Chittenden County

From the organizer:

Vermonters and The Blockade Board’s Backdoor War

In June 1861, the United States Navy Department convened a small working group in Washington DC to rapidly put in place an ambitious strategy to guide a total blockade of the Confederacy: 3,500 miles of coastline and 180 ports. This small group of four individuals, known as the “blockade board,” set in motion plans for a series of amphibious landings, from North Carolina to Louisiana in support of the expanding United States naval blockade, which UVM adjunct associate professor of history, Rolf Diamant, calls the “backdoor war.” The intended and unintended consequences of this backdoor war contributed to the hollowing out of the Confederacy’s slave-labor based economy, the acceleration of emancipation, the final defeat of the rebellion, and an end to slavery. Spearheading the amphibious landings in the Gulf were Vermonters fighting with the 7th and 8th Regiments. As they advanced deep into the Mississippi Delta, a region with one of the highest concentrations of enslaved people in the South, Vermont soldiers interacted with thousands of self-emancipated African Americans both as refugees, and later as soldiers in the United States Colored Troops. Diamant will explain how Vermonters played a consequential but little understood role in this social revolution; first arming and training freedmen; then accepting commissions to lead black troops into battle; and finally in service with the Freedmen’s Bureau during Reconstruction.

Rolf Diamant is a UVM adjunct associate professor and former superintendent of five national parks. He is co-author with Ethan Carr of the new book Olmsted and Yosemite: Civil War, Abolition, and the National Park Idea (LALH – 2022), and co editor and contributing author of A Thinking Person’s Guide to America’s National Parks (Braziller —2016.). He has lectured on the causes and consequences of the American Civil War including on the protection of Yosemite Valley (1864) in the wider context of war-related legislation and reforms. Rolf served as a gubernatorial appointee to the Vermont Civil War Sesquicentennial Commission (2011-2015.)

For more information on current procedures and meeting dates for the Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission, please visit ccrpcvt.org/about-us/commission/agendas-minutes.

From Gary De Carolis:

Five words that descript Peter: Adventurous, Affable, Political, Pain-in-the-Ass, and Family Oriented.

Peter Clavelle has more than 40 years of experience in local government and decentralization in both the U.S. and international arenas. As a former mayor and city manager, Peter brings direct, practical experience in managing local government affairs.  He served seven terms as Mayor of Burlington, Vermont - a city that is often held up as a national and international model for its work in the area of sustainable community development. During Mayor Clavelle’s tenure as the longest serving mayor in the City’s history, Burlington revitalized the downtown and the waterfront, and launched affordable housing initiatives. Prior to being elected Mayor, Peter was Burlington’s Community and Economic Development Director and served as the municipal manager in two Vermont communities. He has held leadership positions with the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Peter is a leading advocate for the sustainable communities’ movement and has spoken at numerous conferences and seminars. In the 1990’s, he lived and worked in Grenada and was a team member on a local government project in Gaza.

Upon leaving the Mayor’s office in 2006, Peter went on to join Tetra Tech ARD. For three-and-a-half years, he served as Manager of the firm’s Democracy and Governance Sector. From January 2012 through April 2016, he served as Chief of Party of the USAID Planning and Local Governance Project (PLGP) in Albania. Prior USAID assignments have included work on local governance projects in Macedonia, Jordan and Uganda. In 2010, Peter served as Acting Chief of Party leading the start- up of USAID’s Afghanistan’s Kabul City Initiative (KCI), a $120 million program to improve municipal services for the city of Kabul. He continues to consultant on a part-time basis as decentralization and local governance expert and resides in Burlington with his spouse, Betsy Ferries.

He holds a B.A. in Urban Studies and a Master of Public Administration (M.P.A.) degree from the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.

From Skywatch:

Hosts Jimmy Leas and Danaka Katovich interview guest Dan Castrigano, campaigner with Safe Landing BTV.

The movement to ground unnecessary flights is growing. This includes the climate-killing F-35s, private jets, and other unnecessary flights. On May 23rd, more than 30 activists gathered at Patrick Leahy Burlington International Airport to voice these demands. This action was in solidarity with an action on the same day in Geneva, Switzerland, where activists protested at EBACE, the largest private jet sales event in Europe. More than 100 activists were arrested demanding an immediate ban on private jets.

Dan is an educator and community organizer fighting for climate and social justice. Dan is a campaigner with Safe Landing BTV, which demands an immediate ban on private jets and a 50% reduction of emissions at Patricky Leahy International Airport by 2030. You can find Safe Landing BTV at safelandingbtv.org and on social media @safelandingbtv. Dan also campaigns with Flight Free USA and Flight Free Vermont, where folks pledge to fly less, take a flight free year, or quit flying altogether because of the climate crisis. You can pledge to be flight free at flightfree.org.

For more information: www.codepink.org | www.CancelF35.substack.com