Democracy Forum 10/16/20: Who’s Showing Up to Vote in November?

Host: Ann Luther, League of Women Voters of Maine

Research into voter motivation;
How new information can affect the way people form political opinions, make political choices and, ultimately, take political actions;
How research into voter motivation might be relevant in the 2020 General Election.

Guests:
Yanna Krupnikov, Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Stony Brook University
Meg McCormick, Maine Director & New England Coordinator, Campus Election Engagement
Shelly Crosby, Orono Town Clerk and president of the Maine Town and City Clerks Association.

To learn more about this topic:

Half of Americans Don’t Vote. What Are They Thinking? Colin Woodard in Politico, February 2020
College Students, Voting and the COVID-19 Election, Knight Foundation, August 2020
The 100 Million Project: The Untold Story of American Non-Voters, Knight Foundation
Maine watchdog may probe shadowy poll aimed at Democratic legislative hopeful, Bangor Daily News, September 2020
Opinion | Is America Hopelessly Polarized, or Just Allergic to Politics? (Published 2019), Samara Klar, Yanna Krupnikov and John Barry Ryan, New York Times, April 2019
Independent Politics: How American Disdain for Parties Leads to Political Inaction, Samara Klar and Yanna Krupnikov, 2016

Prerecorded using Zoom technology.

The mostly volunteer team at the League of Women Voters – Downeast who plan and coordinate this series includes: Martha Dickinson, Starr Gilmartin, Maggie Harling, Ann Luther, 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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Dawnland Signals 10/15/20: Maine Indian Land Claims: Origins, Intent, and Outcome.

Producer/Host: Esther Anne
Production assistance: Jeffrey Hotchkiss
[NOTE: Maria Girouard switched seats for this show, taking on the guest role while Esther Anne hosted]

The Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act of 1980 brought to a close a tumultuous decade in which the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy Tribes sued the State of Maine for the illegal sale and transfer of aboriginal land. The settlement was originally framed as a “watershed victory” but the Tribes soon found that the written document did not accurately reflect their understanding of the agreement. October 2020 marks the 40th anniversary since it was signed into law.

How did the land claims case begin? What were the tribes aiming to accomplish? And where did it go wrong? Join us as we begin this critical conversation about an important and complex topic.

Dawnland Signals is a monthly talk show that holds space for critical conversations of truth, healing and change here in the Dawnland. Co-hosted by Maria Girouard and Esther Anne of Maine-Wabanaki REACH.

About the hosts:

Esther Anne, Passamaquoddy from Sipayik, joined the Muskie School of Public Service in 2003 where she works on projects that engage and benefit tribal communities including facilitating the Maine tribal-state Indian Child Welfare Act workgroup and creating child welfare resources with the Capacity Building Center for Tribes. She had a primary role in the creation and establishment of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Maine-Wabanaki REACH. Esther now serves as secretary for the REACH Board of Directors and on the REACH Communications Committee. Esther lives on Indian Island and her family includes adult children and a grandbaby.

Maria Girouard, Penobscot from Indian Island, is Executive Director of Maine-Wabanaki REACH, a statewide organization working toward truth, healing, and change in the Dawnland. Maria is a tribal historian with a Master’s Degree in History from the University of Maine and a special interest in the Maine Indian Land Claims. Maria has devoted years to community organizing, environmental stewardship and activism, and growing food in tribal communities.

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RadioActive 10/15/20: Drinking Water Crisis at Sipayik

Producer/Host: Meredith DeFrancesco

For the Passamaquoddy Nation at Sipayik, public drinking water quality has been an unaddressed problem for decades, causing Tribal members to buy water, fill jugs at a local source, or rely on donations. The Passamaquoddy Water District (PWD) named after, but not run by the Tribe, is a so called Quasi-Municipal District serving approximately 618 households at Sipayik, also known as Pleasant Point, and parts of Eastport. The source of the public water supply, which individual households are billed for, is the local Boyden Lake and its watershed. At issue is water odor, discoloration and a documented high level of trihalomethanes (THMs), a chemical created by the use of chlorine in disinfecting water during the treatment process. As Boyden Lake’s water levels have decreased, increased treatment has been required to offset higher levels of organic matter in the water source. Elevated levels of trihalomethanes have been associated with health issues, including cancer and reproductive problems. Beyond drinking water exposure, trihalomethanes can be absorbed through the skin and inhalation during everyday use of tap water.

After years of inaction by municipal or state entities, and previous efforts by the Tribe blocked, the Passamquoddy is bringing the issue front and center by organizing multi stakeholder meetings, with representatives of the water district, state and federal agencies and the Tribe. Meetings began in January, and some headway is being made to find short, medium and long term solutions for safe drinking water for Sipayik and neighboring Eastport.

The Passamaquoddy underline that their lack of ability to act independently to solve the crisis is compounded by restrictions from the controversial Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act. This includes, the required approval by local municipalities for projects on Tribal so-called “fee land”. Currently, the Maine Legislature is poised to consider long sought changes to the Settlement Act in the bill LD 2094: “An Act to Implement the Recommendations of the Task Force on Changes to the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Implementing Act”, the result of a months long process with Tribal and state representatives, which passed out of the Judiciary Committee in August.

At the end of summer, Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Maggie Dana at Sipayik, Passamaquoddy Representative to the Maine legislature Rena Newell, and Passamaquoddy attorney and water advocate Corey Hinton sat down via Zoom with Sunlight Media Collective, WERU and The Maine Beacon to discuss the efforts to take action on the ongoing problem of safe drinking water.

Guests:
Passamaquoddy Vice Chief Maggie Dana at Sipayik
Passamaquoddy Representative to the Maine legislature Rena Newell
Passamaquoddy attorney and water advocate Corey Hinton

Today’s program was co-produced by WERU FM/RadioActive and Sunlight Media Collective.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 10/15/20: Ring Doorbells and Police

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Been recorded on a video camera lately? If you don’t think so, you might be wise to not be so sure. If you’ve walked down a street lately, there is a reasonable chance that someone’s doorbell was watching you pass by and recording your movements as long as you were within the doorbell camera’s field of vision. Think that is a great idea here in the land of the free? Quite a few police departments, well over 400 across the country, seem to think it’s such a good idea that in many cases they are using taxpayer dollars to help pay for these “Ring” video doorbells. And, by the way, Ring is owned by Amazon. Oh yeah, and the police can “request” video recorded by homeowners’ cameras without a warrant. Good idea? See what you think.

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Talk of the Towns 10/14/20 The History Trust: Connecting historical resources for all time

Producer/Host: Ron Beard

What were the origins of The History Trust… given that there are many local organizations who preserve historical records and objects, why was it important to create a new organization? What about Mount Desert Island and the surrounding communities gave rise to The History Trust? What inspiration does the rich tradition of local land trust hold for local history?

Who are the organizations who have come together voluntarily to create The History Trust… guests share their individual organizations missions and holdings and why they are committed to both their own organizations and to The History Trust? Bruce or others list the other organizations and what they are known for, their rationale for joining…

How does it all work… tell some stories of how the work is beginning to demonstrate the value of your approach? Examples of what current member organizations hold in their keeping and are sharing through The History Trust?

Guests:

Bruce Jacobson, Project Manager, The History Trust
Raney Bench, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Pauline Angione, Mount Desert Island Historical Society
Helene Tuchman, Tremont Historical Society

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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