Like many people in the Valley and across the country, I couldn’t imagine a weekday without Amy Goodman’s news program, “Democracy Now!”
Amy and her colleagues invite influential people to speak for themselves about events without the filters of mainstream news practices. And Amy and her colleagues often realize that mainstream news outlets do not necessarily recognize nor include many of the most important influencers.
Think Medea Benjamin or the Berrigans or Allan Nairn or Noam Chomsky or John Bonifaz or Sut Jhally, among many others, who challenge conventional expectations by speaking truth to power or revealing information that mainstream outlets might suppress. Amy and her cohosts interview them and others to illuminate our understanding of our nation and our world.
I think “Democracy Now!” is a superb, reliable program available at eight each weekday morning on Northampton Cable Television, NCTV, Channel 12, and on WMUA radio. Valley Free Radio, WXOJ, broadcasts it daily at five each afternoon. It also airs whenever anyone wants at democracynow.org.
Even though I look forward to beginning the day with the program, it wasn’t always easy. “Democracy Now!” began broadcasting from New York in 1996, but we didn’t have it nor any other alternative independent media in the Valley until after September 11, 2001.
I had heard about “Democracy Now!” before a family trip to Maine soon after 9/11, but I hadn’t heard the program till I was there listening every day to Maine Public Radio. Hearing Amy and her show convinced me that I wanted to bring it to the Valley.
When I returned from Maine, I approached local public radio with the idea that “Democracy Now!” would appeal to Valley audiences. However, the radio station management disagreed, and no one in authority supported the idea.
Then the late Ed Russell took the initiative to see me one day at our Northampton Vigil to Stop the Wars. I learned that Ed, a local musician and activist, downloaded the program to a compact disc every day, then climbed Mount Holyoke in order to find a radio signal he could use to broadcast “Democracy Now!” to those who could pick up Ed’s signal.
Around the same time, organizers at Judson Memorial Church in Washington Square, Greenwich Village, invited me to participate in an event where, serendipitously, I met Amy Goodman. We spoke at length, and I became more convinced than ever that the Valley needed wide access to the program I went to the top of Mount Holyoke to discuss the possibility with Ed Russell.
Little did I know at the time that I would eventually become good friends with Claudia Lefko, who sometimes helped her friend Ed Russell with the broadcasts.
Ed and I decided that I would put a radio tower in my back yard in order to broadcast “Democracy Now!” At first, he thought maybe a church steeple would be best, but because of a disability that made it very difficult for him to walk, we decided on my backyard instead.
As soon as the tower went up, he set up a broadcast and drove around Northampton in his car to see if he could hear the program on the frequency 92.3. Yes, he could. And he continued to help us with the broadcast.
For many years, we broadcast the program on my backyard tower until local stations eventually picked up the broadcast.
Sadly, Ed Russell died this year, almost at the same time as celebrations Claudia organized in honor of my hundredth birthday. His friends plan a memorial for him sometime this summer. Valley Free Radio will accept donations in his name. Ed would have loved to hear Amy Goodman at Smith College when she came to speak there in March.
As for me, I’m glad for Amy’s friendship, and I am endlessly grateful for Ed Russell’s determination in bringing “Democracy Now!” to our area. It just shows what can happen when a community joins together in the name of conscience and truth. The great program has provided the surrounding community with ways to think differently about war and peace.
A 1977 Gazette article described Frances Crowe as “a long-time anti-war activist.” The founder of the American Friends Service Committee of Western Massachusetts, Crowe continues her pioneering peace work today.