Review of local and state elections
The candidates
Hooray for Paul DePalo (Governor’s Council), Keith Valley (Pathfinder School Committee), Anne Gobi (State Senate), Maura Healey (Governor), and so many other down-ballot winners! In the Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester District which includes Warren and other towns, Jake Oliveira won his State Senate race. A big shout out to Dylan for running DePalo’s campaign and to Eric for handling the postcard campaign for DePalo in our region.
Re-districting hurt Monson (far-right Republicans were out in force). Recently Jasmin spoke to Andrew M, who might be interested in challenging Ryan Fattman (for State Senator) sometime in the future.
In Brookfield, the two candidates for Select Board ran unopposed. Volunteers are still needed for the Advisory and Conservation committees.
The ballot questions
Mostly another round of hoorays because Questions 1 and 4 passed.
Key races in other states
In national politics, Mark Kelly (D-Arizona) won his senate seat. Results were quite positive (almost a miracle). In fact, election-deniers for Secretary of State offices all lost. Patricia said that a lot of people worked very hard to make these successes possible. There is still a run-off election for Senator from Georgia: how do we support Warnock? Happily, many volunteers stepped up quickly to write postcards; you can donate money; you can also join with Postcards to Voters or Vote Forward. Ellen also has another postcard project (not specifically mentioning Warnock but going to voters judged to favor him), but remember the run-off in Georgia is December 6th.
Upcoming Events
Dan Cusher who could not attend today’s meeting but sent us an email suggested we publicize a Mass Progressives Conference: Facing Our Challenges in Dangerous Times at Worcester State (hybrid) on 12/3 from 9:00AM to 5:00PM. Register here.
That evening is also a fund-raising Trivia Night from 6:00PM to 7:30PM. Register for trivia.
Those events are on our Grassroots Calendar available on our website. Janet mentioned a “Grief Ritual” in Worcester on Sunday (grief over environment, loss of many animal species, politics, social justice).
Subcommittee Reports
Climate Committee
1) Nancy attended a walk at the Quabbin and will report on what she learned. There is deep concern over some clear cutting in the Quabbin.
- Generating more publicity for our library book project will be discussed at the next meeting.
- Standouts in front of Chase Bank are continuing; the next ones are Mondays, Nov 14 and 21
- There is a webinar on “logging myths promoted by the Forest Service” on Nov 16.
- Jeff said there is still book money to be distributed – Janet will follow up.
Racial and Social Justice Committee
1) Meetings where we work to overcome our own inherent biases are ongoing; next meeting is on the 20th of Nov at 10:30AM. A business meeting will take place for the first half hour of the meeting. Evaluation of our support for “artifacts return” project will be discussed.
2) Exciting news on the return of artifacts to Lakota/Sioux elders from Barre Museum: It was an emotional and uplifting event. There was a large turnout (~150 people). The Native Americans were gracious and generous with their response to the return of these sacred objects; they presented the Museum with a gift, hand crafted quilts for several on the Barre Museum board, and also anyone who attended received a small gift. Even Native American youth came all the way to Barre to participate.
3) Request to our group to partner with Moms Demand Action to support omnibus gun legislation which will hopefully be introduced in the next session of the Massachusetts Legislature; this is also an opportunity to get young people involved (they are victims in school shootings).
4) Adding social workers to police departments: We’re continuing to work on this issue. Note there will be new police chiefs in West Brookfield and Spencer.
5) Diversity in the curriculum initiative: Intern completed her Powerpoint presentation, but Jasmin is still trying to access that information. Jasmin will also follow-up with results from the recent BIPOC educators conference; Jasmin is interested in regional meetings of BIPOC educators.
6) There is movement to re-convene the State Legislature in order to consider legislation like the prison moratorium. Jeana will send out a request to contact our legislators.
Political Initiatives
1) Follow-up regarding how to encourage volunteering, especially on Town committees: Can we work via the public schools, to engage youth? And their parents? Jasmin spoke about her experience with young people campaigning for her (these people are already interested). Voter registration at community events has been a successful way for her to get young people involved; she does a lot of tabling at community events. Danielle felt that youth engagement is a worthy endeavor, as she just returned from a conference for school committee members. We could encourage policy internships! Danielle will contact those interested to form a committee to follow this topic.
2) Everyone is a bit burned out from the election, but we are gearing up again. Indivisibles are still working hard – please consider helping out by phone-banking, texting, and “vote curing” (which means calling people whose ballots had errors and helping them fix them). There are still a lot of “crazies” in office, but we have to keep pushing back against them (there are some national examples like Stacey Abrams and Beto O’Rourke, who keep on campaigning against entrenched Republicans).
Next Meeting: Saturday, December 10 2022, 9:30 a.m.
