Come Sunday morning, the American flags will be flying in the center of Forestville and on Memorial Boulevard for Memorial Day festivities.
In Forestville, the Memorial Day Parade is today, Sunday, May 26, with festivities beginning at 1:30 p.m. and the parade itself beginning at 2 p.m.
In Bristol, the Procession begins at 10 a.m. on Hope Street and is followed by a reading at the Pavillion on the Boulevard and the dedication of the POW/MIA monument across from the Pavillion.
A highlight in Bristol is the dedication of the new monument. The new memorial is significant for what Bristol Veterans Council vice chair Brian Avery said in the TBE article on published on Saturday.
Prisoners of war and those who are missing in action demand our attention, as do their families.
“They don’t come home,” Avery said. “They can’t be here for the Memorial Day picnic. They are not going to be here for Veterans Day. They’re not going to be here for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”
“So this is a way you can come here and remember them,” he said.
And it is an honor for Bristol to be home to Veterans Memorial Boulevard and Park, which is there to remember the sacrifices of our soldiers and their families and provides a place of beauty for reflection,
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Listening and reading this week take into account this idea of reflection and recollection.
“Nicholson Baker Finds a Likeness,” one of the latest episodes from the podcast Open Source with Christopher Lydon, follows along as the prolific author talks about turning to drawing after publishing a novel that took 10 years to complete and how it helps his creativity–and sanity.
This podcast, different from many of the ones discussing pressing issues, takes a step back so listeners can see how someone takes a moment to slow down, catch their breath and discover where one finds a source of resilience. Click here.
And reading this week provides another opportunity to step back from the tumult that accompanies us daily to look for an alternative approach, a more thoughtful one and one that provides a refreshing look at a subject that might easily be dismissed as insignificant. Try this, “What the Mystics Got Right About Life,” by Arthur C. Brooks, from the Atlantic. click here.
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City meetings this week include the following:
On Monday, May 27
- Memorial Day, no meetings scheduled.
On Tuesday, May 28
- Board of Finance, 5:30 p.m., council chambers, city hall.
- Diversity Council, 6 p.m., Meeting Room 3-1, city hall.
- Transportation Commission, Meeting Room 3-1, city hall.
On Wednesday, May 29
- Economic & Community Development, Community Development Block Grant, second public hearing, 5 p.m., council chambers, city hall.
On Thursday, May 30
- No meeting scheduled.
On Friday, May 31
- No meeting scheduled.
TBE will do our best to update meeting times and locations, but it’s a good idea to check the agendas ahead of time for cancellations. Click here for specific meetings and times.
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A practical matter–updating your credit card information might be a little more challenging than we here at TBE might have thought. There are several things to consider.
First, if you get a message that your credit card needs to be updated, login to TBE and click on the membership tab. Here is where things can get tricky. If under billing change, a tab appears for billing, click on it and you will find the appropriate fields to update.
However, if the billing tab does not appear, it means that you need to update your information on your PayPal account or on your Stripe account.
Sorry for the inconvenience, and thank you for your patience and support.
Another practical matter has to do with getting the word out about TBE. We are not hobbyists but serious journalists — sometimes with a sense of humor, granted. We provide local journalism, which we all know is in short supply lately. We tell the news, down the middle, and we are a fresh breath for anyone looking for news about Bristol.
To make sure we can keep providing Bristol news, we need to get the word out. Let people know we exist. After a few years of laboring as volunteers, we might have thought the word would have spread. Over the past week, I have personally crossed paths with people who have not heard of us. So help out.
Of course, to build a viable business, we need funding. Consider becoming a member by signing up for monthly recurring donations of $6, $12, or $24 or making a one-time donation of $60 or even better donating more. It might seem outrageous, but 5,000 members paying $6 a month would allow us to hire editors and reporters who would do a great job covering Bristol.
If you are writing a check for a donation, write the check out to Central Connecticut Online Journalism Project, our official 501(c)(3) designation. The same name will appear on any digital receipts.
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As part of our citizen journalism initiative, TBE will seeking 12 people with Bristol stories that they would like to share in the form of long-form journalism. This project involves identifying 12 people with a uniquely Bristol story, something that happened here in Bristol that says something about who we are as a community–during a specific time in our history.
We will work with each person to develop a well-written long-form piece of storytelling for publication in TBE and possibly in other forms. More on this in the future.
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Enjoy!
All TBE readers, supporters and donors
The Bristol Edition will be limiting the number of stories non-members and free readers may access each week. This decision is based on our financial projections and, most certainly, to remind people that TBE is serious about providing accurate, timely and thorough reporting for Bristol. To do this we have devised a financial support structure that makes unlimited access extremely affordable, beginning with a $6 monthly donation.
- Non-members will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Free readers and people who have subscribed by email will be able to access four (4) articles per week.
- Donors and financial supporters will have unlimited access as long as they log in.
Note: Donors may have to contact TBE if they find they are being limited, since we will need to set up a membership account for you. Email editor@bristoledition.org for instructions. Sorry for any inconvenience. People with financial difficulties may write editor@bristoledition.org to be considered for free access.