Maine Currents 5/29/24: Checking in with our sisters in El Salvador

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Other credits: Audio segment contributed by John and Katie Greenman.

This part of Maine has strong connections with El Salvador dating back several decades.  Bangor has a sister city there, Carasque; MOFGA has a sister farming community organization, CCR; and WERU has a sister station, Radio Sumpul in El Salvador. Many people from this area have traveled to El Salvador on delegations coordinated by Sister Cities, PICA and MOFGA over the years, including today’s guests (and the host). Members of the most recent delegation talk about what they witnessed earlier this year, and the shift in the country under an authoritarian president.

Guests:
Karen and Paul Volkhausen, Katie Greenman and Willie Marquart

FMI:

Sister Citieswww.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/

PICA:  www.pica.ws/  or www.facebook.com/PICAinMaine

Maine Organic Farmers and Gardener’s Sister Organizations:  Association of Communities for the Development of Chalatenango (CCR), and the Foundation for Cooperation and Development (CORDES). These organizations foster a unique relationship, exchanging information and methods of farming, in addition to facilitating conversations about agricultural globalization and fair trade: www.mofga.org/mofgas-el-salvador-sistering-committee/

WERU’s Sister Station Radio Sumpul:

www.facebook.com/asociacion.Acopsumpul

radiosumpul.org/

weru.org/about/radio-sumpul-werus-sister-station-in-el-salvador/

Organizations working in/with El Salvador:

www.elsalvadorsolidarity.org/cripdes/

www.equipomaiz.org.sv/

Legal support organization, human rights violations including arbitrary arrests, inhumane treatment in detention centerswww.tutelalegalmariajh.org.sv/

Museo de La Palabra y Imagen (Museum of the Word and Image)  for the preservation of historic memory: www.museo.com.sv

Online Resources News Media   (Latin America):

www.wola.org/

elfaro.net/en/202405/el_salvador/27420/us-tries-not-to-offend-bukele-in-annual-human-rights-report

reportfortheworld.org/

gatoencerrado.news/

Books recommended by today’s guests:
robertolovato.com/unforgetting/

uwpress.wisc.edu/books/5754.htm#pk

 

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents Special 3/29/24: Sears Island, Part 2 of 2

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A discussion between reps from local environmental groups that are often on the same side on issues.  On the topic of industrializing Sears Island, a 940-acre undeveloped island in Searsport, the groups are split.
Today they sit down together and explain their positions, and learn where they agree — and where they don’t.

Guests:
Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council
Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust
Jack Shapiro, NRCM
Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island

Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers:

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents Special 3/28/24: Sears Island, Part 1 of 2

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

A discussion of Governor Mills’ recent announcement that undeveloped Sears Island in Searsport  is the state’s preferred location to build an offshore wind terminal.
What do people who have worked to protect the island from threats in the past think about this proposal?
For the guests who were part of the planning process, what are your feelings about that?
If not Sears Island, where?

Guests:
Steve Miller, Islesboro Islands Trust
Jack Shapiro, NRCM
Francis Eanes, Maine Labor Climate Council
Becky Bartovics, Maine Chapter of the Sierra Club
Rolf Olsen, Friends of Sears Island
Chris Buchanan, Searsport resident

Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers:

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents 12/5/23: Mainers Calling for Peace in Gaza

Host: Amy Browne
Engineers: Pepin Mittelhauser, John Greenman, Matt Murphy

This month:
We speak with three local residents– 2 of whom are Jewish and 1 who is Palestinian — about their goals, anti-Semitism vs criticizing the actions of the Israeli government, and what they think about the mainstream media coverage and messaging.

Guests:

Abdullah Al-Fdeilat, a Muslim Palestinian refugee who grew up in Jordan and immigrated to the US over 30 years ago.

Jamila Levasseur is of Jewish descent and lost most of her family in the Holocaust. She is a long time supporter of Palestinian rights and was arrested in November for occupying Jared Golden’s office demanding he support a ceasefire and stop military aid to Israel.

Larry Dansinger from Bangor is Jewish and has family in living in Israel. Larry identifies as both pro-Jewish and pro-Palestinian, pro peace and anti-violence of all kinds. 

Links and events that were mentioned by guests or callers:

Weekly rally in Blue Hill to support Justice for Palestinians every Saturday from 12:30 to 1:00, along the street in front of the town hall. “We try to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and urging a permanent ceasefire in Gaza”.

Rally in Ellsworth, on the bridge, every Sunday from 12-1.

People can sign up for notices at [email protected] to get announcements of upcoming events.

Maine Voices for Palestinian Rights mvprights.org

Boycott, Sanction, Divest bdsmovement.net

electronicintifada.net

mondoweiss.net

Standing Together www.standing-together.org/en is a grassroots movement mobilizing Jewish and Palestinian citizens of Israel in pursuit of peace, equality, and social and climate justice. While the minority who benefit from the status quo of occupation and economic inequality seek to keep us divided, we know that we — the majority — have far more in common than that which sets us apart. When we stand together, we are strong enough to fundamentally alter the existing socio-political reality. The future that we want — peace and independence for Israelis and Palestinians, full equality for all citizens, and true social, economic, and environmental justice — is possible. Because where there is struggle, there is hope.

Combatants for Peace cfpeace.org/
We are a group of Palestinians and Israelis who have taken an active part in the cycle of violence in our region: Israeli soldiers serving in the IDF and Palestinians as combatants fighting to free their country, Palestine, from the Israeli occupation. We – serving our peoples, raised weapons which we aimed at each other and saw each other only through gun sights – have established Combatants for Peace on the basis of non-violence principles.
CFP’s mission is to build the social infrastructure necessary for ending the conflict and the occupation: communities of Palestinians and Israelis working together through nonviolent means to promote peace. We believe that such communities can serve as a role model for both people, demonstrating through action that there is a real alternative to the cycle of violence. We believe that disseminating such activities widely can and will affect attitudinal change at the societal level and policy change at the political level. We envision Combatants for Peace as a strong, significant, influential bi-national community – a community that exemplifies viable cooperation and coexistence between Palestinians and Israelis. It is a movement based upon nonviolent activism designed to advance the termination of the occupation and to provide a foundation for relations between the two peoples subsequent to a peace agreement. Our Ultimate Goal is to end the occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders; two states living side by side in peace and cooperation or any other just solution agreed upon in negotiations. Combatants for Peace, founded in 2006, is a non-profit, volunteer organization of ex-combatant Israelis and Palestinians, men and women, who have laid down their weapons and rejected all means of violence. We are working together to end the occupation of Palestine, bring just peace to the land, and demonstrate that Israelis and Palestinians can work and live together.

The Parents Circle – Families Forum  www.theparentscircle.org/en/pcff-home-page-en/ is a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of over 600 families, all of whom have lost an immediate family member to the ongoing conflict. Moreover, the PCFF has concluded that the process of reconciliation between nations is a prerequisite to achieving a sustainable peace. The organization thus utilizes all resources available in education, public meetings and the media, to spread these ideas.  Our vision: To work towards an end to violence and towards achieving an accepted political agreement.

About the Host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents 11/7/23: Word Literary Arts Festival 2023: “A.O. Scott in conversation with Alicia Anstead”

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by Matt Murphy

This month:
 “A.O. Scott in conversation with Alicia Anstead”, recorded by Matt Murphy on October 21st. at the annual Word Literary Arts Festival in Blue Hill.  WERU is a media sponsor of the annual festival.

Guest:
A.O. Scott,  critic at large for the New York Times Book Review.

FMI:
www.wordfestival.org/
www.nytimes.com/by/a-o–scott

Sponsored by the Word Festival and Blue Hill Books

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents Special 10/31/23: Background on Question 6 from a Tribal Perspective

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This month:
Donna Loring on the Maine tribe’s support of Question 6 on the ballot this November.  Recorded on September 30th at an Issues Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Maine.

FMI:
www.lwvme.org/
Wabanaki Windows archives (new shows air on the 4th Tuesday of each month, 4-5pm)
Democracy Forum archives   (new shows air on the 3rd Friday of each month, 4-5pm)

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents 10/3/23: Author Ann Patchett speaking in Blue Hill

Producer/Host: Amy Browne
Audio recorded by Matt Murphy

This month:
A lively and often humorous discussion with Ann Patchett, celebrated author of “Bel Canto” and eight other novels, and Lynn Boulger, executive director of The Authors Guild Foundation recorded August 4, 2023 in Blue Hill.

Sponsored by the Word Festival and Blue Hill Books

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.

Maine Currents 9/5/23: Glampgrounds, Shaw Institute, Healthy Options, and Bucksport Landfill

Producer/Host: Amy Browne

This month:

Segment 1: Moratorium on “glampgrounds” in Lamoine — and lessons for other towns, with organizer Amy Morley of “Growing Lamoine Responsibly
Segment 2:  Meet the new director of the Shaw Institute in Blue Hill,  Charles Rolsky, PhD
Segment 3: A profile of WERU’s Healthy Options show and producers Rhonda Feiman and Petra Hall
Segment 4: Don White, one of the Bucksport residents fighting the reopening of a problematic landfill, joins us with an update

About the host:

Amy Browne started out at WERU as a volunteer news & public affairs producer in 2000, co-hosting/co-producing RadioActive with Meredith DeFrancesco. She joined the team of Voices producers a few years later, and has been WERU’s News & Public Affairs Manager since January, 2006. In addition to RadioActive, Voices and Maine Currents, she also produced and hosted the WERU News Report for several years. She has produced segments for national programs including Free Speech Radio News, This Way Out, Making Contact, Workers Independent News, Pacifica PeaceWatch, and Live Wire News, and has contributed to Democracy Now and the WBAI News Report. She is the recipient of the 2014 Excellence in Environmental Journalism Award from the Sierra Club of Maine, and the First Place 2017 Radio News Award from the Maine Association of Broadcasters.