Building Our Swords Into Plowshares was the “other side” of the Colrain Action, and included the community-building elements of common vision, volunteer labor and cooperative institutions. It could, perhaps, have been sustained in a way that focused resistance actions cannot, and helped sustain the resistance movement during times of inactivity.

Gandhi believed that civil disobedience was but an “aid” to constructive program, which was the heart and soul of his political philosophy and life work. In fact, his successful Gramdan (or village land gift) movement evolved into the Community Land Trust movement, of which the Valley Community Land Trust in Colrain – where Randy & Betsy’s house resided – was a part.

When the first vigils occurred, my daughter, Joy, just finished high school, and my son, Tommy, had one more year of high school. We wanted to do what we called QFT (Quality Family Time) and I asked the kids if they would be interested in spending a week at the Colrain vigil. I was pleasantly surprised that they both liked the idea. The reason, I think, was because they new Randy and liked him. We spent the week there together. Perhaps one of the main benefits for them was to meet Juanita and Wally Nelson.

My favorite remembrance was when Tommy and I were doing the night/day break vigil together and the skunk came wandering by as it did every night. Tommy absolutely froze in horror but the skunk didn’t seem to even notice us and went on its way.