On October 9 at 8 a.m. in Springfield, residents protested the eviction of Sue and Miguel Soto from their home. The sheriff arrived, then left without evicting the Sotos from their home at 275 Main Street in Springfield's Indian Orchard neighborhood.
The protest was organized by a group known as Springfield No One Leaves (SNOL). The group's web site is www.SpringfieldNoOneLeaves.org.
This photo was taken on October 9 at Keene State College. “The average college graduate with loans now leaves college $25,000 in debt. Student loan debt exceeds $1 trillion and is now greater than credit card debt,” writes Katrina vanden Heuvel in the Washington Post. “The debts are inescapable. Bankruptcy doesn’t extinguish them; even Social Security payments can be garnished to repay them.”
The full Washington Post article is at:
http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-05-01/opinions/35457797_1_studen...
These photos were taken on October 7. They show Springfield residents at city hall. They were protesting mayor Domenic Sarno's failure to implement an anti-foreclosure ordinance that the city council passed in 2011. Banks have paid their CEOs millions of dollars a year while forcing dozens of poor people out of their homes in Springfield in recent years. If the city had implemented the ordinance, the city would have collected millions of dollars in so-called "security bonds" and fines from banks, according to rally organizers.
On October 3, about 7,000 workers in Vermont voted to form a union. In Massachusetts, on October 24 in Springfield, workers will vote on whether to form a union. “We're looking for change from a company that is making millions of dollars,” Erskine Kelly told the Valley Post on October 1. He is a soup cook at Springfield College in Massachusetts.
This photo was taken on September 14 in Greenfield. It shows pedestrians and a maple tree whose leaves are changing color. To enlarge the photo click on it, then scroll down and click "see full size image."
photo by Eesha Williams
On September 6 in Chicopee, Massachusetts, near Springfield, about 120 people protested at a Wal-Mart store. Some of the protesters met with the store’s manager. The protesters held signs and spoke with shoppers near the front door to the Wal-Mart. Then they marched to the public property at the end of the shopping center’s driveway where passing motorists could read their signs, wave, and honk their car horns in support.
This photo was taken on August 30 near Brattleboro. It shows farmers making haylage in a field between the Connecticut river and the train tracks that carry Amtrak passengers to New York City via Springfield, Mass. photo by Eesha Williams
The below photo was taken on August 10. Dozens of kayaks and canoes were paddled by protesters near Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant. The reactor is three miles from Massachusetts and a stone’s throw from New Hampshire. On August 6 at the gate to Vermont Yankee, police arrested eight women for non-violent civil disobedience. The arrested protesters were Linda Pon Owen, Ulrike von Moltke, Hattie Nestel, Marcia Gagliardi, Anneke Corbett, Frances Crowe, Susan Lantz and Ellen Graves. They can be reached via www.NukeBusters.org.
This photo was taken on August 8 near Brattleboro. It shows construction workers preparing concrete molds on part of a farm field while farm workers hoe lettuce nearby. Between 1982 and 2000, the Connecticut river valley lost 27 percent of its farmland to Wal-Marts, parking lots, vacation houses for rich people, and other forms of so-called "development." That's according to a report by the Trust for Public Land, "The Connecticut River: Quintessential New England." Land trusts that are working to save farmland in our area have web sites at:
This photo was taken on July 20 in downtown Holyoke. Holyoke is home to about 40,100 people. Holyoke has the 2,200 acre Mount Tom state park, which has excellent hiking trails and vista points:
www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-west/mount-tom-state-rese...
One of the best restaurants in Holyoke is the Fernandez Family Restaurant:
www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g41614-d583730-Reviews-Fernandez_F...