|
March 30, 2020
In This Issue:
|
|
|
|
Elayne Berger, Book Sale Chair
Nancy Dimattio, Recorder
Trish Farrington, Publicity
Bonnie Isman, Voter Service
Ann Kieser, At-Large
Phyllis Lehrer, Membership
Susan Millinger, E-bulletin
Deanna Pearlstein, Event Organization
Janice Ratner, Treasurer
Adrienne Terrizzi, Spokesperson
|
|
|
April 4-5,
Annual New England Regional League Conference, York Community College, Wells, ME. CANCELLED BUT individual sessions may be available through Zoom. See article below.
April 6, 1-3 p.m., Steering Committee Meeting, any member is welcome to join us for the meeting on Zoom. Contact Kathy Smith Campbell for the link.
June 25-28, 2020, LWV 54th National Convention, Hyatt Regency Capitol Hill & the Liaison, Washington D.C. LWVUS has posted the following notice about Convention:
Update on Potential Impact of the Coronavirus:
Please know that LWVUS's first priority is the health, safety and well-being of everyone involved with Convention. We are taking all developments concerning the Coronavirus (Covid-19) very seriously and all impacts and changes to Convention will be shared with members as they are decided.
|
To subscribe to the e-bulletin, visit
lwvamherst.org and click on the blue tab "Sign up for Email Updates".
|
 Don't forget to visit the Amherst League of Women Voters
Facebook page and "like" us. Marla Jamate, our Facebook editor, does a great job and deserves a wider LWVA audience.
Our website is LWVAmherst.org
|
|
|
STEERING COMMITTEE: A message from this month's chair, Nancy DiMattio
During this strange and worrisome time of the coronavirus pandemic, it is uplifting to cross paths with long lost neighbors as many of us take to walking the byways of Amherst's Orchard Valley. During my strolls, I have begun to reflect on my twenty -five years of living in this particular corner of Amherst. And it is inevitable that my ponderings led me to think of a woman who lived in my neighborhood at that time. We didn't walk together often, as our schedules were different - her children were in college and mine were in elementary school - but each conversation stands out in my mind.
It was through my neighbor that I learned about the League of Women Voters. How is it that I knew nothing about this amazing organization at 40 years old?! She told me about the League's focus and work on voter education and registration. She explained how the Amherst League members thought it important to study a governmental/regulatory issue in order to deeply understand it before taking a definitive position. She herself was an Amherst Town Meeting member and believed in actively participating in local government while advocating for important global issues. She believed in "peace not war" and planted a sign in her yard saying just that. She taught me that it was okay to disagree with her and we could still keep talking and walking.
Her kindness, intelligence, compassion, and commitment to clear thinking and citizen action convinced me that the League of Women Voters of Amherst was a group that I just had to find more about. I joined the League almost twenty years ago and I have never looked back. Well, at least not until lately.
Stay well, dear LWVA members.
With a special thanks to my neighbor, Alice Swift.
Nancy DiMattio
|
A MESSAGE FROM THE BOOK SALE CHAIR
A few thoughts on the 2020 Summer Book Sale
Some people have asked if we have a plan for our annual event. The first organizational committee meeting was to have occurred two weeks ago, and was postponed. The good news is that we are not currently behind in any required planning.
Currently, we cannot predict how long folks will be confined to their homes, as well as the impact of this virus, of course. Also, it is always possible the school might need to make changes to our reservation of the gym.
This leaves us in a "wait and see" mode, like everyone. After another week, I will ask the committee to meet on-line.
More updates when we have them. My sincere hopes that everyone stays well
|
|
A MESSAGE FROM THE MEMBERSHIP CHAIR
As membership director, all of you are important to me not only for League activities but general welfare. Social isolation is an issue with restrictions on gatherings. Therefore, if anyone needs a phone buddy or an email buddy let me know.
In addition, if any members want to volunteer to be a buddy let me know. Though we are apart we can still be together.
The League sends cards to members for milestone birthdays and anniversaries as well as get well wishes. If you know of anyone who needs a card let me know.
|
|
In Memoriam.
The Steering Committee regrets to report the recent death of Amherst League member Jeanne Potash. We send our most sincere sympathy to her family and friends. We are grateful for her many contributions to the League and to the community.
|
|
COMING EVENTS:Rescheduling/ Cancelling
|
The LWVA book group will not meet in person for the time being. However, there is a teleconference option via Zoom. Phyllis Lehrer asks that you contact her if you are interested; if enough readers are interested. she will try to set it up.
Email Phyllis or call 253-5179.
|
|
New England Regional Conference Cancelled but...
This year's New England Leadership Development Conference, planned for April 4-5 in Wells, Maine, for New England Leagues has been cancelled.
LWVMA is exploring offering some of the planned events in webinar form. If this is something you would participate in, please email Mary Ann Ashton and be specific about which speaker(s) you would want to hear from:
- Virginia Kase, CEO, LWVUS: the place of the LWV in the national landscape
- Yanna Krupnikov, associate professor, political science, Stony Brook University: why people don't vote and the most effective ways to change that
- Mufalo Chitam, Executive Director, Maine Immigrants' Rights Coalition: cooperation among groups to achieve shared goals
- State Senator Melanie Levesque: the important role of legislation in voter engagement.
If you have already registered and paid, you will hear from the LWVME office. If you have already made a reservation at the Hampton Inn, please call the hotel to cancel it, 207-646-0555.
|
LWVMA ALSO CELEBRATES ONE HUNDRED YEARS IN 2020
The State League was planning a Birthday Gala (was to be May 31 in Norwood). This will be rescheduled at a future date. The message from LWVMA is: "In the meantime, our 100th Anniversary Committee members are developing some interesting ideas to bring to you as virtual events. We will keep you posted!"
|
|
LWVA Annual Meeting 2020: date not yet determined
Annual Meeting has not yet been scheduled. The Steering Committee is seeking advice from LWVMA and will discuss scheduling at its April 6 meeting.
|
|
PROGRAM PLANNING MEETING, 3/3/20
Fewer than a dozen members turned out for the annual program planning exercise, held on March 3 at Applewood, but we had good discussions. The first order of business was to respond to the two substantive questions posed by LWVUS, which is scheduled to hold its biennial convention in June. The second order of business was local program planning.
The first question from LWVUS was whether we wanted to recommend another program in addition to or instead of the existing Campaign for Making Democracy Work. We largely followed the recommendation of the state League in supporting the creation of an additional program, responding to the climate emergency.
The second asked us to comment on LWVUS' trial of a new process, a "pilot concurrence" with a proposed national position on electoral systems While we agreed with LWVMA that the pilot process was poorly executed in this particular case, we also emphasized that we felt that this approach to expanding or updating national positions has promise. It is in fact the process by which LWVMA approaches its own studies, making use of a study committee of interested people from across the state to prepare study materials rather than using staff time. Note that the actual concurrence will be decided by the delegates to the June convention.
Next, we considered local program for the upcoming year. Joan Rabin proposed creating a guide to running for public office, and hosting a forum or other discussion as well. We identified possible speakers for a panel, including the town clerk and someone from the MA Office of Campaign and Political Finance.
The group also agreed it would be useful to have one or more public programs on responding to the climate emergency. These could range from a forum on what ordinary people can do individually to one or more forums on how to deal with systemic issues: what can we can do collectively, and what is preventing us from making progress?
You can find detailed summaries of the program planning results
here, at our website under the Member News tab.
|
Byline with Stan Rosenberg
In our second year of production, we moved to a new arrangement with host Stan Rosenberg and Amherst Media, with Adrienne Terrizzi continuing to serve as consultant on behalf of the LWVA for program topic, issues and guests.
Programs have focused on the Reorganization of Town Council Standing Committees, the new Town Services Outreach Committee, and the Community Resources Committee as well as other Town Committees such as the Transportation Advisory Committee, Downtown Parking, and Percent for Public Art. These programs are all
viewable and streaming or on local access Channel 17, every Friday night at 8:00 p.m. and Mondays at 6:00 p.m..
The final taping occurred on March 20th with Assistant Town Manager David Ziomek discussing Amherst's response to COVID 19. (Pictured
 .)
At this writing, Amherst Media has stopped production of all studio programs and has reduced staffing to protect the health of its staff and members of the public. Editing rooms and sign out field equipment are also suspended. Live remote coverage of Town Council, now meeting weekly and essential town meetings will continue to be cablecast and live streamed on Channel 17.
|
|
ON-GOING ACTIVIES: FROM THE COMMITTEES
|
Voter Service News
Emergency legislation improves voters access for delayed spring elections.
While most of us are staying 'hunkered down' to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, our Massachusetts legislature has passed S. 2608, new emergency legislation that makes voting from home easier for elections May-June 30. This bill expands the use of absentee ballots and early voting by mail and reduces the black-out window for voter registration from 20 days in advance of spring elections down to 10 days.
The Election Moderization Coalition, of which the Mass. League of Women Voters is a member, calls on the legislature to extend these measures to the September primaries and make similar preparations for the fall elections.
Voter Service Call for Action:
You can help make voting easier while protecting our community from the coronavirus crisis by asking Senator Comerford and Representative Domb to support these measures:
· Expand absentee voting by sending ballots to all voters, pre-paid postage for responses, and counting ballots postmarked on Election Day
· Expand in-person early voting windows
· Implement procedures for social distancing such as drive-in voting
· Further reduce the voter registration cutoff by adopting Election Day voter registration which is already law and working well in 21 states.
Election Day Registration Bills H.636, H.685, S. 396 are currently in the Joint Committee on Election Laws.
Contact Jo Comerford
here at or call 617-722-1532 Contact Mindy Domb
here or call 617-722-2400
-Bonnie Isman, Chair
|
|
LWVA Task Force to 'Get out the 2020 US Census Count'
We are days away from April 1st - Census Day. With attention diverted to staying safe and healthy during the COVID-19 crisis and its concomitant challenges, our Task Force suspended tabling and downtown activities in mid-March. We will not be able to be at the closed Library or Senior Center assisting as planned, but we have been looking for virtual approaches beyond our Facebook page and website. Although we were unable to insert our 2020 census flyers into the school food delivery meal bags, we are seeking alternate ways to reach parents, guardians and our Amherst school community. Hopefully the news that the U.S. Census Bureau's extension of the self-response rate to August will open other outreach opportunities.
During these days at home, please take the opportunity to add a reminder to your networks, friends, and neighbors to complete the 10 question, 10 minute on-line survey. It's not the first thing on minds, but it means federally funded dollars and support services for our schools and communities for the next ten years.
We've a long way to go, but together we can! The U.S. Census Bureau reports the following self-response rate statistics for internet, phone, or paper questionnaire through March 25th: National - 28.1%, Massachusetts - 29.9%, Hampshire County - 35.1%, Franklin County - 32.8%. No data was reported for Amherst; the nearest town was Northampton at 34.7%. The response rate map will be updated regularly every three days and is available to the public
here.
|
Bylaw Review Committee Report
The Committee has been meeting since October to review and update our Bylaws, originally adopted in May 1948 and amended 25 times since! The Committee formed following the suspension of Bylaw Article IV: Officers and Article V: Board of Directors at last year's annual meeting.
We've had 12 face to face meetings and numerous emails and phone calls. Finally, on March 23, at the very first LWVA Zoom meeting, the LWVA's Steering Committee approved the 26th version of our LWVA Bylaws with one amendment for clarity. It now awaits membership approval at our annual meeting. A more thorough report will be presented at that time.
Steering Committee Bylaw Review Members include Janice Ratner, Nancy DiMattio and Adrienne Terrizzi, joined by webmistress Kathy Campbell and additional LWVA members Joan Golowich and Joan Temkin .
|
Health Care Committee Report Feb-Mar 2020
Diana Stein and Barbara Pearson of the Health Care Committee gave two talks on Improved Medicare for All (iM4A) this month at the Bangs Center in Amherst, Feb 27 and Mar 11 (the last day before the Town closed all its facilities(!). While we conscientiously detailed the financial, organizational, and ethical advantages of iM4A, our most crucial message for the attendees was that "doing nothing" to solve our crisis in health care financing is not an option. Business as usual, even with various proposed tweaks that we discussed in our talk, is costing us more and more every year, providing less and less care to fewer and fewer people, and meeting fewer and fewer of their medical needs. We pay more and have worse outcomes on almost every health measure than other developed countries (per the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD).
Diana began the presentation with this cartoon.
I began my section of the powerpoint on the economic picture with this graph, which shows where and why our path diverged from Canada's.
The print gets too small at this size, but I'll translate. The chart compares each country's "health costs as a percentage of GDP"over the last 60 years. You can see that the line with the blue legend is Canada and the red legend is the US. The big blue box with the arrow pointing at the late 60s/ early 70s says "Canadian Medicare fully implemented." The big red box points at 1973, "U.S. HMO Act Passed." HMO = Health Maintenance Organization," or managed (medical) care. Read "managers, not doctors." That's when private corporations said (with no evidence) that they could contain costs better than the government could without losing quality. Fifty years of data shows that has not happened. Canadian prices are about 1/2 of ours and we're dead last in health outcomes--life expectancy, infant and maternal mortality, hospital readmissions, etc. Oh, but what about those Canadian wait times?! Actually, there is no wait time for emergencies in either the US or Canada. However, according to statistics from OECD.org, Canadians' median wait time for elective surgery is less than 4 months. While there are NO DATA on US wait times (from OECD or other sources, to our knowledge), my calendar tells me that I have a 3-month wait to see the nurse practitioner for a check-up.
Now that we're all in our houses and not able to present in person, send us an email if you'd like to go through the other 48 slides in our powerpoint (or a subset thereof) with one of us. As we know, the COVID-19 pandemic has only made the case for iM4A stronger.
|
|
Sustainability and Climate Action Committee (SACAC)
Nancy Brumback, chair of the LWVMA's Legislative Action Committee, made a comment relevant to SACAC's activity at a Zoom meeting to discuss how to carry on League business in this time of social distancing. Brumback pointed out that LWVMA is not trying to lobby for the legislation for which it would normally advocate, because the Legislature is focused solely on the current emergency.
Nonetheless, even though we tend to be absorbed in the current crisis, there IS a bigger crisis still unfolding, the Climate Emergency. What can we do? We can still send in our comments about the 2050 Decarbonization Roadmap. The draft Letter of Determination which seeks to set 2050 greenhouse gas emissions can be found
here. It is not a perfect plan: many are working for a goal of 100%, not "at least 80% reduction from 1990," and for a date closer than 2050. However, LWVMA has told us that it does move us in the right direction, and urges support for it.
The form for sending written comments about the roadmap to the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) can be found
here.
The deadline for comments is 5 p.m. on April 10.
Though the public hearings were cancelled in mid-March, EEA held a webinar on Zoom on March 27 which is to be make available to the public. Check the
EEA site for further details.
|
Centennial Commemoration Committee
While we wait for the return of times when we can again schedule centennial-celebrating events, members of the Committee will provide brief articles about aspects of the history of the League, good and bad. Here's information about a too-little known Massachusetts suffragist.
Maud Wood Park and the League
Maybe you have never heard of Massachusetts' own Maud Wood Park (1871-1955), first president of the League of Women Voters, who believed in reaching out to women the traditional suffrage associations had tended to ignore, and shortly after graduating from Radcliffe in 1898, organized two suffrage associations.
Seeing the lack of college women in the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA), Park organized (in 1900/01) the College Equal Suffrage League for college women and alumnae, which became a national organization. Reaching out to working-class (including Catholic) women, she was cofounder (in 1901) of the Boston Equal Suffrage Association for Good Government (BESAGG), serving as its executive secretary for 12 years. BESAGG sought to address issues such as poverty and prison reform as well as suffrage, though it came to focus almost exclusively on suffrage. Though small, it was effective: its work across the state was influential in making suffrage popular enough in Massachusetts (with its history of strong anti-suffrage views) that the state was the eighth to ratify the 19th Amendment in 1919. After that ratification, BESAGG became the Boston League for Women Voters, the oldest League in Massachusetts, dating its origin to 1919.
Meanwhile, from 1916 Park was in Washington, lobbying for the passage of the suffrage amendment as the highly skilled head of the lobbying team of NAWSA. Park was chosen the first president of the National League of Women Voters after it was was officially founded in February 1920. (From 1919 the League had existed within NAWSA, made up of the suffrage organizations of states which had already ratified the 19th Amendment.) The Massachusetts League itself was organized on May 27, 1920.
From 1920-24, Park served as both president and chair of the LWV's new legislative committee. From 1925 to 1928, Park became the League's legislative counselor, even though for reasons of health she had stepped back from official leadership positions. The emphases Maud Wood Park had displayed over the years: reaching out to many different groups of women in building organizations, and pursuing a wide sweep of social reforms, helped to shape the League she played an important role in building.
If you are interested in learning a more about this interesting and influential suffragist, consult her biography in Encyclopedia Britannica, on which this article is based (click
here), or a fuller biography
here. Maud Wood Park's
papers are in the Schlesinger Library at Radcliffe (the source of her photograph.)
--The Editor with thanks to the Associate Editor
|
|
|
|
Student Video Contest: MARCH 31 IS THE LAST DAY TO ENTER; JUDGES NEEDED
This year's student video contest asked high school students throughout the Commonwealth to make a 30-second video answering the question "Should 16-Year-Olds Have the Right to Vote?"
Information about the theme and the contest rules has been posted on LWVMA's
website.
Winners, who receive a cash prize, will be announced May 1, and there will be a ceremony for winners in June.
Be a Judge!
Consider being a judge for this contest. You will receive a link to all the videos and information on how to rank them. All the work is done in April from your own computer on your schedule. If you want to be a judge, emailTaylor Grenga.
|
Moderator Training will now be via Zoom.
LWV-trained moderators conducting candidates' forums are a key part to making sure democracy is not a spectator sport. The moderator subcommittee of the LWVMA Voter Engagement committee understands that more members would like to become trained moderators and that current moderators would like a refresher course. Please email Brynne Gorman if you would like to attend moderator training.
|
|
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Webinars
LWVUS will continue its diversity, equity and inclusion webinar series in 2020. The webinars will be offered on Zoom videoconference to allow more interaction and encourage members to join live as they are able or watch the recordings. Leagues are encouraged to watch recordings together and use them as a guide towards dialogue on DEI.
|
|
E-bulletin Staff and Contributors in March
|
The Editor of the LWVAmherst e-bulletin, Susan Millinger, can be contacted here. The Associate Editor is Trish Farrington; Janice Ratner and Phyllis Lehrer proofread the issue; Kay Fite checks the links. Contributors to the March 2020 e-bulletin include LWVA members Elayne Berger, Kathy Smith Campbell, Nancy DiMattio, Phyllis Lehrer, Barbara Pearson, Diana Stein and Adrienne Terrizzi. Material on LWVMA and LWVUS comes from either the League Leader Update or Mass League Voter. Pictures and other illustrations come from Barbara Pearson, Diana Stein, and Adrienne Terrizzi.
|
|
This monthly message is for anyone interested in the League, not just members. If you know someone who might be interested, forward this message and invite them to subscribe themselves, using the link below.
|
|
|
|
