Dear Greylock Together,
There’s a lot going on, so let’s get right to it.
Phonebanking for Sara Gideon. To flip the Senate in 2020, we MUST win Maine. Susan Collins was the deciding vote to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court and to pass the 2017 Republican tax bill. She has moved from being a moderate Republican to voting with Trump 94% of the time, and Mainers are fed up and want to replace her with a progressive, pro-choice Democrat: Sara Gideon. Read her Reform Agenda here.
On June 14 at 2 pm, join activist and high school graduate, Maddy Art, an intern on Team Gideon, for a Zoom phone bank to spread Sara’s positive vision for Mainers! Maddy will lead a brief training to familiarize everyone with the software and script, and then we will make calls Together on mute. Sign up here or on the Facebook event.
Markey v Kennedy Straw Poll. The results are in from last week’s poll of our members, and they are not ambiguous.
Hoosac Harvest Seed Swap. Annual seedling swap will be held from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on May 30, 2020, in Mass MoCA’s main parking lot. Community members are invited to Wear MASKS and gloves, keep your Social Distance and bring seedlings to swap, or to come without seedlings and just choose offerings for their spring gardens. All seedlings are free–you don’t need to bring some to swap to take some home. Donations to Hoosac Harvest are encouraged. Contact Hoosac Harvest via kathykeeser@gmail.comfor more information or visit hoosacharvest.org
Whip Up Wednesdays at ROOTS. ROOTS Teen Center in will have a Youtube series of quick cooking videos, so people can watch the video & view the recipe for each box. All that we ask from participants is that they send us, or post to our page, a photo of what they make! This is for youth 13-22. Youth that participate will receive a free weekly box of the ingredients, including locally sourced produce, to use to make the recipes in the videos. For questions, more information and/or to register please contact Alex, Hicks-Courant at dropin@rootsteencenter.com or call 413-663-0250
North Adams Virtual Town Hall with Alex Morse. Please join candidate for Congress Alex Morse for a virtual North Adams Town Hall on May 28th at 6 pm. Alex wants to hear the stories and experiences of how the COVID-19 crisis is impacting you and your communities in North Adams, and talk with people not just about what kind of candidate he is, but also about how he plans to fight for and represent the people of Western Mass through this moment and throughout recovery. Event is here.
Honest Elections Project. Seems like a major dark money group backed by the Mercers and Betsy DeVos is pouring money into their fight against voting.A powerful new conservative organization fighting to restrict voting in the 2020 presidential election is really just a rebranded group that is part of a dark money network already helping Donald Trump’s unprecedented effort to remake the US federal judiciary, the Guardian and OpenSecrets reveal. The organization, which calls itself the Honest Elections Project, seemed to emerge out of nowhere a few months ago and started stoking fears about voter fraud. Backed by a dark money group funded by rightwing stalwarts like the Koch brothers and Betsy DeVos’ family, the Honest Elections Project is part of the network that pushed the US supreme court picks Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, and is quickly becoming a juggernaut in the escalating fight over voting rights.Read more in the Guardian.
Reminder: Williamstown Vote by Mail. If you live in Williamstown and want to vote for the upcoming planning board seat, be sure to request your ballot for the June 23rd election. Here’s a video by Town Manager Jason Hoch on how to do it, or just go to the town website for brief instructions. If you want to know more about the candidates, here’s the League of Women Voters candidate forum.
Reminder: Ranked Choice Ballot Question. Ranked Choice Voting is one of our priorities, and we need to make a final push to get it on the ballot for November! Because of COVID-19, they’re gathering signatures electronically. Go here to sign.
Reminder: Signatures for Markey. Senator Markey’s staffer sends along to say that COVID-19 has made it incredibly hard to gather signatures to qualify for the ballot. Go to this link to get a paper sent to your house that you can sign and return.
Reminder: Food Resources. The Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is collecting information about food resources throughout the area. If you live up here and you’re food insecure, you should be checking their Facebook page daily. Pittsfield and south county will find the Greylock Glass food resource map very useful, especially the calendar at the bottom, as well as the invaluable Berkshire Mutual Aid Facebook group.
Check out more news from this week at Muckraker Farm.
Events (GCal,iCal)Greylock Together Meeting
Zoom (link forthcoming)
June 7 @ 3:00-4:00 pm
Phonebank Training to Support Maine Senate Candidate Sara Gideon
Signup Link
June 14
Facebook Event
Resist and persist!
Alexander