Activism

The Affordable Care Act, in spite of its name, is not making health care affordable for many Vermont residents. One in five people in Vermont are struggling with medical bills. Meanwhile, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont, as a “non-profit” company, will receive a tax break of over $15 million this year, while ten of its executives are paid up to half a million dollars each.

BCBS has asked the Green Mountain Care Board (GMCB) to approve a premium increase averaging at 8.4%, with increases of up to 14.3% on some plans. This is considerably more than most people’s wages rise in a year, so this increase, if granted, will be a huge setback for many people who purchase health insurance through Vermont Health Connect. This big win for the insurance company will do nothing to increase in access to care, especially for people on basic plans with high deductibles and co-pays. If anything points to the need to get the insurance industry out of health care, it is the effrontery of BCBS’s request for premium increases that will make health care less, not more affordable.

A few months ago when I was reordering checks from Brattleboro Savings and Loan, I looked through the possible options for a logo/symbol to put on them, and came across a confederate flag as one option.  I contacted the bank to ask if there was a check company I could deal with that didn’t offer that as I did not want to support such a company. 

My request was not received with the most understanding response, and I was quite concerned that my bank did not understand my concern.  I let it slide, and tried to find a company on my own, but soon realized it would take me a long time to go through all the other companies and their choices, and gave up and went back to Harland-Clarke, through BS&L.  Then, the horrible mass shooting/murders in South Carolina happened, and the nation focused on the issue of the flag.  I decided I could not sit by any longer. 

As part of a fundraiser for Neighborhood School house, my wife is going up to the Canadian border and riding all the way back home. The fundraiser iwill help raise money to provide scholarships to the Neighborhod School House, based on financial need.

 Anything helps. We mean, anything helps. It’s about 200 miles. At a penny a mile, that would only be $2.00. Go for a nickel a mile, and that’s $10. 

Greetings! Below are the notes from the April 30th community conversation addressing homelessness. Thank you all for attending and continuing your efforts to address homelessness in our community.

For more information, contact:  info@morningsideshelter.org

Please share these notes with others as you see fit. Hard copies will also be left at the  by Monday, May 11.

Cheers!

Chad

From a close friend who has lived in Kathmandu for years. One problem with Nepalese relief is that there is substantial graft and one must be very careful about who one donates through. I just received this and want to pass it along. 

Besides Pachak Rinpoche’s relief fund ( Chokgyur Lingpa Foundation), here is another one where the money will go to relief and not to admin. costs. Friend, Chris Kolisch, has written below about a good place to donate for disaster relief here in Nepal:

     May Day at the Statehouse!   For a number of years now there has been an ever-growing public event celebrating May Day on the Statehouse lawn.  I went last year and was among 600 or so people having a very stimulating day. This year more than a thousand are expected.   Everyone is invited and urged to join in.  There is a big parade through the streets of Montpelier, speakers, a childrens tent, free lunch for all and a long line of organizations that are actively working and fighting for a just and sustainable future for Vermont.  It’s the largest annual gathering of activists in the state.  And its a lot of fun.  Activities run from noon to 4 PM.  Its a great place to meet people who are doing things.

Greetings!

On April 3rd, a second in a series of community discussions regarding a community response to homelessness took place at the  in Brattleboro. Attached are the notes from the evening, including several themes and action steps. The notes are also available in hard copy at the . Please share widely.

The next community forum is scheduled for Thursday, April 30th from 5:30-7:30pm at the , 118 Main St. Brattleboro. All are welcome. Details to follow.

BRATTLEBORO – On Friday, May 29 the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center and Morningside Shelter will host the third annual Camp for a Common Cause on the Brattleboro Common. The collaborative fund- and awareness-raising event has been a great success for the last two years, raising nearly $10,000 in 2013 and nearly $9,000 in 2014. All funds raised are evenly split between the two organizations, both of which work to alleviate homelessness in the greater Brattleboro area.

“We couldn’t believe the success of last year’s campout!” said Lucie Fortier, Executive Director of the Brattleboro Area Drop-In Center; “people kept coming out in the rain to join us for the barbecue and live concert. Everyone had a great time despite the weather, which only made the campout all the more poignant.”

Brattleboro, VT—On Sunday, May 3, starting at 3 p.m., people will be jumping from a boat into the chilly water of the West River to benefit Big Brothers Big Sisters, doing their part for The Marina Restaurant‘s Plunge for Charity.

The inspiration for The Marina Plunge, now celebrating its 10th Anniversary, came in 2003 when several Marina employees jumped into the river to celebrate a birthday. The following year they decided to make it an annual event for charity.

That year, a handful of individuals were thrilled to raise $1,500 for The Gathering Place, an adult day care center. Since then, the event has seen steady growth, according to founder and organizer Deirdre “Dee” Baker of Brattleboro.

Get on Board Windham County will be hosting its first-ever Meet Your Match event, a community volunteer fair specifically geared towards matching potential board members with nonprofits.

Windham County nonprofits are invited to sign up to have a table at the event. The cost is $35, and registration for nonprofits will close on April 27. Nonprofits should register at http://bit.ly/Board-Match.

Many local nonprofits are seeking to expand and diversify their boards. This event will afford them the opportunity to pitch volunteer service on their board to dedicated and skilled community members. In attendance will be the 2015 cohort of Get on Board Windham County Board Fellows, a group of young professionals who have completed a 20-hour board training course.

On May 9th, 2015, Putney School students will be hired out into the community to work for a charitable cause. We want you to help!

People from the greater Putney-Brattleboro community can hire students to do yard or housework for $8 an hour, for up to five hours, on Saturday, May 9th. The proceeds from our labor will then go to the Morningside Shelter .

The Morningside Shelter is a local organization dedicated to providing a safe space and ongoing support to families and individuals facing challenges of maintaining stable housing down in Brattleboro. As the only year-round homeless shelter in southeastern Vermont, the Morningside Shelter’s services are in high demand.

NORTON, Mass.—Marguerite Dooley ’15, a senior at Wheaton College in Norton, Mass. and a native of Brattleboro, Vt., has won a prestigious Projects for Peace grant to open a program for homeless and at-risk youth in her hometown.

Projects for Peace grants provide undergraduates at American colleges and universities with $10,000 each to implement projects that seek to promote peace, resolve conflict and build understanding.

Brattleboro Senior Meals Celebrates March for Meals

Brattleboro Senior Meals joins with the Meals on Wheels Association of America to celebrate March for Meals.  The month of March mobilizes hundreds of local Meals on Wheels programs across the country to reach out to their communities and build support that will sustain them all year long.

His Governor is considering clemency

Seems too obvious not to pass on.

It is extremely hard to find 100,000 people to sign a White House “We the People” petition, in order to qualify for an Official White House response.   There have been a lot of marijuana, cannabis, hemp, and medical marijuana White House petitions.   None of them have received the response the petitioners want to hear, so we all just keep filing more petitions, hoping that attitudes up on The Hill will change.  This new 2015 Make Marijuana Legal! petition is really dragging its feet, averaging only 100 signatures a day.  This petition needs help!

There have been so many marijuana legalization petitions at the White House, and none have succeeded in the ultimate objective, so it is important to keep signing more peititions.   The squeaky wheel is the one that gets greased; right?

Knowing that readers of iBrattleboro readily offer their opinions, I am putting the following link out there and look forward to comments. The video takes about 1 hour to view in its entirety, so with the oncoming snow, plan accordingly. What implications stem from the video for public policy? Town policy?

by Several Members of the Shareholder Forum

Recently The Commons printed an article and letters regarding the Putney Coop, changes to their by-laws and involvement with CDS Consulting. As members, we mean – shareholders, of the Brattleboro Food Coop, the assumption is that the Putney Coop is going to become like our coop in Brattleboro.  Perhaps not the size, but the management structure, profits and corporate feel.

In August a few disheartened shareholders started the Brattleboro Food Coop Shareholder Forum – for shareholders, by shareholders.  We meet on the third Sunday of the month from 5:00-7:00pm in the Coop Community Room. All are welcome.

“On King’s Birthday BREAK the BLACKOUT! Facebook/Twitter King’s Condemnation of US Atrocity Wars for Predatory Investments.” Ramsey Clark by jay janson for Ramsey Clark

DESCRIPTION:
Social networking Facebook Twitter YouTube cellphone cameras Everyone everywhere especially in countries suffering US bombings or CIA covert deadly violence, starvation! BREAK 48 year BLACKOUT of King’s condemnation of his gov.”greatest purveyor of violence in the world,” Don’t let genocidal media sucker our eyes and ears Use King’s 1963 “I have Dream’ to erase his 1967’That Dream won’t come true unless we end the Nightmare’

“At approximately 12:30 pm on 30 Dec, Police officers made contact with Robert Earl Lawrence at the Dothan City, AL Animal Shelter after he attempted to turn a stray animal over to an employee. Lawrence, a “sovereign citizen”, became disorderly after being told he could not leave the animal without producing identification. After repeatedly being told to calm down, Lawrence was advised he was being placed under arrest. A physical altercation ensued, to which Lawrence was shot in the abdomen. Lawrence, 30, was transported to the Southeast Alabama Medical Center where he was pronounced dead at 9:50 p.m. last night.” (CLG release)