Today’s the big day!
All of us here at Race to Replace are sitting on the edge of our seats, waiting to see who will win the Democratic nomination for governor this evening. It’s a tight race and, given the lack of polling, we really have no idea who will win.
It’s good to hear though that despite which candidate wins, all will be attending the Democratic unity rally at noon on Wednesday at Union Station in Burlington.
eeek!
Happy Primary Day and remember to get out and VOTE!
Find your polling station at www.vote411.org
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
On Top of Mt. Mansfield
This Saturday, the Race to Replace team held a voter registration drive on top of Mt. Mansfield. A cursory googling reveals that no one has ever tried this before. Probably because they've never needed to. (Also, hauling a folding table up a mountain is oh so much fun.) This year's competitive primary election and crucial general are getting people excited--and looking for voters in unusual places.
By standing on the tallest point in Vermont and talking about clean energy, we hope to send a clear message to the candidates that young people are demanding a better, more sustainable, future--a future with 100% clean energy, green jobs and a strong Vermont economy.
The team at the top
Fellow hikers getting pumped about clean energy!
Pier registers to vote!
By standing on the tallest point in Vermont and talking about clean energy, we hope to send a clear message to the candidates that young people are demanding a better, more sustainable, future--a future with 100% clean energy, green jobs and a strong Vermont economy.
The team at the top
Fellow hikers getting pumped about clean energy!
Pier registers to vote!
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Energy Action Training in Chicago!
Last weekend, Olivia journeyed to Chicago for the Energy Action Coalition PowerVote Training conference. She returned, a bold youth activist bearing gifts of bumper stickers and t-shirts for her beloved housemates. Here are her thoughts and impressions:
Energy Action is a group that is working tirelessly to galvanize young people across the nation and foster the environmental movement from the ground up. The recent failure of the climate bill has led the environmental leaders of this nation to take a step back and look at how we came to allow such failure from our elected representatives. What we need, what we failed to have, is a movement behind our desperate pleas and actions. Energy Action, along with the 130 students who attended the conference and thousands of others across the nation is committed to creating this movement through grassroots action in their local communities.
I’ve always believed that one of the primary struggles facing the environmental movement is the perceived notion that caring about the environment is only for those who can afford it, those who can afford to put solar panels on their roofs or wind turbines in their backyards. This is most certainly not the case. At the conference Energy Action partnered with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, a community group formed in protest of the coal plant in their neighborhood. The plant, on the south side of Chicago was grandfathered in to the Clean Air Act and is only 3 blocks away from the community’s elementary school. Each year, it causes over 40 premature deaths and a thousand hospital visits for asthma and other respiratory illnesses. These people have neither the money nor the power to say, hey, don’t put a power plant in our back yard. What they need, and what similar communities across the nation need, is an environmental movement that demands equality and justice for all. During the conference, we marched against the coal plant alongside members of the community, an amazing and eye-opening experience.
Over the course of the weekend, we talked a lot about developing relationships and creating networks that we, as youth activists, can effectively leverage to achieve the results we want in our government. Luckily, that is exactly what we are doing here at Race to Replace. We need to continue this effort, creating and maintaining a coalition of concerned and angry young people who not only desire change, but demand it.
Check out the coalition's website to see how you can be a part of Powershift 2011!
Energy Action is a group that is working tirelessly to galvanize young people across the nation and foster the environmental movement from the ground up. The recent failure of the climate bill has led the environmental leaders of this nation to take a step back and look at how we came to allow such failure from our elected representatives. What we need, what we failed to have, is a movement behind our desperate pleas and actions. Energy Action, along with the 130 students who attended the conference and thousands of others across the nation is committed to creating this movement through grassroots action in their local communities.
I’ve always believed that one of the primary struggles facing the environmental movement is the perceived notion that caring about the environment is only for those who can afford it, those who can afford to put solar panels on their roofs or wind turbines in their backyards. This is most certainly not the case. At the conference Energy Action partnered with the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, a community group formed in protest of the coal plant in their neighborhood. The plant, on the south side of Chicago was grandfathered in to the Clean Air Act and is only 3 blocks away from the community’s elementary school. Each year, it causes over 40 premature deaths and a thousand hospital visits for asthma and other respiratory illnesses. These people have neither the money nor the power to say, hey, don’t put a power plant in our back yard. What they need, and what similar communities across the nation need, is an environmental movement that demands equality and justice for all. During the conference, we marched against the coal plant alongside members of the community, an amazing and eye-opening experience.
Over the course of the weekend, we talked a lot about developing relationships and creating networks that we, as youth activists, can effectively leverage to achieve the results we want in our government. Luckily, that is exactly what we are doing here at Race to Replace. We need to continue this effort, creating and maintaining a coalition of concerned and angry young people who not only desire change, but demand it.
Check out the coalition's website to see how you can be a part of Powershift 2011!
Monday, August 2, 2010
"We heard the blue jello slide was really fun. Even though not all of the jello was blue."
The above quote more or less sums up the quirky, whimsical and, well, blue atmosphere of the Deerfield Valley Blueberry Festival. We headed down to Dover, VT on Saturday for the Blueberry Parade--this year's theme was "Everything blue and agricultural" and the residents of Dover really took it to heart. (We caught some disdainful looks for our green t-shirts. Whoops.) There were children dressed as blueberries, a blueberry queen and even a pair of goats who had gotten the kool-aid treatment.
Sadly we missed the jello sliding, but we did arrive just in time for a town hall meeting with Bernie Sanders! Also fun! And considerably less messy, to boot. The meeting centered around health care and the economy--we asked a few questions about the Senate climate bill, but climate and energy were not hot topics for this crowd. This probably had something to do with the fact that, with the exception of the the 3 folks from Race to Replace, no one else was under the age of 30. We were also the only people to ask a question about climate. Climate change is a youth issue. If we want to open up a dialogue about climate change and energy in Vermont, we're going to have to do it ourselves (and before we have hospital bills and mortgages). We're going to have to sit through town hall meetings (and they can be pretty entertaining, so don't freak), talk to politicians, write editorials and VOTE. Especially the last one. Vote and it's amazing how people start listening.
22 days until the primary election on AUGUST 24TH. Register to vote with the Race to Replace team at one of our events or go to your town clerk's office. It takes about 2 minutes and there is almost no good reason not to do it. So what are you waiting for?
Sadly we missed the jello sliding, but we did arrive just in time for a town hall meeting with Bernie Sanders! Also fun! And considerably less messy, to boot. The meeting centered around health care and the economy--we asked a few questions about the Senate climate bill, but climate and energy were not hot topics for this crowd. This probably had something to do with the fact that, with the exception of the the 3 folks from Race to Replace, no one else was under the age of 30. We were also the only people to ask a question about climate. Climate change is a youth issue. If we want to open up a dialogue about climate change and energy in Vermont, we're going to have to do it ourselves (and before we have hospital bills and mortgages). We're going to have to sit through town hall meetings (and they can be pretty entertaining, so don't freak), talk to politicians, write editorials and VOTE. Especially the last one. Vote and it's amazing how people start listening.
22 days until the primary election on AUGUST 24TH. Register to vote with the Race to Replace team at one of our events or go to your town clerk's office. It takes about 2 minutes and there is almost no good reason not to do it. So what are you waiting for?
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