by Yoav Elinevsky
Report on standout/canvassing event in Belchertown on November 14, 2021, 2-4 PM
The campaign to pass the Moratorium bill is focusing on 5 representatives who co-chair a committee that will decide if the bill moves forward or not. They are:
Judiciary House Chair Michael Day 617-722-2396
Judiciary Senate Vice Chair Eric Lesser 617-722-1291
State Administration Senate Chair Marc Pacheco 617-722-1551
State Administration House Chair Antonio Cabral 617-722-2017
In Western MA we are targeting the Judiciary Senate Vice Chair Eric Lesser.
This weekend the campaign organized standout/canvassing events in New Bedford, Winchester, Taunton, Framingham and Belchertown
On Sunday we stood for one hour with signs at a very busy intersection of Route 9 and Route 202 in Belchertown which is in Senator Eric Lessor’s district. We position ourselves in 3 different places at the intersection so that our message can be seen from cars coming to the intersection and stopping on red light from different directions. Big majority of the responses were supportive.
At 3 PM we went to a nearby a Stop & Shop to canvass. We talked to about 50 people as they were going to or leaving the supermarket.
One member of our team, Jess, said:
The first thing that comes to mind is just that it felt good to be in community with like-minded folks, and it gave me a lot of hope that we can pass this bill. I felt invigorated by how well our canvassing was received, and how many people we talked to were surprised by and unsupportive of the new prison construction being proposed.
It just goes to show how much sense this legislation makes – it’s plainly obvious even to people who hadn’t heard of the moratorium bill that putting such a large sum of money towards an industry that capitalizes on pain and suffering would be detrimental to everyone involved.
What next in Western MA?
A radio show on WHMP, Northampton
Planning and event in Springfield and Longmeadow.
— Yoav Elinevsky chairs MAPA’s Racial Justice subgroup
