Get ready for the biggest book sale around!

Plan to come to the LWVA Book Sale and buy your favorite books, CDs, records, DVDs, etc. There is something for everyone at very cheap prices. The dates of the sale are as follows:

Friday, July 27 9 AM - 7 PM

Saturday, July 28 and Sunday July 29  9 AM - 4 PM

Friday, August 3  and Saturday August 4. 9 AM - 4 PM

We have wonderful books this year just waiting for you!

Here are some highlights of what we've accomplished:

Election Year Events:

Election for the State House of Representatives:

Debate between Candidates for the Democratic Nomination for the Third Hampshire District, July 18

 

 

The Gazette and other Pioneer Valley Leagues are also cooperating to put on pre-primary forums for the other Hampshire District seats and the First Franklin District, as well as the Hampshire-Franklin-Worcester Senate seat vacated by Stan Rosenberg. The Senate forum is scheduled for August 13, 6:30 p.m. at Deerfield Academy.  

 

The Amherst League itself is focused, in this election season, on producing events to

acquaint Amherst residents with both the candidates for the Town Council and with opportunities to become involved in the transition to the new forum of government. (See article below.) In particular, primary elections will be required for both the at-large seats on Town Council and in all but one of the five Districts; only in District 1 have fewer than five candidates filed. Thus on September 4, voters will be presented with both a partisan ballot with several state and regional contests, and also a non-partisan ballot with candidates for the at-large seats and (except in District 1) their District candidates for Town Council.

 

So please attend the District meetings sponsored by the League on August 21 and the forum for the at-large candidates on August 29, and then make your informed choice on September 4!

 

(Note: the League e-bulletin and Facebook page would appreciate it if attendees at the district meetings would send copies of photos they take to the e-bulletin or the Facebook editor.)   

 

 

 

  Two of our three delegates have written reports on their Convention experiences. Brief excerpts are provided here; you can read the full reports by clicking on this link and then clicking on the file attachment of the report you wish to read.

From former president Rebecca Fricke:

... Being surrounded by over one thousand determined women open for discussion and ready to work is both invigorating and intimidating.  I would guess that most of us left feeling rejuvenated, but also wondering if we had the ability to do all that needs to be done to ensure our democratic system of government works for everyone....

Throughout the convention, the message from the speakers and the league leaders was consistent.  Although we have every right to be upset and angry with how things are going in the political arena and because most of our positions directly contradict what our leadership is doing and what our President believes, we must not lose hope and we must continue to work together to ensure our "democracy works."  At the same time, and some would say because the stakes seem to be so high, the LWV needs to look inward to maximize our potential.  We talked about two general areas in need of work.  1) We need to improve our electronic systems including our messaging and our capacity to collect data and  2) we need to diversify our membership to better reflect our geographic areas and we can start this process by increasing our understanding of diversity, inclusion and equity....

I attended a caucus on Youth Voter Registration: Learn Winning Tactics! - the short of it is that I am determined to get voter registration into ARHS on a regular basis.  The Leagues that presented do voter drives in school systems with thousands of kids.  We should be able to handle a hundred in Amherst! .... in other places the leagues actually have permanent displays in guidance and also regular presentations as part of class time....

... The twenty or so Massachusetts leaguers said their goodbyes and promised each other to be in touch via a group zoom meeting. The looming question is, "How can we take what we've learned and help our local leagues grow and become even more effective!?"

From Barbara Pearson, Amherst Area Hub of Western MA Medicare 4 All

... The greatest excitement for me of the national LWV convention was to participate in the Health Care Caucus, coordinated by the League in MetroPhoenix, with participants from 8 states (MA, LA, CA, WA, VT, MI, NC, CO).  Planning began in earnest among the 16 organizers in April and culminated with the caucus, early Sunday morning July 1, the last day of the convention....

 

One of the early goals of the caucus was to try to elevate healthcare in League priorities at the national level, but we ended up concentrating on creating more awareness-our goal here at home.  The League is, potentially, a great resource for Single Payer, but frankly, we're going backwards.  Single Payer was first adopted by the League in 1993 and was addressed again formally from the floor of the convention in 2016, but it has slipped.  With active voter suppression and looming losses in democratic process, to say nothing of the national lack of humanity at an unimaginable scale, LWVUS feels it urgent to focus on VOTING at the expense of other advocacy....

Luckily, there's a lot of talk about Single Payer.  Lots of candidates in lots of states are "for" Single Payer.  How do we take talk and make it policy?! 

For the caucus, I'm now trying to nudge the post-conference follow-up that we talked about and volunteered for.  It's a patchy network-but it's a network, and a great goal.

	Here's the new logo on the new t-shirt