Weekend Voices 2/09/08

Executive Producer/host: Amy Browne

Contributing Producer: Jim Campbell

Topic:  As the 2008 Camden Conference is getting under way, today we bring you one of the talks given at the 2006 Camden Conference.   The topic is China, past and present in this piece, produced by Jim Campbell, that originally aired in 2006.

Most Americans have begun to pay attention to China only in the last decade as China has become an economic power in the world. But there are another 5000 years of Chinese history. At the 2006 Camden Conference, Prof. Michael Tsin took on the unenviable task of highlighting the events from that history that have brought China to its place in the world today – in one talk! 5000 years in 55 minutes – hold on!

For information on this year’s Camden Conference, Religion as a Force in World Affairs, which will take place February 22-24, 2008 :  www.camdenconference.org

Family Radio Forum 2/08/08

Producer/host: Ron Beard, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Topic: Opportunity Maine:  helping Maine graduates, their families and the economy

Guests:   Rob Brown, Executive Director, Opportunity Maine;  Nicole Brown, Senior, Public Administration; University of Maine Augusta;  Philip Trostel,  Professor of Economics and Public Policy, University of Maine; Jamie McKown, Professor, College of the Atlantic,  Jasmine Smith, student, College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor, Maine

FMI: www.opportunitymaine.org

RadioActive 2/07/08

Producers/hosts: Amy Browne and Meredith DeFrancesco

For several months we’ve been reporting on the ways repressive governments, here and elsewhere, are promoting legislation that would make opposing them a criminal act in and of itself, regardless of any actual crime that might be committed.   At the same time, the word “terrorist” has become “new speak”.   

 In 2007 several people who engaged in acts of vandalism and arson over a period of several years were rounded up and charged with terrorism in the U.S.    The terrorism charges were leveled, not because they targeted a crowded subway or shopping mall,—on the contrary, they were committed to not harming a single life.  They were charged with “terrorism” because of their beliefs that the companies they were targeting were causing harm.  They resorted to vandalism after unsuccessfully trying to bring about change through legal channels.  If they had burned down a building because they liked to watch the pretty fire they would have faced the regular set of penalties, but because these folks are environmentalists they were charged with terrorism as well, as part of what has become known as the GreenScare.

Today we talk with Maureen Block, a Maine activist as well as the mother of an environmental activist labeled as a terrorist and currently serving a 92 month sentence for crimes of property destruction.  His arrest was part of the green scare which then Attorney General Gonzales called the biggest domestic terrorist  threat.  Maureen Block is one of the people working to get the word out about the next possible step in this process of criminalizing dissent, the Homegrown Terrorism Bill, also known as the “Thought Crimes Bill”, and introduced by our own Senator Susan Collins.  There will be a day of action in Portland , Maine on Tuesday February 19th, 2008

FMI: Maureen Block maureenfblock@yahoo.com,  Meg Perry Center via links at www.peaceactionme.org

Doing Business 2/07/08

Producer/host: Jane E Haskell, University of Maine Cooperative Extension

Topic: I Left Maine But Now I’m Back

TODAYS GUESTS:

David Carlson, Co-owner, Three Tides, 26 Marshall Wharf, Belfast, ME 04915
207-338-1707; david@3tides.com; www.3tides.com

Gay Dion, owner, Memories Made in Maine, PO box 34, Stockton Spring, ME 04981
207-567-4072; gayldion@fiarpoint.net
Dawn L Place, Assistant Vice President, Bangor Savings Bank, Clifford Commons,
PO Box 670, Unity ME  04988; (207) 948-5120, dawn.place@bangor.com; www.bangor.com

Call in show

Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/07/08

Producer/host: Jim Campbell

We all want our votes to count, whether at a Maine town meeting or in the next presidential election. But increasingly, we’re concerned that may not be the case. Electronic voting machines, although full of promise, are also still full of vulnerabilities, and that could be one big problem come November.