Democracy Forum 4/15/22: Libraries: Defenders of Democracy

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

Key Discussion Points:
libraries and democracy
privacy protection
intellectual freedom and censorship
informed citizenry,
challenges and threats from book bans to funding

Guests:

Rich Boulet, Director, Blue Hill Public Library
Alexandra Hinrichs, Children’s Author and Middle School Librarian at Leonard Middle School in Old Town
Alison Macrina, Founder and Director of the Library Freedom Project
Jamie Ritter, Maine State Librarian

To learn more about this topic:

Book Banning Efforts Surged in 2021. These Titles Were the Most Targeted | New York Times, April 4, 2022
World librarians, archivists rush to save Ukraine’s digital history | The Washington Post, April 8, 2022
Tired of years of budget woes, Ellsworth library director leaving for MDI | BDN, April 5, 2022
Schools nationwide are quietly removing books from their libraries | Washington Post, March 22, 2022
Book bans and the threat of censorship rev up political activism in the suburbs | NPR, March 21, 2022
How this Old Town school handled a request to ban a book on sexual assault | BDN, March 18 2022

Prerecorded on 4/12/2022 using Zoom technology.

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Hannah Cyrus, consulting librarian, Martha Dickinson, Laurie Fogleman, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, Judith Lyles, Wendilee O’Brien, Maryann Ogonowski, Pam Person, Lane Sturtevant, Leah Taylor, Linda Washburn

FMI re League of Women Voters of Maine: www.lwvme.org

About the host:
Ann currently serves as Treasurer of the League of Women Voters of Maine and leads the LWVME Advocacy Team. She served as President of LWVME from 2003 to 2007 and as co-president from 2007-2009. In her work for the League, Ann has worked for greater public understanding of public policy issues and for the League’s priority issues in Clean Elections & Campaign Finance Reform, Voting Rights, Ethics in Government, Ranked Choice Voting, and Repeal of Term Limits. Representing LWVME at Maine Citizens for Clean Elections, she served that coalition as co-president from 2006 to 2011. She remains on the board of MCCE and serves as Treasurer. She is active in the LWV-Downeast and hosts their monthly radio show, The Democracy Forum, on WERU FM Community Radio -which started out in 2004 as an recurring special, and became a regular monthly program in 2012. She was the 2013 recipient of the Baldwin Award from the ACLU of Maine for her work on voting rights and elections. She joined the League in 1998 when she retired as Senior Vice President at SEI Investments. Ann was a founder of the MDI Restorative Justice Program, 1999 – 2000, and served on its Executive Board.

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Awanadjo Almanack 4/15/22: “Aprille”

Producer/Host: Rob McCall
Production Assistance: Rebecca McCall

About the host, Rob McCall:

Born in the Black Hills of South Dakota, grew up in Oregon and Illinois. Father was a Scots-Irish preacher, mother a Yankee Congregationalist tracing her ancestry back to the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Father taught him about Scripture, mother taught him about Nature.

Bachelor of arts in philosophy, bachelor of divinity in American religious history, graduate studies in education, doctor of ministry in congregational studies, certified in elementary education, tree fruits and entomology.

Worked as an elementary school teacher, tree and landscape contractor, church sexton, orchard manager, chimney sweep, ambulance driver, musician. Began second career as a preacher at age 40. Served as minister of the First Congregational Church of Blue Hill, Maine 1986 – 2014. He is currently chaplain of the Brooklin Fire Department.

Since 1992 has published the weekly Awanadjo Almanack which is broadcast to midcoast Maine and on the web at WERU-FM and appears in a number of publications. His writing has also appeared in Yankee, Down East, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, Island Journal and elsewhere.

His first book, Small Misty Mountain, was published in 2006 by Pushcart Press and distributed by W.W. Norton. Publisher’s Weekly called it “by turns inspiring and infuriating.” His second book, Great Speckled Bird, followed in 2012. His third book, Some Glad Morning, was released in October 2020.

Passions include wild plants and animals, and traditional fiddle tunes. Married for 53 years to Rebecca Haley, artist and singer. Father of two, grandfather of two.

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Common Ground Radio 4/14/22: Eating local foods in season in Maine

Producer/Host: Holli Cederholm

The April 2022 episode of Common Ground Radio celebrates spring, and all the delicious foods of spring. Host Holli Cederholm spoke with local food enthusiasts about what seasonal foods they’re cooking up in their kitchens. Roberta Bailey of Seven Tree Farm in Vassalboro, Frank Giglio, kitchen production manager at Ararat Farms in Lincolnville, and Wendy Watson, kitchen manager at the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA) in Unity, shared their favorite spring foods and recipes, from nettle tea to salt-cured goose eggs. They also dished on their favorite methods for food preservation, with tips for those new to putting by the harvest.

-Seasonal eating
-Spring foods
-Native and invasive wild edible plants
-Cooking and recipes
-Food preservation methods (fermenting, drying, salting, vinegar)
-Gardening

Guests:

Roberta Bailey, Seven Tree Farm in Vassalboro, Maine; recipe columnist for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, the quarterly publication of the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association (MOFGA)

Frank Giglio, kitchen production manager at Ararat Farms in Lincolnville, Maine

Wendy Watson, MOFGA kitchen manager and food liaison for the Common Ground Country Fair

FMI links:

“Wild Spring: Recipes for Foraged Greens and Roots” by Roberta Bailey, Harvest Kitchen columnist

“How to Plan Your Harvests for Food Preservation” by Roberta Bailey, Harvest Kitchen columnist

The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener
Ararat Farms recipes: araratfarmslincolnville.com/recipes

MOFGA recipes

Seasonal eating guides

Click here to sign up for MOFGA’s monthly Local and Organic Kitchen Newsletter

About the host:

Holli Cederholm has been involved in organic agriculture since 2005 when she first apprenticed on a small farm. She has worked on organic farms in Maine, Vermont, Connecticut, Scotland and Italy and, in 2010, founded a small farm focused on celebrating open-pollinated and heirloom vegetables. As the former manager of a national nonprofit dedicated to organic seed growers, she authored a peer-reviewed handbook on GMO avoidance strategies for seed growers. Holli has also been a steward at Forest Farm, the iconic homestead of “The Good Life” authors Helen and Scott Nearing; a host of “The Farm Report” on Heritage Radio Network; and a long-time contributor for The Maine Organic Farmer & Gardener, which she now edits in her role as content creator and editor at MOFGA.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 4/14/22: Cars Today & Tomorrow

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Cars have been pretty much what they have been for the last 50 or even 100 years. That is changing. Cars are such a big part of our lives that the way we interact with them will have some pretty big implications for our daily lives. Here are a few.

About the host:
Jim Campbell has a longstanding interest in the intersection of digital technology, law, and public policy and how they affect our daily lives in our increasingly digital world. He has banged around non-commercial radio for decades and, in the little known facts department (that should probably stay that way), he was one of the readers voicing Richard Nixon’s words when NPR broadcast the entire transcript of the Watergate tapes. Like several other current WERU volunteers, he was at the station’s sign-on party on May 1, 1988 and has been a volunteer ever since doing an early stint as a Morning Maine host, and later producing WERU program series including Northern Lights, Conversations on Science and Society, Sound Portrait of the Artist, Selections from the Camden Conference, others that will probably come to him after this is is posted, and, of course, Notes from the Electronic Cottage.

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Talk of the Towns 4/13/22: Maine Climate Action Groups

Producer/Host: Ron Beard

Local groups throughout Maine are bringing climate work from individual to local action. A Climate to Thrive, based on Mount Desert Island, Maine has recently convened community-based climate groups across the state to learn from one another, focusing on strategic planning and how to engage local citizens, young and old, and elected leaders. This program highlights the work of A Climate to Thrive, Green Ellsworth, Freeport Climate Action Now and Blue Hill Peninsula Tomorrow Climate Coalition.

-Each guest highlights what they feel is one or two significant outcomes, so far, of their organization’s work
-Each guest shares what their organization is working on currently
-A Climate To Thrive’s statewide work to bring community groups together to focus on strategic planning at the local level
-What is climate justice? What does climate justice “look” like on the ground?
-What does it take to organize for climate action at the community level—what have you learned

Johanna Blackman, Executive Director, A Climate to Thrive
Mary Blackstone, Community Liaison, Green Ellsworth
Kathleen Sullivan, Acting Lead, Freeport Climate Action Now
Allen Kratz, Blue Hill Peninsula Tomorrow Climate Coalition

About the host:
Ron Beard is producer and host of Talk of the Towns, which first aired on WERU in 1993 as part of his community building work as an Extension professor with University of Maine Cooperative Extension and Sea Grant. He took all the journalism courses he could fit in while an undergraduate student in wildlife management and served as an intern with Maine Public Television nightly newscast in the early 1970s. Ron is an adjunct faculty member at College of the Atlantic, teaching courses on community development. Ron served on the Bar Harbor Town Council for six years and is currently board chair for the Jesup Memorial Library in Bar Harbor, where he has lived since 1975. Look for him on the Allagash River in June, and whenever he can get away, in the highlands of Scotland where he was fortunate to spend two sabbaticals.

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BoatTalk 4/12/22: variety of topics

Producers/Hosts: Mike Joyce, Alan Sprague

Key Discussion Points:
a) rerun of show from 2006

guests:

About the hosts:

Alan Sprague a.k.a. Flounder of the Soul Show, has been a programmer at WERU since the glaciers receded. For thirty years at community radio he has worked his way from being an unpaid volunteer to being an unpaid volunteer today, and he says he’s worth every cent of it. In 2003 he and Mike Joyce started the monthly call-in show Boattalk which has become a boating related show without piers (pi). Mike and Alan met many years ago while both were working at the Hinckley Company. Alan was the head service carpenter at the Hinckley skunkworks called Bass Harbor Marine or sometimes Kibbee’s Kennels. He worked there for nearly thirty years and saw yachts of stories to tell yawl. As part of Boattalk they organize the annual WERU Boattalk Cruise in late June for a fun pot-luck trip up Somes Sound, America’s former fiord. Quite cunning Mike and Alan are to work a free scenic boat trip with fine food for themselves.

Mike Joyce bio to follow

Jon Johansen bio to follow

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Outside the Box 4/12/22: “More on Civil Rights Officers”

Producer/Host: Larry Dansinger

About the host:
Larry Dansinger (no pronouns) of Bangor came to Maine in 1974 and has been here ever since. Some of Larry’s activities since then: Done community organizing on numerous issues through INVERT and then Resources for Organizing and Social Change (ROSC), committed civil disobedience several times, grown a garden yearly since 1977, joined various food cooperatives and two men’s groups, refused to pay federal income taxes for war, lived on a community land trust for 23 years, and met a wonderful partner whom Larry has loved for over 40 years. Larry has produced Outside the Box features on WERU since 2007 and continues to look for unique ways of seeing almost any problem or situation.

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