June's End :: Things To Do Guide 6/28/2024
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The Howland’s Open Mix Night Fourth Fridays Music Series
Cómo Converstirse en Ciudadano Dstadounidense
Carter's Restaurant Catch & Craft Bash
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Fourth Of July Fireworks At Beacon’s Memorial Park Thursday July 4th - Free Palestine
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The City of Beacon is hosting the community’s fireworks on Thursday, July 4th at dark in Memorial Park. There may be vendor trucks and things to do. You’ll have to show up to find out.
There will be the annual reading of the Declaration of Independence by Dennis Pavlock and Committee (Anne Thomas, Clara Lou Gould (former Mayor of Beacon) and Emily Murnane) at 11am at Town Hall 1 Municipal Plaza.
In protest of the United State’s ongoing participation of the genocide of Palestinians and people in Middle Eastern countries, by way of the funding of Israel with Made In The USA weapons that are destroying families and shredding children, A Little Beacon Blog will not attend either event. We will not be sitting under those falling ashes.
“Gypsy Moth” Renamed To "Spongy Moth" Because “Gypsy” Is Racially Offensive To Formerly Enslaved Romani People In Romania
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Photo Credits: Left is a screenshot from the Smithsonian Magazine website; Right is a screenshot from Europeana website.
When the news broke about those spongy moth caterpillars dropping from the sky, research revealed that they were the moth traditionally known as the “gypsy” moth. So is “spongy moth” a new moth? No. Thanks to an ALBB reader pointing it out, a decision was made in 2021 by the Entomological Society of America (ESA), where there was discussion about equity in naming. They announced the renaming with the launching of the organization’s Better Common Names Project, as reported by the Washington Post.
The term “gypsy” was a racially offensive term given to the The Romani people, who were enslaved in Romania for more than 500 years. According to Europeana, it is unknown how this group of people ended up in Romania, but some believe they were from India. “The main hypothesis is that they left the Punjab region of Northern India either as nomads or victims of unfavorable circumstances, such as war or natural disaster. Some theories state that the Roma population arrived in the Principality of Wallachia (the southern part of today’s Romania) as free people, but they were soon enslaved by the princes of Wallachia and Moldavia, who needed a workforce.”
As the Washington Post reports: “They were victims of persecution and genocide during the Holocaust, and the community still faces human rights abuses and marginalization. ‘Roma are dehumanized in so many ways: being associated with insects, being associated with animals,’ said Margareta Matache, director of the Roma Program at Harvard University’s FXB Center for Health and Human Rights. ‘And that is really how structural anti-Roma racism is justified.’”
The origin of the word “gypsy” came from England, who apparently mistook the Roma people to be from Egypt. A study was conducted in 2020, titled “Romani Realities In The United States: Breaking The Silence, Challenging The Stereotypes” led in part by Margareta.
They were victims of persecution and genocide during the Holocaust, and the community still faces human rights abuses and marginalization. Both the moth and the ant known as Aphaenogaster araneoides were named with the word “gypsy” in them to indicate a wandering nature.
But the person who came up with the name, Terry McGlynn, who had been studying this species for more than 20 years, wrote a blog post in 2019 titled: “Fixing a racist common name that I coined.” said it wasn’t until years later that he became aware of the implications of the name, according to the Washington Post.
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, “The new name, ‘spongy moth,’ refers to the insect’s light brown, fuzzy egg masses that resemble sponges. It stems from France’s common name for the Lymantria dispar— ‘spongieuse,’ per the ESA. Other countries like Germany and Turkey, also reference sponges in their common names for the moth.”
Watch For Wandering Joggers And Zig Zagging Flying Gypsy Moths While High School Track Is Closed
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Picture of the Track Closed sign during renovations, which a scheduled completion to be August 31.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth
During this season of the Track Upgrade, where the Beacon High School track is being replaced as a planned infrastructure project from the school’s 2021 Capital Project, as announced by Beacon’s Superintendent Landahl in early May, joggers and walkers who used to circulate on that track are forced to explore other areas of Beacon, often taking paved and unpaved trails they have never traveled on before. The track is heavily used by community members as well as students and faculty. “The work should take the entire summer,” Dr. Landahl explained, “but we will update the community when it will reopen in late August.”
That, coupled with the new wave of emerged spongy moths (formerly racially offensively known as '“gypsy moths”) from that storm of sponge moth caterpillars dropping from the sky on silk webs, makes joggers and walkers have much to avoid while outside. Vendors from farmers markets are noticing that they are also now dropping poop onto the vendor tents.
The old track that was dug up in preparation for a new track.
Photo Credit: Katie Hellmuth
While A Little Beacon Blog will not make public where the alternative jogging paths are in wide open spaces in Beacon, we will give you advice on how to live amongst these flapping moths flying all over the place, including, possibly, into your face.
It was reported earlier that the mating behaviors of the moths is that the females sit still and cannot fly, while the males fly “erratically” trying to find the females by following the females’ pheromone trails, as described by Cornell University. Essentially, you are walking through waves of love hormones. If you are listening to love music, like ABBA’s “Gimme! Gimmie! Gimmie! (A Man After Midnight),” then you may want to jog with your mouth closed, as a flying male moth may land right inside of it.
Several predators exist for the gypsy moth, which is a introduced and invasive species, including some bird species at this stage. Mice are important for eating the caterpillar version, as are wasps and even the Calosoma beetle.
Next step will be finding the eggs laid after the mating ritual, and destroying the eggs. Apparently fire wood is a source for eggs. Natural mitigation methods include recommending not moving firewood to new locations in order to contain the outbreak. Squishing the moths on contact can be gross, as you will hear their bodies break. Try catching them and flushing them down the toilet. Like with stink bugs.
Good luck.
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Beacon Flow Music & Wellness On The Solstice
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Fighter Jet Parts Manufacturer Ametek Rotron Disrupted In Woodstock, NY By Activists Opposed To Israeli Genocide On Palestinians
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by Arvind Dilawar
On May 7, activists opposing the ongoing Israeli genocide in Gaza — which has killed more than 36,439 Palestinians, including 15,000 children, according to Al Jazeera at the time of this writing — blockaded the Ametek Rotron manufacturing facility in Woodstock, New York. For 9 hours, more than 30 activists physically obstructed the facility’s two entrances using “lockboxes,” pipes allowing them to securely fasten themselves to one another. They maintained the blockade until law enforcement from local, county and state agencies, armed with riot gear, K9 units and angle grinders to saw through the lockboxes, arrived to forcefully remove and arrest them.
Photo Credit: Zachary Schulman
“Activists made it clear that there will be no business as usual while these facilities are enabling massacres occurring in Gaza.”
“Police proceeded to forcefully drag protestors backwards, still hooded, out of the driveway,” said an activist in their press release, referring to hoods that officers had thrown over activists’ heads.
Disruption of the F-15, F-16 and F-35 Fighter Jets In Woodstock
Photo Credit: AlexA BLAIR WILKINSON
Ametek Rotron produces fans, blowers and cooling systems for a variety of military aircraft, including the F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets, per the company’s website. The three fighter jets have been identified by Palestinian activists as some of the primary weapons systems being provided by the United States to the Israeli military. According to Workers in Palestine, a coalition of Palestinian labor unions and professional associations, Israel has a fleet of F-15s, F-16s and F-35s, all of which are being deployed in Gaza.
Disruption of the F-35 “Joint Strike Fighter”
Photo Credit: AlexA BLAIR WILKINSON
Production of the F-35 in particular has been targeted by activists worldwide, due its development as a “Joint Strike Fighter” produced by Australia, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States. Since February, a Dutch court has blocked shipment of all F-35 parts from the Netherlands to Israel due to the ongoing genocide, as reported by Reuters.
World-Wide Actions To Block Weapons Facilities
As the activists in Woodstock acknowledge in their press release, the blockade of the Ametek Rotron facility occurred within the context of similar actions around the world. Since 2020, activists in the United Kingdom, particularly those with Palestine Action, have targeted the facilities of Israeli weapons manufacturer Elbit Systems, permanently shuttering multiple sites. Stateside, activists have also demonstrated at the headquarters of Colt’s Manufacturing Co. in West Hartford, Connecticut, due to the company supplying M41A assault rifles and accessories to the Israeli military, as reported by Stamford Advocate.
Huge Amounts Of Money That Israel Spends On US Manufacturers Of Weapons
As reported in the article: “Colt’s Manufacturing has secured several major Army deals in recent years, including a $26.7 million contract awarded on May 1 for M4A1 carbines, suppressors, and flash suppressors, with the work to be done in West Hartford. ‘Fiscal 2024 Foreign Military Sales (Israel) funds in the amount of $26,675,000 were obligated at the time of the award,’ reads the announcement on the Defense Department website.”
Additionally, activists have blockaded a manufacturing facility of Lockheed Martin in Sunnyvale, California, due to its production of F-35s and other weapons used by the Israeli military in Gaza, per Democracy Now.
“This action is in solidarity with a global moment exposing the terror manufactured at facilities such as Ametek Rotron,” said the Woodstock activists in their press release. “... Activists made it clear that there will be no business as usual while these facilities are enabling massacres occurring in Gaza.”
Photo Credits: Alexa Blair Wilkinson
Beacon High School Students Fought For 2 Years To Have Both Muslim Eid Holidays Recognized As Day Off
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As first reported by the Beacon High School Newspaper Club April 2023 print edition, the Breaking Beacon, high school students in the Muslim community in Beacon fought for the last 2 years to have both of Islam’s holiest holidays, Eid al-Fitr (celebrating the completion of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha, be recognized as official school days off. According to reporting in the article, the students encountered a “back and forth” resistance from Beacon’s Superintendent Matthew Landahl and Board of Education President Meredith Heuer.
The April 2023 print edition of “Breaking Beacon,” the newspaper of the Beacon High School.
After presenting quotes from emails from the Beacon City School Board of Education, which stated “excuses” on why the holidays could not be made official, student reporter Nadeen Ahmed, in the final sentence of her article titled “School Inclusion For Muslim Holidays," stated: “We are hoping when developing the 2023-2024 calendar, these holidays will be considered.” Eid al-Fitr, which marks the end of the month long holiday of Ramadan, was recognized as an official holiday in April 2023, and experienced for the first time in 2024, during the time of the escalated genocide of the Palestinians of all faiths but mainly Muslims in Gaza.
“Muslims already have to deal with not being respected as a religion. People think our beliefs are fatuous and too oftenly get called oppressed when that simply isn’t true. We realize we cannot change everyone’s opinions, but not even being recognized, that is our breaking point,” Nadeen wrote.
She went on to report: “Students in the Beacon City School District have gone back and forth with the superintendent and the president of the school board, but have made no progress in getting them to consider having the rightful days off for these significant Muslim holidays.”
Why An Excused Absence vs School Holiday For Either Muslim Holiday of Eid Is Harmful and Dismissive
While the school board offered to give an excused absence to Muslim students recognizing the holidays, the reporter described why that was insufficient and harmful: “Offering us an excused day off will cause more harm than it will benefit us. The day will be filled with stress about the work that we will have to make up as well as any final, Regents, or AP exam review we might be missing, or even the test itself.”
“We understand that making a school calendar does happen after a lot of planning to meet the ‘necessary parameters,’ but these days should be considered one of them. In recent years, Eid al-Adha hasn’t been during the school year, but in upcoming yeras it will be. When this day comes, we expect to be at home, not worrying about the schoolwork or test preparations we’ll be missing.”
Nadeen described the feelings around both Eids, to help non-Muslim readers identify: “Imagine. It’s Christmas Day, you wake up full of joy and excitement to continue the traditions that have been in your family for what seems like forever. To open presents in your cozy pajamas, spend the day with the family you haven’t seen in months or years, and to dine on the most delicious feast that you have been longing for since last Christmas. Stop imagining. Muslims don’t get the luxury - scratch that - we don’t get the right to honor our holidays’ true intentions. Days that should be spent celebrating, are instead being spent at school.”
Nadeen described the meaning behind both Eids: “During the holidays of Ramadan, Eid al-Fitr, and Eid al-Adha, students are still expected to attend school. During Ramadan, Muslims don’t eat or drink anything from sunrise to sunset with a few exceptions to break their fast, this holiday lasts a month. Eid al-Fitr is a day Muslims spend celebrating the end of the hard month of Ramadan; celebrating our devotion and perseverance through the hardships. Finally, Eid al-Adha is a day commemorating the willingness of our prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son, Ismail, as an act of obedience to God’s command. None of these holidays are being given their rightful days off to be truly celebrated and honored in our school district.”
District Stated That Eid-Adha Was In Summer - But It Rotates and Is Here Now
According to the article, the Beacon Board of Education provided several excuses of why the Eid holidays could not be written into the school calendar as full days off. One of them including the timing of Eid al-Adha, which is happening right now - June 16th and 17th 2024. According to the BBC and to Muslims in Beacon: “Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th day of Dhu-al-Hijjah - which is the twelfth and final month of the lunar Islamic calendar. The exact date depends on the sighting of the moon. On the morning of Eid, Muslims gather to perform Eid prayers in congregation. People traditionally wear new clothes and visit family and friends.”
The Breaking Beacon article presented pieces of emails and logic to debating the adoption of this holiday. The reporter pointed out: “These holidays have been during that time of year for many years [Regents, AP exams, finals].”
The article quoted an email from the District: “Our first read of our calendar was approved at the last meeting….” But the student reporter disputed: “The calendar had not had its final approval, so why can’t it be considered? This is not a valid excuse for not taking our holidays into account since they’ve had constant reminders about it.”
The reporter continued commentating on quotes from the emails from the District: “They [the District] also replied with: ‘Eid al-Fitr is on a Saturday and Eid al-Adha is after school is out for the summer, so I am not sure these holidays impact our calendar directly this year.’ It was said that for the 2022-2023 school year, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha do not fall on school days. Not only is that not true, but it would only be justifiable for that one year. While Eid al-Adha is on a day during the summer break, Eid al-Fitr does lie on a Friday. They use these as reasons, but in reality, these are excuses.”
Both Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha Fell On School Days For 2024
This year, Ramadan was from March 10 - April 9, 2024 (as noted at MIT, which outlines accommodations given to Muslim students during that time, but also fails in giving both Eid holidays off as full school closures). Eid al Fitr fell on Wednesday, April 10, 2024. Superintend Landahl made the announcement in his email to district families a year in advance, stating: “The BCSD Board of Education adopted the 23-24 calendar last night (April 24, 2023). The calendar has some changes from the previous years. Eid al-Fitr, the final day of Ramadan, is now a school holiday on April 10.”
There was no mention of Eid al-Adha, which was Monday and Tuesday of this week, which has been a time of finals, Regents, and a heat wave which has resulted in early dismissals.
However, this recognition of Eid al-Fitr seems like a win for Muslim families and the community at large. Other districts in the area, like Wappingers Falls, do not give the day off. In the Breaking Beacon article, published before the decision was made, the reporter wrote: “These holidays are coming up soon, and the Muslim students of our schools have other choice but to dread these days. Our school district has done nothing to recognize the importance of Muslim holidays. We understand that making a school calendar does happen after a lot of planning to meet the ‘necessary parameters,’ but these days should be considered one of them. In recent years, Eid al-Adha hasn’t been during the school year, but in upcoming yeras it will be. When this day comes, we expect to be at home, not worrying about the schoolwork or test preparations we’ll be missing.”
During last night’s City Council meeting (6/17/2024), Councilperson Molly Rhodes of Ward 1 wished those celebrating Eid al-Adha a Happy Mubarak.
Does Your Monday Need This? :: Business Directory Features 6/17/2024
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