Brunswick Area Indivisible Newsletter #25
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"We are a grassroots organization of concerned residents of Brunswick, Topsham and Harpswell” Newsletter for May 31, 2026 Brunswick Area Indivisible Action Calendar: Sound Crew Training, Sunday June 7. The Action working group is looking for more sound crew for our big rallies on the town mall, like No Kings. No experience required! We'll have training sessions on the town mall in Brunswick on Sunday June 7th, 4:30-6:30pm. If you're interested, then please come to a training session and/or email Chris and Sheryl at action.bai.me@gmail.com BAI Monthly Meeting, Potluck Supper, Wednesday June 10, 6:00pm. Brunswick United Methodist Church, 320 Church Rd, Brunswick. The June community meeting will be a potluck. Postcarding, before the Potluck, Wednesday, June 10, beginning at 4pm. Brunswick United Methodist Church. Help write news boosting postcards, informing Mainers about how national news, they may be unaware of, affect them. All supplies will be provided (postcards, names , pens and stickers ). Donations for the cost of stamps are most welcome. Tabling at Brunswick Pride Day on the Mall, June 13. To join members of the Action Working Group at this fun annual event, email: action.bai.me@gmail.com Recurring Events (Brunswick) Tuesdays, 5:30 pm Brunswick Maine Street Route 1 Overpass Rally - Bring your signs and flags. Wednesdays, 12:30 pm Brunswick Town Mall Cosplay protest. Meet at the Gazebo- costumes optional Saturdays, 11:00 am to 12:00 Brunswick, Maine St. on Rt 1 Overpass. Bring banners, signs. Mark your calendars: BAI Book Discussion to be scheduled in October. Details to follow in August. The next title in the discussion series is You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History For Our Times by Howard Zinn. For other actions and events, visit Activate Maine and Mobilize Monday, June 1, Brunswick Data Center ForumBrunswick Area residents are invited to a public hearing at the Town Council meeting on Monday, June 1, 2026 @630pm to discuss data centers. You can see relevant documents here . We already have two data centers in Brunswick, making our town more desirable to developers. The two that exist already are EnablesIT Data Center, on Industrial Parkway and FirstLight Brunswick, on the Landing. Data centers tend to cluster around each other for better performance because the transfer of data is limited by the speed of light, no matter how it travels. The closer together centers are, the better the transfer. Virginia is home to 665 data centers, and provides the highest concentration of data management in the world. The state of Maine has 8. Data centers for Amazon, Google, Anthropic, Chat GPT are grabbing up energy, and even building their own unpermitted power plants to feed their limitless needs. They are polluting the air, ground, and water, stealing water during droughts, and literally making people sick. Light and sound pollution spreads for miles around these complexes, affecting safety, mental health and property values. (summarized from many articles, including Elise Labbotts, “ The New Neighbors Nobody Asked For” https://thepreamble.com/p/the-new-neighbors-nobody-asked-for ) When electrical grids get overloaded and rolling brownouts start, will the highest paying customer get the greatest benefit of power, or will town residents be deemed a priority? Most know the answer is that money talks the loudest, and these data centers have plenty of it behind them, with federal government support, too. Another major issue as data centers come to town are the many roles and responsibilities of towns, states, federal governments,utilities, and the development. Citing security, these data centers often require non-disclosure agreements, preventing citizens from knowing the scope of a project until after a deal has been reached. According to Elise Labott, “Part of the problem is structural. Local governments control zoning, but not regional utilities. States regulate pieces of electricity markets but not land use. Federal agencies oversee transmission policy but rarely determine where projects are physically located. Technology companies, meanwhile, operate across all of those jurisdictions simultaneously. The result is a fragmented system in which responsibility is dispersed widely enough that accountability often disappears altogether.” These issues and threats are far too great to resolve in 6 months. You are strongly urged to demand a longer moratorium for Brunswick. In creating the ordinance, Town councilors were eager to follow the example put forth by Representative Melanie Sachs, in LD 307. They should earnestly adhere to that instinct, and also adopt the legislature’s timeline. There is much work to be done to protect our town. Let’s take the time to do it right. ACTION: For immediate action, you can submit a short survey to the State of Maine. “Maine Data Center Advisory Council Kickoff Survey” asks for three questions you would like to see answered by The Maine Data Center Advisory Council. More importantly, come prepared to speak for up to 3 minutes at the Brunswick Town Council public hearing. This is at the Council Chamber, 85 Union Street in Brunswick. BAI Membership Meeting May 2795(!) folks attended this BAI meeting organized by the Education Committee. Averil introduced gubernatorial candidate Hannah Pingree, former 8 year state legislator who was the youngest woman ever to be Speaker of the Maine House. Hannah then reviewed her biography as a person raised on an island community, in a political family. She stated that her lifetime of public service addressing a myriad of pressing issues facing Maine people makes her a compelling candidate to serve as governor. Prior to launching her campaign for governor, she was head of the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future and feels that experience has informed the policy proposals she promotes-see link to her website. After noting recent endorsements, e.g., Maine League of Conservation Voters, she answered a broad range of questions from the attendees. In it for the long haulIn this month’s Wabanaki Alliance Newsletter, Executive Director Maulian Bryant reflects on her 20+ years as an activist on behalf of her community. In writing about the Wabanaki people’s struggle against inequity, she has a lot to say about carrying on through discouragement and discomfort, when social justice is dismissed as “special rights” or “fringe,” when revered leaders pass away. There is the grief of how time passes and the eras and people that fade from this world; but also the hope of what that passage has brought forth through hard work and struggle so that my kids will have a future with more opportunities and less adversity. The “why” for so many of us is creating the future our ancestors dreamed of. Her observations will resonate with many of us in the current struggle for justice, peace and a more perfect democracy. Check out the full newsletter here, especially the link to video of the Gubernatorial, U.S. Senate, and U.S. Congress 2nd Congressional District Candidate Forums the Alliance hosted this spring. Righteous retail?In contrast to the retailers that sold out to pressure from the Trump, administration, other major national brands stood firm and declared their continuing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies. Vote! Key datesThanks to the Lincoln County Indivisible newsletter for this list of deadlines for the primary. Primary Day is June 9. Check your town office for polling locations and hours. Key Dates to Know:
Voting rights still under threatThough a Federal judge dismissed the DOJ lawsuit against Maine and Wisconsin over their refusal to provide complete voter rolls, another court has declined to halt Trump’s executive order directing the US Post Office to create a master list of eligible voter addresses and prohibiting the agency from delivering mail-in ballots to people not on the list. District gerrymandering continues in many states. Indivisible National's current campaign: Fund Communities not ChaosInstead of delivering relief from the skyrocketing costs, Republicans are slashing safety net programs so they can pour more taxpayer dollars into Trump’s mass deportation machine, foreign wars, and corrupt and unaccountable agencies. Indivisible is urging people to contact GOP members of Congress and tell them we're not backing down. The party known for touting "Kitchen Table Issues" is failing their constituents. For background info and resources, check out the Indivisible campaign page. Action: Contact Susan Collins, email contact form, office locations and phone numbers. Citizen Initiative BlockedThe citizen led initiative titled “An Act to Designate School Sports Participation and Facilities by Sex” has been officially blocked from the upcoming November ballot by Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows. After an intense review process which was ordered by a Superior Court Judge, the Secretary of State’s office determined that thousands of the submitted signatures were legally faulty and therefore, invalidated. There were extensive violations of Maine election laws including almost two thousand duplicate signatures, out-of-state circulators and undated entries. The Widespread errors resulted in over twelve thousand signatures being thrown out which in turn severely damaged the petition’s qualification threshold. In total the ‘Protect Girls Sports in Maine’ campaign fell 532 signatures short of the 67,682 valid entries required by law. The Maine GOP sharply criticized the decision, but Bellows emphasized that everyone must follow strict petition rules. The petitioners have 10 days to appeal Bellows’ decision. The group will also have the ability to try to get the initiative on a future ballot. Delaney Hall Immigration Detention CenterThe current situation at the Delaney Hall Immigration Detention Facility in Newark, New Jersey, is highly volatile. Detained individuals have launched a widespread hunger strike to protest what they describe as brutal and inhumane living conditions. Advocates report the facility suffers from severe over-crowding and unsanitary conditions directly threatening the health and safety of everyone inside. Tensions boiled over when public demonstrations and attempted congressional over-site visits met with aggressive pushback. Federal agents used pepper spray and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters, family members, and elected officials seeking access to inspect the facility.This escalation has drawn sharp condemnation from civil rights groups, who are actively calling for immediate federal accountability and structural intervention. The dynamic at the facility is further complicated by a massive fifteen-year, one billion dollar contract with the private firm GEO Group. This agreement expanded the site to hold one thousand beds, drastically increasing New Jerseys’s detention capacity. Critics argue this expansion fuels an aggressive mass deportation agenda, transforming Delaney Hall into a prominent battleground for immigration enforcement. Legal and ethical controversies continue to mount as detainees allege widespread violations of due process. Many individuals claim they were abruptly arrested by enforcement agents during routine compliance check-ins, despite having authorization to work. Advocates emphasize that the current population includes vulnerable groups, such as elderly and disabled, who lack necessary medical care and proper legal representation. As always, if you have an upcoming action, article, legislative issue or story that you want to go out on the Brunswick Area Indivisible email list, send it to communications.bai.me@gmail.com Have you missed a newsletter, want to look back, or want to share a past issue? The most recent 6+ newsletters can be found on the BAI Posts page. Want to support BAI? We welcome your time and talents. Contact communications.bai.me@gmail.com for volunteer opportunities. Donations are welcome at our meetings and online through ACT BLUE.
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