The anti-war tradition in Thetford

Written by Lynne Rogers, Henry Nichols, and Duncan Nichols

At town meeting this year, attending townspeople passed the Palestine-friendly Apartheid Free Community pledge. (Please see the full text of the pledge that follows this article.)

The Apartheid Free Community in Thetford and is having a “Meet the Apartheid-Free Community” potluck to talk about how to move forward with implementing the pledge. This public event is Sunday, June 22 at the Thetford Center Community Building, 3923 VT-113. Doors open at 5:00 p.m. with a sit down meal at 5:30.

We are very proud of our town. Two of the reasons we are proud are that we have a tradition of collectively meeting at Town Meeting, a New England form of direct democracy as old as our country, and secondly, an appreciable number of the town’s people are willing to consider war and peace issues that others consider outside of town business. 

Beginning back in 1975, a trend started with townspeople bringing issues of the day to be voted on at Town Meeting.  Every two years on average, articles about central issues such as war and peace, nuclear war, and the viability of nuclear energy have come before the town for discussion and have been voted up or down or, very rarely, tabled.  (For this interesting history you can go to the Thetford town website under Community/Town Reports.)

The reason this is important is because town meeting resolutions and duly petitioned articles provide an opportunity to educate each other about points of view and subjects we could better understand through community discussion, be it war or taxes. Wherever you sit on the political spectrum, left or right, this is a shared tradition, and we are lucky to have it.

There are other traditions that we follow in addition to town meetings.  Cultural and political traditions. We speak out and try to help one another understand our responsibility as taxpayers when we are convinced that the national government has overstepped its constitutional or moral boundaries. 

Since 1975, for fifty consecutive years, Thetford residents have gathered in silent vigil on the Thetford Green to commemorate the atomic bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. “Never Again,” we say. This vigil begins at 8 am and ends at 9. The event is open to anyone who would like to attend.  

We are concerned that every year the U.S. Department of Defense’s budget absorbs half of our federal taxes. Add to this the cost of the Department of Energy’s nuclear weapons program which has also cost us trillions over the years. The costs of American wars (approximately ½ for past wars, and ½ annually for current conflicts which largely cover weapons procurements) take resources we could use for the benefit of our people. We wouldn’t be so worried about the costs of a town social worker, the town nurse, mental health agencies, or gravel for the road if our tax money was not used in overseas wars.

We would like to re-state that it was the original intent of the founding fathers to avoid having a standing army. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist Letter 29 “a standing military force will not long be safe companions to liberty.”

This brings us to Palestine. In 2023-24, American taxpayers paid $17.9 billion to fund what amounts to the Israeli government's war on civilians in Gaza, the West Bank, and East Jerusalem. Working from the government website https://www.usaspending.gov/  and using the number of households in Thetford, this amounts to approximately $183,000 paid out by Thetford taxpayers.

Besides our own financial concerns, the reason a majority of our town meeting attendees voted for the Apartheid-Free Communities pledge was to be part of a bigger effort–as with South Africa in the 1980s–of exerting pressure on the Government of Israel to end its apartheid state–and the occupation that makes apartheid possible. We will be joining the other Vermont towns that also passed the pledge. We all know that Israel would not be able to continue its system of oppression without diplomatic, financial, and military support from the United States. We now have to do our part to call for boycotts and divestment to help end that system.

Join the conversation on Sunday, June 22, to meet the Apartheid Free Community, hear Palestinian voices, including our neighbor Mohsen Mahdawi, and begin implementation of the pledge we adopted at our town meeting in March.

While this event is free, donations will be sought separately for two Vermont funds set up for legal defense and bail assistance to help those detained by ICE and other agencies "that we believe should not be operating in our fair state." These funds are the Vermont Immigrant Legal Defense Fund and the Vermont Freedom Fund. During a potluck dinner, attendees will enjoy live Middle Eastern music by the acoustic duo Seyir. "Again, this is a public event! Bring a dish to share or just come with your appetite as there will be plenty."

Town Meeting 2025, Article 23, Our Pledge:

• WE AFFIRM our commitment to freedom, justice, and equality for the Palestinian people and all people;

• WE OPPOSE all forms of racism, bigotry, discrimination, and oppression; and

• WE DECLARE ourselves an Apartheid-free community and to that end,

• WE PLEDGE to join others in working to end all support to Israel’s Apartheid system, settler colonialism, and military occupation.