BRATTLEBORO-Around the country and throughout Vermont, citizens will take to the streets Saturday, Oct. 18, to protest actions of the Trump administration and to share concerns regarding ramifications thereof.
In our region alone, one can join rallies and marches in Bellows Falls, Bennington, Chester, Manchester, and Wilmington, as well as Brattleboro, the previous site of several such demonstrations.
According to a press release from Brattleboro Area Action, Brattleboro's event, "Be the Change: No Kings 2.0" will urge participants to "stand beside all our neighbors as we continue to care for each other and cooperate in support of healthy self-governance."
The event "is a call to action for every neighbor, every voice, to join in rejecting authoritarianism, to focus on our shared priorities and to build a stronger community."
The protest is intended not only as a rebuke of tyranny and injustice, but an embrace of "a democracy that thrives on shared humanity, values, and interests; on freedom and justice for all instead of dictatorship."
Sponsored by National Indivisible, Indivisible Brattleboro, and Brattleboro Area Action, Saturday's event begins at 1 p.m. and is expected to wrap up at 2:30 p.m.
An opening rally will be held at the Brattleboro Common, 14 Park Place, with two brief speeches by State Treasurer Mike Pieciak and Django Grace, a 2024 graduate of Brattleboro Union High School, now a sophomore at Columbia University studying political science and environmental policy.
A march will then commence down sidewalks on both sides of Main Street from Brooks Memorial Library toward the Brattleboro Food Co-op with songs, chants, and more "uplifting" music by The Peoples Resistance Marching Band, The Good Trouble Street Choir, and other area musicians.
The Commons spoke recently with two of Saturday's organizers: Christine Scypinski, a retired landscape architect, and Heather Ashcraft, a dietician.
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Annie Landenberger: Tell me briefly about your role in Saturday's event.
Christine Scypinski: I'm part of the action resistance collective, as is Heather. We're one of five action groups with Brattleboro Indivisible.
Our action group concentrates on events, actions, potlucks, all kinds of community events [including the overpass protests, the Good Trouble protest in March, the Mother's Day event, the June No Kings march]. We've been part of all that, and we collaborate with other groups like Brattleboro Area Action.
Heather's the emcee for the event. I'm a safety marshal. Jill Green and I are trying to organize all the safety marshals so it'll be a very safe event. We need a lot for this one because it's a double-sidewalk march. So twice as many marshals are needed to cover the sidewalks.
A.L.: Is there any concern about this being perhaps a more volatile landscape than previous marches?
C.S.: Not really. Yeah, I don't think in Brattleboro.
Well, on the overpasses, we get people that definitely do thumbs down on I-91, trucks on the overpass that blow black smoke at us - that's happened at every rally.
But we've had very few counterprotesters. The police are very aware of what's going on and are also monitoring ahead of the event as much as they can through social media and the like.
Americans for Prosperity and some active Republican groups in Brattleboro have organized, so there could be more people [as counterprotestors], but I don't think it's going to be volatile, even if they are there.
A.L.: The release says you're going to distribute information on actions, meaning … ?
Heather Ashcraft: We're still making it. The last cards we distributed were advertising an event on one side and actions similar to what's on the 5calls.org website on the other. We send people to that [site] because it has a slew of topics that people can pick from to contact their legislators about.
A.L.: I ask because I'm one who doesn't want to just be moaning about what's going on. I want to know what I can do.
H.A.: I think a lot of us are there: What can we actually do? That's our concern. We're holding a rally, but the rally is just a point for us to connect and to set up options and awareness of things that people can do in between rallies.
Because that's where the real action happens. As fun as rallies are, we all have a job.
C.S.: And that's why we have Django Grace, because he wrote that wonderful commentary in The Commons ["Connecting dots," Viewpoint, Aug. 12] saying that we have a lot of work to do here in Brattleboro - locally.
A.L.: What about traffic Saturday?
C.S.: Well, the police are going to help us with traffic coordination: They're expecting leaf peepers for fall foliage, the [Brattleboro] Literary Festival, and all of us.
We had 3,000 last time, and this one hopefully will be even bigger. It'll be a lot of people in town, so they're already stacking up for that.
A.L.: Ah, yes, the Literary Festival.
C.S: Members of our group have met with members of the planning group for the Festival to tell them what we're thinking, to get their feedback, and to make sure we're not disrupting their people as they flow into the different venues.
H.A.: We're going to chalk the entrances so that protesters don't block them.
C.S.: Our marshals will be aware of the entrances and can help people cross the street if they need to.
A.L.: Parking will be interesting.
C.S.: It's always interesting. I mean, people found parking last time and there are parking maps online that are quite good.
A.L.: Let me give you a chance to each say what's in your head and heart in anticipation of this - and just [in response to] waking up to the news every morning.
H.A.: I think everyone is overwhelmed. There's more news than anyone can digest. And it's not something any one person can tackle alone.
We're trying to bring people together and to create a stronger, more resilient community where you know that even if you're not the one tackling a particular issue, another group has your back, so you can really devote yourself to the things that you feel most passionate about.
I think we'll have the most impact that way and that people will maybe be able to close their focus a little bit because we are so overwhelmed. You cannot carry all that's going on.
So how do we make it easier? How do we make it more effective?
And how do we stop what's happening so that we can move our culture and our community to a place where we feel safe and secure and resourced to tackle the things we need to tackle in order to build the tomorrow we all want to live in?
C.S.: You're ready to emcee Saturday!
A.L.: How about you, Christine?
C.S.: The news every day is very alarming and disheartening. But I really just reiterate what Heather said. There're many people doing so many things already in Brattleboro to try to stop what's happening. Indivisible Brattleboro has many different groups. There are probably 25 others.
You can volunteer to help feed your neighbors. You can just have people over for dinner to get to know them, to make connections. You can join mutual aid groups already out there.
So I just remind people of all the small things they can do that are actually easy - it doesn't have to be hard. You don't all have to call your legislators if that's not your deal. You don't all have to hold a sign at a rally or on an overpass if that's not your deal. A lot of the people in Indivisible Brattleboro don't go out and do those types of things. They prefer to write their legislators or just to meet their neighbors and organize a potluck.
The One Million Rising is another thing that's trying to get people to have small coffee conversations, basically, with their neighbors and their friends that aren't yet active - those who don't know what to do but who want to do something.
So it's all an effort to bring people up so that everybody feels like they're doing something. The more of us who are active, the better the outcome.
A.L.: You give some hope. Thank you.
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Organizers encourage participants to bring bells, to "let freedom ring." They add that "a core principle behind all Indivisible and Brattleboro Area Action events is a commitment to nonviolent action. We expect all participants to seek to de-escalate any potential confrontation with those who disagree with our values and to act lawfully at these events."
For more information on the action, visit 4thbranch.us and/or mobilize.us/nokings/event/84386.
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Editor's note: Columns that include interviews in this format are edited for clarity, readability, and space. Words not spoken by interview subjects appear in brackets, as do brief editorial clarifications.
Annie Landenberger is an arts writer and columnist for The Commons. She also is one half of the musical duo Bard Owl, with partner T. Breeze Verdant.
This News item by Annie Landenberger was written for The Commons.