on North Pleasant Street in Amherst. Everyone welcome; please join us to contribute your ideas or find out how you can help.
Contact Kathy Campbell.
Book Sale We are beginning to gear up for our 2017 Book Sale. Now is the time to get in on the ground floor! Join the organizing committee, which will entail 10-14 hours of meetings and work between the end of February and the end of June. Pricing and sorting will be the first three weeks of July, and the sale itself will be the last weekend of July and the first weekend of August. No one needs to be here the whole summer; we know everyone has vacation plans.
We especially need volunteers to oversee and coordinate arrangements for
* Children's Day * publicity * rare/collectible books
and someone who to assist with general logistics (on-the-job training provided!) But even if you are not ready to sign up for one of these coordinating positions, we would love to have you on board. Contact
Kathy Campbell.
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Join LWVMA for an inside look at the threats and challenges ahead in a conversation with Juliette Kayyem, former Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental Affairs at the Department of Homeland Security. Feb 6. Lecture and Q & A: 5 to 6 p.m. followed by reception from 6 to 7 p.m. At Bentley University, Waltham. For more information, click
here.
LWVMA is initiating another Student Video Contest. The theme is Making Democracy Work in My Community. Entry dates: February 1 until March 31. For more information,
click here. The winners of last year's contest produced both funny and inspiring videos.
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LWVUS has recently produced several statements in response to activities of the new President which do not agree with established LWV positions. On Wednesday, LWV President Chris Carson released a statement on supposed voter fraud.
Read it here.
On Tuesday there was a press release on the League's position on the environmental impact of the pipelines.
Read it here.
On Monday there was an important statement on the blog on what we can do to follow up on the concerns which led some of us on the Women's Marches.
Read it here.
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