In a message dated 3/27/07 8:00:14 PM, susandor@crocker.com writes:
 

Hi, Mary.

 
I just turned 66 and will be retiring from my child care job next January so will have more time for political activism, although I currently do a lot of it as the convener of the Women's Commission of the Socialist Party USA and the coordinator of a local, ad hoc, feminist network called the Connecticut Valley Coalition for Women's Lives.  I live in Montague, work in Florence.  I read the Purple Panther page and would like to start
connecting with other seniors committed to human rights in the context of social change.
 
Regards,
Susan Dorazio
 
Hi, Susan,
Great to hear from you. I will for sure put the word out with the women I know, and would hope for a positive response, but I wouldn't want to get your hopes up too high. Here's the story, from my point of view.
 
In the 90s, Ashfield had no senior representatives of its own, being a member of a four-town group that meets at the Senior Center in Shelburne Falls. So several of us from Ashfield thought we needed an action group of our own, and woman who had lived in Ashfield for a long time began calling around. We began with a group of seven or eight seniors, and started inviting others with information to give us in various problem areas to give us background information and advice on how to proceed. We raised money, put on dinners, met for lunch meetings, developed action committees to visit other nearby village senior housing developments, testified at select board meetings, and so on.
 
It worked really well and effectively for about two years, but then began to fall apart. One woman got breast cancer and dropped out. Three others, who had long-standing but background qualms about each other, began sabotaging scheduled meetings by staying away without any expressed explanations, and others began taking sides pro and con. A long-time Ashfield resident member - at least three generations - began spreading personal slander against the original organizer of the group - which I knew to be untrue, and told her, to no avail, most people being pretty sure they know the truth of things.
 
A new member, a woman who was also a several generations resident of Ashfield who also happened to be bi-polar, on medication, took over chairing the committee that had been doing such excellent research into senior housing in nearby communities, and discounted their findings, in the name and authority of a regional representative of Mass. state HUD. She listened to no one else in the meetings, and more people began dropping out. Called on for a report, she testified at a town meeting that the town had no prospects for senior housing. When I rose to amend her findings with what we had found, which was from a different source based in Connecticut, she took on a vendetta against me and threatened me at a luncheon meeting, which made me drop out. I believe the seniors may still meet for lunch every so often, and they may indeed have some ongoing projects, but I am barred out, at this point. I know that individual members have their own volunteer work for the town like monitoring election, running a blood pressure clinic, working for the library and so on, but I'm not involved, having been burnt once! Hope that doesn't sound too cynical. I'm 87, and value my health!
 
I guess I have left the pages on my Ashfield website so the work we did would not simply be entirely ignored or forgotten. Sorry to be discouraging, but Ashfield is so isolated up here in the mountains, and gas so expensive (8 (south) to 10 (north) miles down the mountain to the nearest grocery store) - and we are struggling as a town to limit driving as much as possible in our newly-formed energy group, which has all ages and both genders - that I truly wonder if a women's action group is possible at this point, let alone an elders action group. But I'm willing to try with the few I still know.
 
Best,
Mary Leue