BRATTLEBORO — Li-Pon Owen, Daniel Sicken, and Tim Stevenson were arrested at TD Bank in Brattleboro on Feb. 22 to bring attention to the bank's inappropriate investments in Standing Rock Pipeline as well as the Alberta Tar Sands environmental nightmare.
An important message from these three people - as well as the 50 people gathered in support - is that the state of Vermont, in having our daily nuts-and-bolts state funds managed by TD Bank, is actively invested in environmental disaster.
This is not what I wish my home state to be investing in, and I'm quite sure that few Vermont citizens would desire this outcome.
All money appears to trickle upwards to large banks such as Toronto-Dominion and Wells Fargo, where the message needs to be delivered to get us off of this toxic fuel that has trashed the planet in only 100 years! Seattle has divested from Wells Fargo. Let's see Vermont divest. This is a local issue with global reaches.
Not so easily done, as the state has a lot of money to manage, and small local banks can't deal with banking of this scope.
The only viable option appears to be a state bank. Senate bill S.48, sponsored by state senators Anthony Pollina, Mark A. McDonald, Dick McCormack, and Christopher A. Pearson, proposes to establish a commission to examine this very possibility.
Please spread this information and let your local lawmakers hear that you wish to see this commission happen.