VERMONT – More than 7,000 Vermonters came out between Thursday, Jan. 8, and Sunday, Jan. 11, as part of ICE Out for Good rallies across Vermont. Within 24 hours of the announcement, there were already 1,000 events anticipated nationwide.
photo by Ross Connelly
A rally in Hardwick began Sunday at noon, where speakers demanded accountability for the killing of Renee Nicole Good last week in Minneapolis, and an end to the months-long pattern of unchecked violence and abuse by ICE agents in marginalized communities across America.
Walden’s Bob Hawk joined the Hardwick rally, counting 70 activists on hand at 12:30 p.m., with more still arriving. He reported lots of cars honking in solidarity. Others reported some, but only a few negative comments for those in passing vehicles.
photo by Paul Fixx
Organizers with Indivisible Hardwick later reported more than 80 people had joined the rally.
Greensboro’s Anne Stevens said, “We need to stand up. We can’t let this go on.”
The Hardwick rally was attended by more young adults than most recent public rallies and protests there. Amabel Siorghlas from Marshfield was joined by Hardwick’s Dana and Rae Michaud, where Dana said he was there to “fight for the rights to a safe education.”
photo by Paul Fixx
He hoped by joining others along the street, “more people will see us exercising our constitutional rights.”
Manuel O’Neill said it was enough for him to be there if his presence was “giving one more person the courage to come out.”
Ed Sunday-Winters, pastor at the Greensboro United Church of Christ, was introduced as a speaker by organizer Jan Mueller, who said, “He’s a heck of a guy and a lover of peace.”
Sunday-Winters said, “I don’t know what to say and I’ve felt this way for the better part of the past year.”
“I have just one word today: Together,” he said.
“And us together: The power of us together and not letting others convince us we didn’t see what we know we saw.”
“We must believe we can be better than we are.
“And insist on it,” he said in conclusion.
An ICE agent shot and killed the U.S. citizen and legal observer Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis last week as she attempted to turn her car around to leave the scene after reassuring masked agents that she meant no trouble. In hundreds of events last weekend, people around the country responded in the face of the act of violence, raising their signs and voices in protest against the federal government’s aggression. From Burlington to Bennington, Vermonters participated in more than 29 individual actions, including vigils, marches and honk and waves, to demand accountability for Renee Nicole Good and an end to ICE.
photo by Paul Fixx
Arlene Averill said, “It’s going to have to get a lot more intense.”
In between chants of “ICE out for good” at the Hardwick rally,’ Melissa Jordan reported more than 60 people had been at a Morristown rally that morning.
She said she’s been very depressed the last few months, but this event and others before it help to break the isolation she and others have been feeling.
In Montpelier, the 5 p.m. Saturday vigil originally planned for 50 to 100 participants at City Hall was moved to the Vermont Statehouse lawn when sign-ups and word of mouth led organizers to expect 500 or more to join. Ross Connelly, who joined the event from Hardwick, estimated between 500 and 1,000 people were on hand for that evening’s vigil.
50501 Vermont, which serves as an umbrella organization for Vermont activism, collected information for 33 Vermont events across the state.
ICE Out for Good was a nationwide mass mobilization organized by a broad national coalition, including Indivisible, MoveOn Civic Action, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Voto Latino, United We Dream, 50501, the Disappeared in America Campaign of the Not Above the Law coalition, and partner organizations. across the country, is calling for a coordinated ICE Out For Good Weekend of Action on Saturday, January 10, and Sunday, January 11.’
Indivisible groups in Hardwick, Woodbury and an Onion River group in Plainfield are listed at the indivisible.org website.
Editor’s note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly indicated the day of the Hardwick event and misattributed the quote by Rae Michaud in the story and photo caption.
Paul Fixx is editor of The Hardwick Gazette and lives in Hardwick.
