This is September 25th. This is the House Education Committee and the Vermont House of Representatives. And today we have folks in to talk with us about mask day. We certainly know in this committee what it takes to keep schools open and to keep schools open, buildings open requires keeping the virus at bay. And to keep the virus at bay, we have heard loud and clear that one of the best ways to do that is to include a number of changes in our way of life to keep that virus at bay. Number one is wearing your mask. So this is a group today that will speak with us. This is an exciting student adult collaborative effort to help to make wearing masks cool, among other things. So I'm really delighted to welcome David Auschuler who is an 18 year old high school graduate who really is the founder and starter of this whole mission. And I'm really thrilled to have you here, Doug. Thank you, Doug Auschuler, thank you. Thank you, Chair Webb and all the members of the committee for all you do serving the students and families of Vermont, not just during crisis, but every day of the year. My name is Douglas Auschuler and I'm here today to talk with you about Vermont mask day and how we can all work together to keep Vermont safe from COVID. But before I get to that, I'd like to take a moment to tell you a bit of my story and how I ended up sitting here today. So zooming in front of this education committee here. So do you remember those early days of COVID in March, April and May, even into the summer? I remember the hostility among strangers, avoiding eye contact as much as possible. Maybe you would share a glance with someone, but it was always this distrustful glare into their mask face. It was hard to remember a time where you could stop someone on the street and ask for directions or even suggest for a place, a suggestion for a place to grab dinner. It feels insane even talking about that kind of interaction now. COVID has taken away our ability to connect even at the most simple and pedestrian ways. This past spring, I graduated high school over Zoom and I had already planned to take a gap year to work before going off to college. But COVID had other plans. For the past four summers, I worked as a camp counselor at Shelburne Farms and I planned to return again. As the farm canceled its camps for the season, I had to make a new plan. I decided I wanted to find something that would both help Shelburne Farms and fight COVID. And so with my background in art, although mostly painting and drawing, I thought it'd be fun to try to make and sell masks for Shelburne Farms. This is my plan. I could set up a small lemonade stand style pop-up shop where I would spend time selling my custom masks to visitors and then share the proceeds with the Shelburne Farms and help fight against COVID. After designing a mask and speaking with Shelburne Farms staff, it was clear that there was more potential than a lemonade stand scale operation. I reoriented my focus and to making masks for nonprofits generally. And from that simple concept emerged our mission. By creating a mask associated with a nonprofit's message, we made wearing one of our masks not just a way to protect yourself but a way to make a statement and support a cause you believe in and feel connected with. In the last eight weeks, give that just eight weeks, mask permissions has grown from being associated with one nonprofit to building partnerships with over 30. It has been a roller coaster watching my idea receive the support it has and grow so fast. I am truly grateful. And even in the midst of all this rapid growth, I wanted to do more than just make masks. I wanted to make sure mask permissions message came from the voice of my generation. The importance of a youth-centric message really comes down to two key points. First, because of the lower risk to young people, often it is younger people who fail to follow mask wearing practices sufficiently. And having our masks message made by young people, we can appeal to that demographic easier. Second, I wanted to emphasize that mask wearing is not an act of distrust and self-preservation but rather a selfless act that protects the community as a whole. Where do kids come into play in this, you might ask? Well, at Masked Remissions, we have partnered with Governors Institutes of Vermont to put together a team of their alumni all across the state to become social media ambassadors and help us reach out to their communities. With this approach, young voices craft our message. And as part of society, at least risk to COVID, we, the creators and bearers of these pro-mask messages can show that our acts to protect our communities are truly selfless. I remember the early days of COVID when we would glare at mask strangers around us thinking, are they sick or stay the heck away from me? Today, all of us at Masked Remissions, together with our nonprofit partners are changing that narrative so that tomorrow we will look at each other at other mask people and think, thank you for protecting us. Thank you for your time today. So- Thank you, Doug. I just wanted to remind folks that we did pass the resolution celebrating Mask Day on October 6th. In excitement, my committee started wearing their masks to this meeting, but actually we have learned that you cannot actually pass COVID through Zoom. We were so happy to have scientific data on that. So we now, you were gonna introduce Kyle, I believe Kyle Dodson. Yes, Kyle, thank you for joining us. Kyle is an executive director at the Greater Burlington YMCA, an advisory board member of Masked Remissions and a leader in the nonprofit community. Kyle helps master missions work with its ever-growing network of nonprofit partners. A former Champlain College administrator, Kyle has spent decades working to provide communities with the things they need, education, skills and other resources. And we appreciate having the chance to help him provide our shared communities one more thing, masks. Thank you, welcome, Kyle. Thank you very much. Good morning, Chair Webb and the committee. I, like Doug, want to thank all of you for your service and leadership. We all appreciate it. I just wanted to begin by talking about the importance of masks in general to our functioning at the Y. I presume that most people have a reasonable sense of how Ys operate, but here in Vermont in Burlington, we have a 50,000 square foot facility, 10,000 square feet of early childcare, 40,000 square feet of fitness. We opened our doors in early June and we knock on wood, have been able to operate incredibly safely since that time. And I would argue it's largely due to masks. If you come in the building, everyone is masked all of the time, period. Unless you're grabbing a drink of water or trying to grab a quick bite, you have your mask on in the building, whether you're on a treadmill, you're lifting weights.  Let me correct that. But when you get out of the pool, you put your mask on. And we feel very confident that our ability to function safely, have people feel comfortable coming in the building has been largely due to the wearing of masks with fidelity. The next thing I'd like to state is just our excitement of being part of this movement, of working with Doug and the other non-for-profits with masks for missions. And we really appreciate the ability to make custom masks. I appreciate it. I'm a person who gives some thought to sartorial matters. And I get bored with the same mask every day. And the idea that I can change them up and have some input on what is represent on my mask is something that I appreciate. And I run into some other people who feel similarly. We hope that the master missions movement will spread and we see that social media is a wonderful opportunity to do so. So I'm sure Doug feel this way and I'm encouraging people to help spread the good word by using social media. And lastly, very connected to that message is I see this as a youth led movement. We have Doug here, a young person who's leading it. And I think it's really important that increasingly in our community and society, we lift up our youth. We allow them to show us the way. I think oftentimes they have insights and energy that we desperately need in the public space. So I applaud Doug and his young colleagues. And we're really excited at the why that this is something that has such a large youth presence. Thank you. Thank you. And I think next we were gonna, I'm gonna just go through and then if the committee has questions we'll pose those. So catch your questions along the way. We have a student here, Doug, how did you connect with Chloe? Can you help us introduce Chloe? I was muted for a second, there we go. So Chloe is a sophomore at Inesburg Falls High School and a proud alumna of the Governor's Institute of Vermont. As you're probably aware, Inesburg Falls is a town about 1,300 near the Canadian border, a bit over an hour northwest of Montpelier. Chloe has been volunteering for Master Missions as one of our social media ambassadors and she's helping Master Missions build awareness for Vermont Mass Day across all of Vermont by helping us reach out to more than 130,000 Instagram users across Vermont. We're so thankful for the time, effort and faith she's invested in our mission. You're welcome to go, Chloe. Welcome, Chloe. Hi, everyone. I just wanted to say thank you for taking your time to do this. And yeah, so for the group I'm in, Governor's Institute and Mass for Missions, I believe that it's really important that more of us need to know why mask wearing is important. And I believe that Vermont Mass State will really help that out. See, like at my school, no one takes mask wearing seriously, I know at least five classes that don't wear their mask and the teachers allow them to. So I personally would like to keep this positive mask wearing going because if we don't, then we don't get to be able to be in school and then elderly gets sick and then we don't have anything. So thank you, Chloe. I can already see in the eyes of my committee members that they're gonna have some questions for you. Thank you, Chloe. And thank you for your work with GIV. We always enjoy hearing from the GIV members. And I think Doreen Kraft was next and tells us how you connected with her, Doug. You're sure, yeah. So Doreen Kraft works with the Vermont Arts World for nearly 40 years. Doreen Kraft is the Executive Director of Burlington City Arts. Doreen also on our advisory board and her team have been helping us engage not only the Burlington arts community but also artists across the entire state. BCA has also been helping us design and implement our statewide arts outreach, public display ideas and our design your own mask initiatives. She is also central to our plans for art contests for best mask design. We're proud to work alongside Doreen and BCA as well as we join them and their mission to nurture Vermont's arts communities. Thank you, Doreen. I've always felt that the arts are gonna set us free and get us through this. So welcome and thank you for joining us. Good morning and Chair Whip. Thank you so much for having us today and being a part of this mission. I have to say that, first of all, I am so proud to be a member of this team to work with such passion that Douglas displays. And I think I'm not sure whether you introduced yourself as an artist yourself, Douglas. So that's so wonderful for us. And in masks for missions, as I think Kyle said earlier, it's a courageous youth led coalition that really truly understands the role that the arts play and can in creating community and fostering new connections. The arts by their nature are collaborative and can help us unite in supporting and protecting each other, especially during this pandemic. As a partner in masks for missions, BCA is facilitating collaborations across the state and creating artists led mask making, mask make and take events for Vermonters of all ages. These workshops will bring together members of the community to co-create and share the joy of art making. Further elevating the role of the arts and the role that the arts play in community engagement. We'll be working with a statewide committee to select iconic Vermont artists as well to create masks that every one of us, including you, Kyle, will have to have one of these masks. We will advance this through an arts competition encouraging people of all ages and talents to make their own masks and collecting portraits of all the people across Vermont who wear those masks and establishing an online portrait gallery for Vermonters to enjoy. So it's gonna be quite a day, quite a week, quite a year for masks becoming central to our identity. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much. We have school here. Oh, thank you, Dr. Timothy Leary here. And perhaps you could tell us how you connected with Dr. Leary. So Timothy Leary is our MD, MMSC, Charlotte, physician, professor of medicine, ethicist, infectious disease expert, UVM Medical Center and UVM Learner College of Medicine. Very, very good, long title there. It's impressive just to read it. Anyway, so when we started this project, we knew we'd get hard questions about the science of COVID and the ethics and medical benefits of wearing masks. We wanted an expert to help answer our questions and questions we might receive from the public. Through conversations with the UVM Medical Center and Vermont Department of Health, everyone agreed that Dr. Leary was the perfect fit. We're deeply grateful to them for connecting us with Dr. Leary and also partnering with us to reach out to communities across the state about masks. So thank you. Thank you, Doug. Thank you, Chair Webb and to the committee for welcoming us this morning. As many of you know, Dr. Tony Fauci visited Vermont recently and it hit the news around the country that Vermont has been a leader in COVID-19 for the way that we have come together as a community and suppressed the virus. And I think this opportunity for leadership is gonna continue both at the level of the state and also particularly for our youth. And that's why I'm so proud to be asked by Doug to join this group. I think other places have this upside down. They take the fear and the disruption we all feel. We have lost 58 Vermonters, more than 200,000 Americans and more than a million people worldwide to this pandemic. And of course, there is negativity to this. And yet I think Vermont has paved the way for a different way to think about this and Doug is at the forefront of this where we can say, this is not about loss of freedoms. This is not about fear or shame. This is about being good neighbors. This is about having Vermont continue to be the great place, the beautiful place that it is, the live where people care about each other and we take care of each other. We believe in science and we believe that we can come together and beat this thing. And so I'm committed to supporting Doug and the rest of the team and making sure that our message is on target with the science that we know to be true and that we trust and that we make this not something that people have to give up. You know, I have to wear a mask but more that something that people can feel proud of to say, hey, check it out. We're the kind of community that comes together like this and we can still go to school and we can still go work out and we can still do the things that give us the great quality of life in the state of Vermont. So thank you, Doug, for your leadership and thank you for welcoming us this morning. Excuse me, can you tell us what October 6th will look like, what the plans are for October 6th for mask day? Yes, so let me, I have a little, we have kind of the week of activities and I have a small list of what we have going on. But pretty much on the, let me see if we can pull this up here. Okay, sorry, I got a lot of papers here. Gotta find the right one. But pretty much we have activities going on throughout the whole week and here we are. Okay, so, sorry. So for October 6th, we have our, the governor's, this is Tuesday of that week and we hope to have the governor speak at his press conference that Tuesday. And we, sorry, there's people walking around, but yes, we have pretty much, that's just our Tuesday events, but we have things going on the whole week, ranging from our performance from Grace Potter on Friday to our arts different events going on throughout the week. So with this community engagement, kind of, we have our, let's see, so I just got the list right here. So we have our food bank, microsite mask distribution project, which will be across 100 sites from our food bank is helping us provide masks to the staff and to the constituents. That's kind of our way to get masks out to the people. We have our high school mask day celebration with mask making. This is in partnership with the GIV specifically, but we're looking at trying to have mask making in these different school settings. And then we also have our college mask day, which is the same thing, but based for colleges, which we have opportunities to customize masks in those locations. Finally, also with our Grace Potter concert at the end of the week, we plan on having a lot of art being shown at that event, just to kind of bring that art piece back in. But just kind of take a look at our reach over Vermont. We have this graphic of all the people who are with us from GIV. I think, did you send that to Phil? We may have, yes. Yeah, we did. Phil, can you pull that up? For sure, yeah. I'm sorry, but I don't recall receiving. I do have it on my computer so I can share the screen if that works. Yeah, that'll work. Just a minute. I will make you a co-host. Perfect. So here we go. Let me know one. I think you're good to go now, Doug. Perfect. Okay, so here we go. This is our little thing to show us kind of our connection to different, we have connections with nurses and as well as our social media ambassadors, which are the students. But here is kind of a graphic to show where we have those connections. So we wanna make sure that we spread across Vermont as much as possible. So these are kind of where we have things. Obviously we have the concentration over in Burlington, but we have to spread across. Each of these schools will be having this custom mask opportunity at one point in the week as well as we have a few colleges on our list that we're doing the same deal at. But yes, indeed. And this is through Governors Institute? Is that where these dots come from? Yes, so these are, so the SMA dots and the purple, so the purple and the blue come from Governors Institute because all of our social media ambassadors are related to Governors Institute. The pink dots are representative of nurses that we've reached out to at different schools to try to get connections to their health departments just to spread the word about wearing masks as well as kind of getting a committee of medically inclined people, I guess you could say. Yes, and yeah, so that's kind of what we have for these spread. Yeah, there you go. Okay, are there any questions that committee members have? Representative James. Yeah, thanks. This is so exciting and wonderful. I can't wait to get on your website. I wish I had a chance to do that before committee so that I could ask more informed questions, but I have three questions. One is looking at your map. Is it too late to try to add some activities or get some schools in my area connected? Do you guys have bandwidth for that or are you guys on overload? Well, actually, yeah, so we're definitely still taking in opportunity for adding in schools. So if you have, we can definitely find a time to meet and talk about some more places to add in. We did, so we sent out some emails to lots of schools, principals and nurses and we heard back from a bunch, but we definitely have a lot more who either the email got lost somewhere in there. So we definitely have room in our plan to have more people working with us. So we'd be happy to talk about that. Great. And then my other questions were, and I know I'm sure this is readily available on your website, but I'm just curious about, so the custom aspect of the masks are different artists around the state doing a custom design for you guys and then that's available to be purchased on your site. So in other words, different artists are doing a really cool custom design for you and then that's, so I could go on your site and pick out a design from an artist I like. So the way that we're working with it right now is because we're partnering with nonprofits, it's a mix of the nonprofits design people and me. So I'm kind of, I've had a lot of background in kind of doing some design myself. So it's really, it's a mix of, depending on what the nonprofit wants, it's either their designers or their logo and then if they would like, they come to me and I just scribble away on my iPad and get something a little more exciting out there. But usually it's my own art that goes up onto the mask. Ultimately, it's, I don't take any real credit for it, it's really kind of a collaboration between me and the nonprofit. Got it. So if I go on to the site to choose a mask, am I choosing the nonprofit? And that's how you guys are directing the revenue stream. You take a little bit to support your efforts and then a little bit of the profits flow to that nonprofit or is the money basically going to benefit your efforts or? Of course, yes. So our whole deal is we wanna make sure that buying one of the masks that we make feels more like a donation to that nonprofit that you're buying from. So you're gonna see a list of nonprofits. Right now we're still finalizing designs and getting them all set up on our shop. But once they are all the profits that come from your mask sale, from the mask sale, we'll go straight to the nonprofit. We do have to keep some for our own operations, of course, but aside from that, we make sure that a percentage of it gets to the nonprofit, as well as we're working on opportunities for people who buy masks to have a donation addition so that if somebody does feel extra, extra, you know, that day they can throw in an extra five or 10 or whatever it is. We wanna make sure that it really is, it feels like you're doing something good for the community while protecting your community at the same time. What a great idea. Thank you so much. Thank you. Representative Batchelor. Good morning. Thank you very, very much for this wonderful idea. I'm in the Northeast Kingdom and we are known for being non-existent on most everybody's maps. We do not have an unlock on my desk, which is all wood, but we don't have a lot of COVID up here, but we have a high school with a large amount of students that are not, they're going to school one day a week. And I don't know, I've talked to the superintendent and they're trying, because there are so many students trying to keep them separated and I'm not sure about the mask situation, but everybody seems to be wanting to move to Vermont because we are a safe community or state and the Northeast Kingdom is going to be on somebody's radar. Is there any way we can have something? I see almost nothing, nothing in St. John's Berry, which is in the kingdom, nothing and I'm in Derby line right on the Canadian border. And is there a way that we could get this to the point where we could go shake the bushes and have them contact you and see if we couldn't get a little bit more participation up here? Of course, yeah, no, we're really open to making connections wherever we can. Really in a perfect world, we can be in every high school around. I mean, I think it's really a matter of connecting with us, but yeah, I mean, you're always welcome to, yeah, we're always welcome to kind of work on that. I mean, of course, I'm looking at our map right now and I see there is this area up at the top, the Northeast that definitely is pretty empty. I would love to connect there, because of course, you know, I know you mentioned the people coming into Vermont, we definitely had a lot of thought on tourism and people were really Vermont looking forward to bringing people in and in that new world of increased foot traffic of sorts. We're gonna definitely need to be focused on mass, so I'm glad that you're taking that initiative to ask with that, because it is smart to get involved, even if you're out in the middle of the Northeast. Thank you. So Chloe, my question, I'm concerned to hear what you had to say in terms of the sort of cavalier, maybe if I feel like an attitude on wearing masks that does not sound like it's being supported by the faculty, what's it gonna take? Can you like rephrase that? I really didn't get all of that. Sure, let me see. It sounds like people are not in your school, aren't really taking the mask seriously, and that students and teachers, what do you think it's gonna take to get people to follow the guidance that's coming from the state? I honestly don't know, because it's people's decision to wear masks are not, but I feel like they should respect it all and take it more seriously. So maybe just more of a strict rule in our school, because overall, I don't think our school has a very strict rule about it, so. Thank you. If I jump in, I can add one little thing for high schools generally. I think when it comes to getting people to wear masks, I think that one of the biggest things is not to really force it down people's throats, because we've seen there are a lot of people who feel kind of attacked by the mask-wearing initiative. And so having a level of kind of positivity around masks and once again, changing that message from being, stopping this terribly scary virus to supporting our communities, I think it can help change the narrative around wearing a mask. In terms of getting people to wear them around schools, I think it's gonna be, it's definitely gonna be a tough battle, but I think by once again, changing this narrative to be more of a supportive kind, it can be kind of like the, more of like washing your hands than putting on a muzzle. It's not gonna be, it's not gonna feel too aggressive. Kyle. Yeah, I'm wondering, I agree with Doug's point and I'm very sympathetic of Chloe's challenge up there. It seems clear that Chloe would love to respect this. I wonder if this isn't a case where the community looks to a group that might be able to model it. So rather than pushing down someone's throat, I don't know, you know, Innisburg very well, but some group that is important and respected in the community, I don't know whether it's the National Guard, a group of dairy farmers, but some group that actually comes in wearing masks gives some sort of testimonial to why they do it, why it's important, how they love that community and why they are encouraging that community for the safety of all in that community and for our state, which they know that people in Innisburg love to please consider, you know, wearing masks. You know, something along those lines could be a way to get in there that isn't a hammer over the head, but rather is a, hey, let's do this together. Thank you. Well said, Kyle. I wonder also about inciting competitive instincts. I saw your cool mask, Kyle, and I sort of said, you know, my medical mask is kind of boring and I wish I had the same kind of style and so I bet you there's something there too. Yeah, look at this dog. Come on, you guys, that's pretty cool. Representative Austin. Yes, thank you, Chair Webb. Doug, I just want to give you a tremendous, you and Chloe, a tremendous amount of appreciation for your student activism and bringing the student voice, you know, to this issue. I'm just curious, like how is school going for you right now? The whole, you know, the whole, not set aside the mask project, I'm just wondering how is school going? Well, at the moment, I am, I'm taking a year off.  So I'm very, I'm very sympathetic towards students now and their efforts, as well as keeping in touch with my high school friends who are still there and hearing about it. So there's, you know, I definitely feel that connection with the people who are going through that. But yeah, I think Chloe can speak a little more on the Zoom class feeling than I can at least at the moment. So, Chloe, if you'd like to, you know, throw something in there, you're welcome to. Yeah, for school, it's way different than last year. Obviously, like last semester, when this whole pandemic happened, none of the teachers knew what to do. So we had no work and the teachers are still confused this year. So when they're trying to get us to do stuff, we can't necessarily do it all because it's like, we're only going two days and then we have to take tests online and it's just, it's honestly a mess and I don't like it. Here you, Chloe. Thank you, thank you. Representative Coopley, you're muted. You're muted, Larry. I'll never figure this out. Yeah, Chloe, it's difficult. I think we all understand, you know, teachers are, at least in my area here in Rotland, teachers and students, very anxious to go back to school. But my question to you is, are your teachers wearing masks? Yes, they are. They are. Okay. But some of them have it under their nose. So like. So it's almost like not wearing a mask in some respects. But, you know, just Chloe, be patient. I know it's very difficult, but be patient. There'll be a time when we'll be back to some sort of normalcy. And again, thank you for being with us. Yes. Yeah. Coming before and speaking in a group to people you don't know, it takes some bravery and we appreciate that. And really glad that you made the long trip from Enesburg, so to speak. Kyle. You know, I agree with the general feeling that a softer approach works, but I wonder if there isn't some opportunity to try a little leverage, you know, the question about teachers and maybe in the student newspaper, if there is such or there hopefully some way for student voice to be put out there. And one might point out the potential contradictions between some of the safety concerns that were expressed by the various teachers unions and the lack of wearing the mask to me seemed like perhaps those two positions could be in conflict and one might politely, you know, raise the issue of and perhaps put some statement that came out over the summer about going back to school and how concerned we are about health and safety. And yet this scientifically proven act, which is probably one of the strongest things we have is not being adhered to and that we as the students are concerned for the safety of teachers and our community and the elderly and immune compromise in our community. And we just want to raise a conversation about this. I'm happy to reach out to the principals association too, representative Toof. Thank you. And thank you all for coming in today. I just thought I'd learn my hand. Chloe, I just want to let you know I'm in St. Albans. So we're right next door to you guys. I have a lot of friends and family. Nina Spurxlet does concern me a little bit, but I just want to assure you I have a five year old who's in kindergarten and I thought wearing the mask was going to be difficult for kids of that age to adhere to it and follow the guidelines in the directions, but it's really refreshing to see that they're able to follow those directions. We had soccer practice last night. All the kids had masks on, which was very difficult. I mean, I have mine on when I'm playing on the sideline. I get winded anyway just because I'm a little out of shape, but it's really nice to see their following directions. They don't have, there's not a big issue. I thought it would be a bigger issue. Every once in a while I have to remind them, hey, pull it up over your nose, but they're doing their part and it's just not as a big struggle that I thought I would see at the younger ages, but it does make sense. You see a little bit in the older grades in high school, I could understand that, but these kind of initiatives where you're teaching people and explaining to them, it's all about educating and I just want to assure you that they're doing a good job in the younger grades up here in St. Albans, so thank you. Thank you. Anything else? I want to thank you all so much for joining us today. We've had a long, long session and we appreciate hearing some good news and hearing how people in Vermont are stepping forward, whether it's the arts, it's health, it's the why, it's boys and girls clubs, it's the various groups that are pulling together to try to really make this the Vermont way that we help each other out and we'll fight this. I thank you so much. I'm going to just close this part and just answer anything else and then I'll just want to check in with the committee related to the floor today. And thank you. So you're welcome to stay if you want to listen and if you have other things to do, please go. And Chloe, a special big thanks to you and good luck up there. Appreciate your work. Thank you. Yes, and thank you, Doug and Rick and Tim and Doreen. Much appreciated and Kyle. So today, just the budget, the conference committee has basically completed their work. They're, I believe that there may be some, some, you know, Scribner's kinds of things that they're dealing with or just checking that right now. I did not see anything drastic, but I haven't actually really looked to see if there are any changes to the work that we saw beforehand. I do know that the ADM language, which had been in a tax bill, S27 was stripped from that, but it survived in the budget. So it's still in the budget. We had a little panic about that. At least several people were in a bit of a panic about that. Had lots of emails. But so that does seem to be in state in the budget. And I'm gonna go through it. I encourage everybody else to do that too. And this, I'm hoping that this is it. That we should be able to, depending on, depending on rule of suspensions. Dylan, are you aware of anything that I don't know? Probably. No, no, I'm not. But can I make a pitch for this committee around some work that you'll need to carry on in my spirit next biennium? Please. Please remember that in the budget, I've enclosed a two-year extension of my provision around appointments to unified school boards. And this committee has work to do in the next biennium. I don't know who will be here, but hopefully many of you. And it will be to fix chapter 11 and to ensure that our unified school boards reflect the realities of their structure. And so this is a little bit of Act 46 cleanup. Hopefully the dust will have settled from our long traumatic journey through that experience. But look forward to all of you doing that work. And if you do not, I will be the person in 2022 in May, emailing you nonstop along with Martha Heath and others. So please continue my legacy and finish the job. I would appreciate that. I do hear chapter 11 knocking at our doors, which is governance. And Dylan, I personally am gonna miss you terribly. And I know that the committee is gonna miss your wise words and your discontribution and your engagement in the process, which has been really so wonderful. Now I'm Therina Austin. I just want to say thank you so much, Kate, for your leadership and being a new chair and then having to navigate us through this year. I thought you did an admirable job. And I really appreciate it, especially as a new legislator. So I just want to say thank you. And I just want to say what a pleasure it's been being on this committee. I hope we're all back next year in the legislature. And I hope we're all back in this committee, but it's just been a pleasure. And thank you so much. Here, here. Absolutely. Thank you. It's a really great committee. I was very lucky. Thank you, Kate. And working with Larry and Peter, at the top of the table, really, we were the three musketeers, the three amigos, amigas. With our masks. Yes. All right. With that, I think we can go offline and call it a day.


Hi everyone, I'm Joe for jazzy's case breaks.com and that is 2022 tops chrome black baseball 12 box picketing number two eight Number 28 all card ship one in case card per box You've done this 27 times. So I think most of you know what to expect from break 28 Thanks, everyone. Ed with last spot mojo with my Dodgers now that the NFL season is over Super Bowl It's done. Congrats to the chiefs. We can now start shifting into Basketball season hockey season and the start of the baseball season six right over here six over here Let's see what we got. Good luck everyone There's a good chance that we might be able to run this back tonight So keep grabbing your teams and once it gets Into single digits if it stalls out a little bit I wouldn't mind doing a little filler just to help move it along and get it across the finish line So we'll pivot to whatever helps the break move more quickly Kyle Tucker orange will color match For the astros 21 out of 25 That'll be for ed p and the strobes All right first encased card Looks like a hitter. There's a baseball bat up there. It's Joe Carter Yeah, he can swing that stick pretty well that goes to Christopher and the toronto blue jays You got a ronzi contraris 103 out of 150 purple parallel for joe christian and the pirates Of course You're encased card. It looks like a pitcher. Maybe it is. It's ronzi contraris Joe and the pirates Rookie auto there another box next box matt manning 88 out of 99. I like how the aqua pops on this. I'll set it before I'll say it again I do like how that aqua pops Against the black All right, you're encased Alex kirloff minnesota twins It's going to be for jared and the twins And there's yachty yachty or molina 150 out of 150 it'll be kind of weird Not seeing him in uniform this year steven with the cardinals Is yachty coaching a world baseball classic team? There's larry walker 44 out of 150 Joe christian and the rockies There's brindela cruise 11 out of 99 For the fish That's going to be for chris and the marlins Jensen saying yachty's managing Puerto rica, right? I think I think he is managing, right? So too We've got some gold We've got some mini diamonds or speckles or maybe those are mini diamonds. It's bill masarovsky 9 out of 50 a little color match with a pirates trim Nice walking it off in world series. That's what he does Pirates that's going to be for joe Is yachty on coaching track? he'd be expected to You know, are the cardinals going to put him right into the coaching system Could be a future manager and flagrero jr To 199 to rano. That's going to be for chris fur Got a aqua parallel That's 57 out of 99. It's christian pachet a's It'll be for dy and oakland Next half six more to go. Good luck everybody Another one in the store jaspyscasebreaks.com. Check it out Pick your team before someone else does Oh, we got a wander franco And a hunter green wander franco is 61 out of 150 purple parallel Nice rookie card for jacob and the rays And the hunter green for the reds. That's to 199 That's going to go to dy Oh, we got a redemption. Any guesses on this redemption for bragging rights? Stephen kwan is the guest out there Wander is a guest from the floor Any guesses from the chat Jeremy's guessing bobby wit jr. Here's a hulio rodriguez and another hulio rodriguez 37 out of 50 gold That's going to go to michael and the mariners Yeah, I think you do. We've got michael over here Jeremy painia is a guest from david. All right, well, let's see Congratulations You someone you are due to receive a super futures autograph no parallel of Let's probably see the city first k Oh I think jeremy got it a n zuzz city bobby wit jr. Jeremy smith. Good guess Bragging rights for you jeremy. You can tell your friends that you got the game that you guessed the bobby wit jr Maybe like what did you do today? I guessed the correct redemption Feel free to brag All right, so that goes to the royals christopher picked up the royals straight up. Congrats christopher Next one is paul mauler 73 out of 99 for the brew crew That's going to go to dy and the brewers Hunter green alonzo and there's a blue steven kwan 45 out of 75 chris with cleveland I had a really strong season last year The encased auto is louise gill rookie auto for For greg and the yankees picked up the yankees straight up null and aeronado to 199 cardinals steven And the autograph the encased auto is reed detmer's robin the halos Two more to go. Good luck everybody And a seya suzuki and a gold pito lanzo five out of 50 The seya suzuki Has the big rookie card badge on the bottom left. I think that's only one per case these These could sell I think maybe decently on the secondary market. I think they're a little bit shorter printed That's going to go to greg and the cubs the encased I see another rookie badge in the top right corner It's ryan velod rockies Joe christian with the rocks Got the past with larry walker the present with ryan velod Final box. Good luck. Got a mike trout. Nice aqua cracked ice I guess atomic in the tops universe 30 out of 99. That's going to go to rob and the halos See another rookie In the top right corner. It's colton welker One 12 out of 150 another rocky for joe And there you go ladies and gentlemen another solid break of 2022 tops chrome black baseball Thanks for watching. Thanks for breaking with us more in the store. So check it out We'll see you next time for the next one. Bye. Bye


for this wonderful event, and one is Central Vermont Refugee Action Network, which is run by Diane Fitch, and many other people, and I didn't know Diane, if you wanted to stand up to say a report about the network. Sure. Sometimes Vermont Refugee Action Network works to welcome, to make Central Vermont a welcoming place for new Vermonters to visit, to work, and to live. We work in conjunction with the Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program in Colchester, and we do several things. We've been giving a gift to every new family that comes, that settles in Vermont. We bring groups of new Vermonters who are studying for citizenship to Montpelier to visit the Vermont History Museum, to tour the State House, to have one for us, and to meet the Governor. And we have two of those visits coming up in March. We've also worked with the Green Mountain Boot Knees organization to help them in employment upgrades. Many people who come are professionals, and they're old wives, and come here and have to leave all that behind. So we assist us in honing job skills so that they can get jobs that are commensurate with their skills. We're starting a new program working with helping migrant workers with learning English. We also sponsored educational programs, and we're planning a panel in Montpelier in the next few months to let people know where things stand in this climate for migrants and for refugees. If you're interested in working with us or finding out more about us, there are some brochures on the table. And thank you so much for coming and for supporting the organizations that are sponsoring this play. The organization that we would like to thank for sponsoring this performance is the Annunciation House in El Paso, Texas. They serve the poorest of the poor. And from its beginnings, Annunciation House has sought to preserve the poorest of the poor in their El Paso-Owara's border community. Over the years, they've come to understand that many of the most vulnerable people from south of the border who can't receive services from most established social agencies, they can be identified by their undocumented immigration status and the poverty, injustice, and oppression that are so much a part of their reality. These migrants and refugees have become the primary constituency of Annunciation House. And do we have someone here from Annunciation House? Did you say that we did, Margaret? Well, we have somebody who's sister. Oh, who's sister. Thank you for coming. And my name is Alana Randford-Finney and welcome. And I would like to introduce Sarah. Hello. Good afternoon, everybody. I'm Sarah Franklin and I've had the privilege of working with this cast and giving them some suggestions from time to time. This afternoon is so much the product of the energy of Margaret Blanchard. To hear me opining that as an old high school teacher, I really missed some of the activities that I used to do like directing. And so, it was that remark that got me here today. So, I do want to assure you that it was a great privilege for me to work with this script. I hope that you will be able to enjoy the characters that are brought to life for you today by this cast. It's been a sort of long journey to bring this to you today because first it was going to be before Christmas since Canoche Buena is a Christmas Eve. It's a wonderful nativity play and so that was the original target but we didn't get it together in time to do that. So, Margaret had the great idea of making it a twelfth night play, so feast of the epiphany. But then the weather decided to give us a polar vortex and there was some 20 with windchill unaccounted for. So, we got canceled. So, when you have a cast of 12, well, it takes a while to find another date. And so, that's why we're here today. And it's why we're going to hear some Christmas music. So, don't be surprised by that. Some corrections about our program, which was made back in January. There are a few changes that have happened. And one is that, well, even then we were unsure whether our core zone would be Pam Walker or Charlotte Root. And it is Charlotte Root today because Pam's in Mexico. So, that's how that goes. And we had a difficulty with another of our hunters. So, the part of Felicia will be played by Alana who was just speaking to you. And she stepped in to take this part yesterday. So, big kudos and incredible gratitude to her. We had a different musician when we were going to do it in January. But now we have Numa Haas who's going to be playing a little bit of Christmas music for us to set the scene. So, thank you for doing that. We're so grateful to see rather than to the Unitarian Church for their support. I think that what you will feel and what you will learn today will reward your having made the effort to come. Thank you so much. Good evening. The year is 2014. A road outside a wall in a village in Guatemala. Felicia's and Carlos' mother Maria, Lame, but able to walk, is anxiously looking down the road as she waits for someone. She has a bundle in her arms and a container of water. Hey Carlos, where are you? They're coming for you. She begins to pace awkwardly. She stops, looks grim and begins to pray. Dios, I know you're there. The gospel says you love the sinners. You seem to love them most of all. She paces a bit, then stops and continues her prayer. You've let them kill almost everyone I love. So this is your chance, Lord. Your chance to make it up to us. All the evil you've done to us. Gunfire can be heard in the distance. Carlos, please, not him too, Lord, please. Carlos enters and runs to her. Oh, thank God. She holds the bundle out to him. Hurry. There's no telling when they'll be back. Not right when and away, mama. Not right? You think you have a choice? First father, then Lorencio, my friend. They're not even buried yet. How can I just run away?  That was so everyone. What kind of a fool did I give birth to?  Honor. Yes, like your father. Brave all the way to the grave.  Live to be worthy of him.  Where is the honor in that? How can a weakling, a runner, protect anyone? Why do you think being strong means choosing to die? Carlos starts to walk away, but he turns back and cries out. I think I don't want to run away, and I don't know I'll be killed staying. Now I can see you. Thank God you can stop posturing to yourself for even a minute. Posturing? The devil. I tell you, I'm willing to do it. Yes, you're willing to do it. I know that. You know that. But do you think that is what your father, as Lorencio, would want? Save her. Save their child and grandchild, my grandchild. You can't if you're dead. What about you? Don't you think they'll come after you? Once they know we've gone, what's to keep them from killing you?  Lorencio doomed us all the minute, he told them no. And I can barely walk, much less run. Let me die at least knowing you and Felicia have a chance. That my grandchild has a chance. Please, Ehold. You don't understand. Dying is certain. Running is not. A certain way to be a man. You want to be a man. Do what's hard. Do what can be done. Choose the possible. And do you think protecting Felicia is possible? Con permiso di Dios. God knows I hope so. You have to somehow cross the border and get all the way up to northern New Mexico. I can't help you with that, except with this food and water. But if you can get yourself and Felicia there, there's a chance. A chance? What's there? I'm not sure. It was all a long time ago. But it's the only chance I can think of. Here, take this letter. Protect it like it's your life and Felicia's and the baby's. A letter?  Where did they catch us? You want the gang and all we are? No one will know anything. Open it, you'll see. That's this. I can't read it. Don't worry. You don't have to. Just follow the map and deliver it. It will give proof.  I don't understand. Dios no ayude. I hear them coming. Here, take this. She hands him the bundle and water and starts to look backwards, desperately off stage, calling to him. Felicia, run. Be careful. Dios te bendiga. I love you. She exits, Carlos looks where she's gone and hesitates. Then shots are heard. He stands frozen with uncertainty, starts to run after her, stops, distraught, turns and exits. Act one, scene one. The lights open on a home in the high desert town of a royal hondo north of Taos, New Mexico. In the living space, serving as a living room, dining room and kitchen, Anna is standing in front of a decorated Christmas tree, rummaging in a large box and removing hand-carved large wooden figures to arrange in a creche scene. Also in the room is a sheet spread out on the floor with red chili stains, where an old woman, Corazon, kneeling beside it is using a roller to crush dried red chilies. Oh, Mama, well, you can grind the chili by hand. God bless you. The chili does this awful, just stubborn. We've got you a brandy last Christmas. It doesn't make the powder the way that rolling pin does. I do best what I best know how to do. You do best whatever you may or you might do, do what you mean. I can't imagine that working on your knees is the best thing for your heart. You know what the doctor said. I know what the article Hector gave me before he left said, says your heart has just so many beats and it will beat every one of them and then it will stop. I'm not pointing again with you. Um, where is the king? What king? The one with the frankincense. The kings aren't supposed to show up until little Christmas anyway. Mama, I need your help. I gave over the crash two years ago. Don't worry, the king will show up. No, I mean with Adela. Adela? Yes. I need you to come to midnight, Mas with us. You know I no longer go to mass. What is it with Adela?  She's staying home with you. She said that? Yes. I told you this would happen and I'll pass. What if one goes back to rolling the chili and doesn't speak for a while? Well, what did you say? Would you come? I don't know what to say, Anna. I don't think I'm the reason. I'm not saying you're the reason.  Because I gave up going to the church does not mean I gave up knowing what's sacred. Anna regards the baby crush that she's holding in her hand. It's not just the church. As far as I can tell, ever since Hector's dead, you don't worship Christ anymore. Whatever I believe or don't has nothing to do with you. You know I'm glad to hear about your faith.  I don't know how you can know how love comes from our Savior. I know, I know, Mutacha. That is true for you and I'm glad for that. Not just for me, but it's true, it's true. Not now, Anna. Let's not do this again. I will talk to Adela and think about tonight. When then, when do I get to talk to you about the more the man? Why do you have to convince me? As long as you know, what difference does it make what I think? What difference does it make? I love you.  You're standing outside the Holy Circle. I need you in there with me and Adela. Clara's own is fighting irritation. She moves away from Anna to lift the sheet with its chili to the bowl on the kitchen counter. All of life is a circle. Only not all of it is holy. Worse are not holy. But there's this power that comes to our egg, comes from our side of it. It saved me when Antonio had his stroke. And that is why I am so glad for you. I wish I could explain so you could understand. Do you remember how he couldn't move? He couldn't speak as he could breathe. He was there, but he wasn't there. Illness and death, the flesh. Day by day the love I felt for him drained away. Shosh, Anna, don't speak of it. Until one day I wish he was dead. Oh, Anna, of course, Michita, of course. You can say that. I could not say that.  Photosome goes toward Anna, but Anna backs away. You were a good wife, Anna. No. Not until Jesus saved me. Not until at the very moment that I knew I was stabbed as a wife with a love. His love entered me. I felt for Tony again. Well, that's true about love anyway. It comes and goes. At least the feeling does. Don't you dare be like that. I wish you could be in that moment with me. That feeling of letting go. Being supported, suddenly feeling full of, I don't know what to call it. Corazon is fussing on the kitchen island, chopping onions. Anna watches her for a moment. But he freed me from myself. I was able to care for Anthony again, all the way to his grave. Yes. You were a good wife to him, all the way to his grave. You don't understand. You won't understand. She walks off stage. And I'm afraid I understand more than you know. Act one, scene two. The lights rise on the outside of the home. A few tumbleweeds in a fenced area with a broken down storage shack. Lots and lots of multi-blue sky. Snow-capped mountains in the distance. A young girl about 14 years old is sitting at a small table. The kind big enough for two people to drink coffee together.  She startles at the sudden noise coming from the shack. Maybe something falling down. What's that? There? She listens but there's no repeat of the loud noise. She gets up and moves cautiously toward the shack carrying her sandwich.  There's another noise. This one more like something moving and it causes her to jump back. Is someone there? Again a noise. Then the face of a girl only slightly older than Adela peeks out the door. Her finger in front of her lips asking for silence. Who are you? Felicia. What are you doing here? I'm hiding. I see that. But why are you hiding? And what are you doing hiding here? Will you help me? I don't know. Well anyway, don't let anybody know I'm here, okay? You can't stay here. It freezes at night. I know. How long have you been here? Long enough to be so hungry and thirsty. Oh, I can help you with that. Really? Yes. Feeding a hungry is one of the corporal acts of mercy.  I used to be. Oh, I'm sorry. Sorry? I mean it's hard not to be a part of what everyone else is. Not everyone is Catholic? No, of course not. I didn't mean that. She grabs at her stomach. What is it? Could you really get me some food? Sure, here. And she hands her sandwich to her. Felicia reaches out for the sandwich, but she's still not totally revealing herself. Who are you? I'm Adela. I live here. I don't know why I said that. I do. It's because I don't live here. And she takes a bite of the sandwich. So where do you live? She's chewing and slullowing. Where I can, and that's nowhere now. Did you run away? Yes, I guess you could say that. Why? The truth? Of course. You don't know how dangerous the truth can be. She steps out of the shack, and clearly she's very pregnant. Oh, you're having a baby? Yes. That's why the immigration police are after me. How do they even know about you? We surrendered ourselves at the border. They were about to deport us, so we escaped for the baby. And she starts to cry. What's wrong? She gets some control of her crying. My brother and I got caught in a church, down in El Paso, a sanctuary. We thought they got Carlos. I'm afraid they killed him. Oh, no. They took Felicia and put her arm around her. Felicia turned her face into Adela's shoulder. I always wanted a brother. My mother lost her brother in the war. Maybe your Carlos is all right. You think so? The last time I saw him, he was bleeding bad. From the head, the border police, they clubbed him. Oh. And you left him? I did, love. They took him. They didn't find me. I was behind one of the statues. I hid under the purple cloth. So the police want you? The border police. Maybe if you surrendered again, you could find out about your brother. No, no. No, you don't know the police. All they want is to get my baby out of America before he's born. When is he coming? Pretty soon, I think. I don't know what to do. Don't you worry. I'll ask Corazon what to do. She's my grandmother. She'll know. Please don't. Don't tell anyone about me. I want my baby to be born here in the United States, especially if she's a girl. Life is so hard when you're a girl and poor where I come from. Adela hesitates and then looks hard at Felicia. Listen, you can't stay here. You'll die.  I used a blanket I found here inside. It was enough. I'll bring you more. And some water too. And a flashlight. And she runs off stage as the lights go down. Scene three. The lights rise on a hospital scene, a hospital bed with a young man in his late teens lying in it. Kim, an aide in her 50s, is preparing bandages to put on his head, which a doctor has just sewn up. A plainclothes officer, Bob, a bit grizzled is standing in the room. Looks like the doctor got the bleeding stopped. Not easy.  If he hadn't run away, he wouldn't have gotten hurt. Anyway, I didn't hit him. Some cop from mob control must have done it. The old peel from front to back technique. I recognize it. The MPs in Saigon once used it. On my brother. Was your brother in the Army? Arvin. The South Vietnamese Army, right? Yes. The Army of the Republic of Vietnam. The ones the Americans tried to defeat? No. The Vietnamese who fought with the Americans. Well, you're well enough to talk. What do you think? Will the doctor release him to me? No. No. They'll send me back. I have to find Felicia. Hey, hey. Don't do that. I'm Carlos. And who's Felicia? My sister. She's having a baby. I have to get to her. Damn. I knew there was another one under the church. The sanctuary. It was the place we were supposed to be safe. You're not supposed to be safe. You're an illegal. That's a weird concept, don't you think? Weird? What's weird about it? Well, it makes it sound as if a person's being alive breaks some law. America is for Americans. My father died in Vietnam to keep it that way. I was told Americans were in Vietnam to protect Vietnamese from communism. Yeah, that too. Not that they were grateful. Anyway, my job is to protect Americans by keeping illegals out. So kid, where's your sister? I need to find her before she has that baby. She'll be going over. Going on where? Where I have to meet her. I don't think you should be going anywhere today. I have to. I promised. I can't let her have the baby alone. Well, why don't you take me to her? And I'll see to it she gets some help. Look at me. You think I'll trust her? You to give us help? Don't talk to me like that. I told you I didn't hit you, but I could. Why should the boy trust a man whose job is to deport refugees? These people are illegals, not refugees. What's the difference? Refugees come over to escape death. Illegals come over to get in on America. Help me. I have to get to Felicia. Don't let this man have me. You know, I was a refugee once myself. Yes, so what? It's pretty slippery what makes somebody a refugee or an illegal. This country took me in from Saigon when I would have been killed and educated me and let me learn to make a living, become a medical aide. So, Carlos, I think I do understand a little. Yes? How much? Are you with me or with him? I know what it is to be where you are. In a hospital? Running away.  Yes, us too. After they killed Lorencio, the baby's father, Felicia and I had to run away and they came after us.  Who are they? The gang. Lorencio wanted to stop carrying drugs for them once he learned about the baby. The baby? Oh, I know what it is to be where your Felicia is too. What? You know where she is? I know what it's like to try to have the baby alone. I lost mine. I'm sorry, Miss. Kim. Kim Lee. I'm Miss Kim Lee. I'm sorry, Miss Kim Lee. What happened? My child was stillborn in the chaos right before the fall of Saigon. You were there? Yes, April 1975. My father was a translator at the embassy. He was so angry I was pregnant he hardly spoke to me. I had no other family left. You saw your baby? I even named her after a famous Vietnamese woman poet, Ho Su An Hoang. That sounds foreign, alright. What does it mean? The essence of spring. For a dead baby? She wrote a poem about an unled mother of the bud of fate. Our whole world was dying. We needed to believe in spring, in death bearing a bud of life. How did you escape? My father, he cried when he learned my baby had died. He managed to get me on to an American helicopter airlifting civilians from the embassy. We never saw each other again. Our father was furious with Felicia, too. He's dead now. I'm the one left to help her. Would you trust me to help your sister? I think so, if you can get me out of here. Don't you know it's Christmas Eve?  And how about you? It's Christmas Eve for you, too?  No wife, no kids, no parents, not even a dog. So I've got my job and can even put in for overtime. For me, too. Christmas Eve is a lonely time. It's a night for Christians. I'm a Buddhist. Buddhists don't do Christmas? No treat. No presents, Carol. But we can feel for suffering. So being with refugees, I can belong there. And helping a girl have her baby, that's fate. You really know how to find her? I know the address. What address? My mother gave it to me. We were on our way there. So where is there? Where is this place?   Okay, either of us got to lose. You and I both need to find her. We need to deport her and you, either your Felicia has her baby alone, maybe dies, or we find her and help her. Will you really come? My shift is over. Yes. Yes, I'll come. Are you sure you can lead us to her? We map it out, I know. I'll be damned. Get the release papers. The kid and I are taking a little Christmas Eve trek. Only the point is to not have the baby. I won't lead you anywhere unless she comes to... No way, this is government business. I'd really like to come. Sorry, you want to have an illegal have a baby. That's the only reason I'd take you to her. You might as well go with what you've got. Go get the kid released. I should get my medical bag for the trip. If I have to, I have to. Just remember we're finding an illegal to send her home. I'll be back in a minute with the release papers. Bob pulls out his handcuffs. All right kid, put your hands out. Carlos gingerly swings his legs over the side of the bed and says... My name is Carlos. Bob puts on the handcuffs. Let's go find this mother in waiting. Her name is Felicia. Felicia. I'm sending her back too. We'll see about that. And the lights go down. After you, we'll see you on. Corazon in the kitchen, preparing Christmas Eve food for after midnight mass. Adela enters and goes to get a pitcher of water. What are you up to? Nothing, just getting some water. In a pitcher? How thirsty are you? I thought I heard some baby animals crying. I'm gonna see if I can find them. I figured they might be crying because they're thirsty. You know, this awful drought. Babies. Babies drink their mother's milk. Oh, right. I forgot that. Well now that I've got the water, I may as well water the cactus. They're cactus. That sounds funny, doesn't it?  Why are you saying that to me? It's a secret. With who? That's the secret, Nana. Don't make me say. Well, I don't know. Is it anything bad? Honest, I'm not sure. You don't know if you're doing anything bad. I might be, but then again, if I don't, that might be bad, worse. Come here, Adela. Not now, please. Yes, now, come here. Adela approaches Corazon who points to a dining room chair.  I told her I want to stay here with you.  But not to you, and not to me. I know why not to me, but I don't know why not to you. Tell me. I don't know how to put it. It's mom. Somehow it means too much to her what I do. I can't explain it. I know I shouldn't understand that answer, but I do. So can I go? Not yet. Stop fiddling. I want to explain something. To me? Adela, do you believe in God? It's like you can see into my heart. What does it make you to have? I don't understand why boys are God's favorites. What do you mean? Boys get to be priests. They get to be bishops and popes and tell everyone what God thinks. Even which war is holy? If there is a God, why'd he become human as a boy unless God prefers boys? That's a good question. But I don't see that being a boy seems to be any great thing. What do you mean? Boys become men. Men become soldiers. Yes, and they get to be heroes. They get to be killers. And then they get to be dead. Everybody dies. That seems a good way to die. Killing people. Fighting for your people. Your beliefs. That's what your uncle had. Oh, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking about you and uncle Hector. Corazon gets up and walks around. Seems distracted from Adela. I, too, find it hard to believe a good God created this world so unfair, so cool, or that suffering retains this world's evil. Isn't that the point of Christmas? God becoming human to suffer for us? I guess the way you answer that question makes all the difference. What question? Well, now that I try to say it, it's more than one question. Yes. Why is there sin? Why was it necessary to suffer to save us? You mean why is there evil? If suffering undid evil, but it doesn't. Once evil has happened, it has happened. I don't understand. No one does. Child, although some people pretend to. Maybe there is a God. I mean, how did everything get here? But then I think of all the things the priests say about what God thinks and what we should do. Then, promise if I tell you this, you'll never tell anyone. That's a big promise. Maybe you should just trust me. I do trust you, Nana. It's just that I feel ashamed. Why? What are you ashamed of? I can't tell you, but I want to tell you. I'm afraid of what you'll think of me, but I want to know what you'll think of me. No matter what, I would love you. Alright then. This terrible thing happened. I questioned my faith. And instead of being struck with shame or lightning, I felt more free than I ever have. And that was terrible? Questioning my faith turned out to be better than any good thing I ever did? Isn't that terrible? Well, what exactly did you question? I realized the priests treat us like sheep. They're like sheep dogs keeping us where they want. And barking hell at us if we look like we're going to go our own way. It's like you can see into my heart. Come here. Coruscant takes her into her arms and hugs her. You don't go to Mass anymore. You must not believe either. In a way, I think I believe more than your mother. What do you mean? Since Hector's death, it has been impossible for me to believe that God is all good. Hector's death put a stake through my heart. Oh, now I wish I could pull it out. No, child, I don't want you anywhere near it.  I can't stop it. How can I be so angry if I didn't believe God was responsible? But then if you're mad at God, aren't you afraid? He's God. Yes, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that the same human evil that drives men to war drives me. I don't understand. Of course you don't.  And yours are the feelings of a young girl who wants to know right from wrong. Which reminds me, Adela, what is it you're doing that might be wrong? I'll go get her and show you. She runs off stage, lights down. Act 2, scene 2. The scene is the same as in Act 2, scene 1, only all is dark, except for Felicia and Corazon under the high lights. Where's your father? My father is dead. He was murdered. He lies buried in the mountains. Where's your mother? I fear they killed her too. I don't know where she is. Where's your husband? I have no husband. The father of your child? Lorencio. The father's child is dead. They killed him last. Who is they? The drug machos. They took over our village.  If you won't work with them, you just die. And how are you alive? Carlos. Mama sent us away. Who is Carlos? My brother. My dear brother. I'm afraid he's dead too. Hector's dead. My son. I'm sorry. How did he die? He was a soldier. He died far away. Was he your only child? No, I have a daughter, Anna. Anna's granddaughter, Adela. She brought you to me. Yes. She's been very kind to me. And to my baby. Your baby? Yes. She said you could help us. The spotlights give way to soft light. Adela enters the stage. You will help her? Corazon looks long at Felicia. Speak sorrowfully.  The endless mother journey. You sound so sad. You are already measuring your happiness by the happiness of your loved ones. I wish I knew how they are. You're so young. What if Carlos is dead? What will I do? You'll go on. You'll have your baby to take care of. And if my baby dies? Well, maybe perhaps Felicia will appear at your door and you'll be able to take care of her.  No, no. Your baby must live. Come. Felicia walks into a protective hut. Lights down. Act two, scene three. At stage right, a food stand with a sign board legible to the audience. Hal's second amends. A picture of a high-power rifle is wood-carved into the sign. Bob is at the counter. Carlos and handcuffs and Kim are sitting at a picnic table, center stage. Nothing around but a highway cutting through high desert. Funny sign, mister. What's it mean? Wouldn't you like to know? It means I've gotten rights. Constitutionally protected rights. So, don't you mean amendment? Not amends? You've never heard of a play on words? Sure, I've heard of a play on words. So what? So, I'm into amends. For all the crappy crutches crawling across our borders. Hmm. Sounds like my line of work. Only I don't think of illegals as insects. Anyway, we'd like one chili burger, one regular burger, one hot dog, and three bottles of water. Chili burger? Who you got with you, anyway? I don't feed just anybody. You don't. That's against the law, you know. It is not. I can refuse to serve anyone I please. I please not to serve foreigners who don't eat American. What could be more American than hamburgers and hot dogs? Chilli, or beans, or tortillas, or any of that Mexican shit?  Now, who you got with you?  I gave you an order. You don't have chili burgers and give me two regular burgers. I think I might just close early today. Listen to me. I'm with immigration, and I have the power to arrest people.   Bob grabs him by his shirt and brows into his face.  Whoa, you got a gun. I like men with guns. Yes, sir. I don't mind beating men with guns. You're lucky. You're the lucky one. Says you. But all right, two burgers, one hot dog. Hal turns away, exits. Bob goes to the table where Kim and Carlos are sitting, having witnessed what just happened. He'll be ready in a few minutes. Would you really have shot him? I don't go around shooting people, though a lot of people could use shooting. Nuts like that make me mad. Lord knows I'm not crazy about illegals. And one reason is that they trigger that kind of craziness in some people. That's not the America I want. What is the America you want? A place where people are safe. People like me and my sister?  You're not even people who ask permission before coming where you haven't been invited. I mean people who are trying to make a life and protect what they've got. Hal interrupts as he arrives with the tray and sets it down on their table. Looks at Carlos and Kim. Then at Bob, he turns his head to the side, spits and goes back. That guy's a vigilante. Anyway, here's the house special.  What makes you think he's a vigilante? He's from Oracle, Arizona. So what? Remember, immigration has been busing the kids to different towns? Oracle is the town where the people met the buses with guns. I thought that was a town in California. Them too. Why were the refugees being lost? No place to hold them all. Looks like the courts are placing them with relatives if they have any. Did he explain that sign? I wouldn't call it an explanation. He went on and on about his rights, constitutionally guaranteed. I think he meant gun rights. Is that what amends is about? You know, the second amendment. What's the second amendment? Americans have a right for guns. I was hoping maybe he was out here providing food to travelers. There's a way of making amends for something. You didn't really think that. I don't know. I meet a man like that and I wonder, you know, where's the guy he is and where's the guy he could become? The vigilante turned into a saint. I was thinking more, I don't know, if someone doesn't plant a seed, how's the better guy he might be going to have a chance? Well, we hear one of those. Those what? Idealists. Believers. Depends. On what? I do believe trust can release courage in us we didn't even know we had. Did you ever hear the one about the snake in the mouse? You mean the one where the snake fools the mouse into believing it? Yep. And gets a mouse to breakfast? I did. Did you ever hear the one about the good Samaritan? I've heard both those stories. And I'm still waiting. Waiting? Waiting to see. You know, if I find the girl, I'm taking her straight to deportation. If I find the girl, I'm helping her deliver to baby and won't be deportable. You're really willing to separate the baby from the mother? Not my decision. Sounds like a rattler. Can't see it though. Probably just picking in some sun. No, worst thing you can do if it's near the snake will bite you. Bob is pulled his gun, gets up and walks over to him, stands protectively by her. The kid's right. Best not to jump up like that. You got up too. Yeah. But I have a gun. That was scary. Here you are, sitting in the middle of nowhere by accident really, drinking a bottle of water and just like that, you could be poisoned dead. Not dead, really, Kim.   You know how to work a tourniquet and I could get us to a hospital with anti-toxin. Yeah, I'm pretty good at first aid. I'm just trying to show some respect, you know, for death. And life. Yes. And life. For how fragile life is and how sudden death can be. I know. Yes, how do you know? Why do you think Felicia and I came here? We're running away from sudden death. That's a good story. It's not just a story. It's what I'm supposed to do now. Protect Felicia and her baby. What do you have to protect her from? Well, now from him. But before, from the gang. Drugs? Yes and no. Lorencia wanted to stop carrying drugs for them. Once he learned about the baby. You'd think he'd want to make more money by working for them. That's what they thought too. But he wanted to be there for the baby, you know. Not dead or in jail. He ended up dead anyway. That's true. And Felicia and I would be dead too if we hadn't run away.  They tried. But we got away. At least until you send us back. Look kid, we have to live in the world we've got. It would be great if there was some place for everybody. I signed on to keep America safe. You need some people of your own to take care of. A family. If you had a family, you wouldn't be making war for your country. Making war? If I was making war, you'd be dead. I think what Carlos is trying to say is you need a bigger picture of what protecting people means.  It's not the number of people. It's the idea of protection that needs to be bigger. And you think you know better than me what protection is. Don't be mad. My own ideas keep changing. Looking at what happened to my country, Vietnam, when America, well, not America, at least not the American soldiers and nurses who risked their lives. Don't dare badmouth those people. I would never do that. But I can. Think about what they thought they were doing. What they thought they were protecting. What do you mean? They were protecting us, but they were bombing us. I lost my family to one of the bombing raids. I lost my father. My mother died in childbirth and I had nobody. Nobody to protect me. Poor man. We have a lot in common, you and I. Our ancestors tried to protect us through war and our families were broken. Now neither of us has a family. Right. So we're able to do the work that people with families can't. Like now. Good point. Maybe family isn't a big enough idea either.  And anyone you help. Yeah, good luck with that. I'm sorry about your father. At least America protected you. Yes, and it seems it still is. The rattlesnakes. We've got to get going. Which way now, kid? Carlos picks a letter out of his pocket awkwardly because of the handcuffs. We're not that far. You've got a map? Let me see that. Hey, don't turn the letter. We need it. What's it say? It's not in English. It's not in Spanish either. We really know it's addressed to where we're going. A Royal Hondo. Lights down. 8 Scene 1. In the kitchen dining room area, Anna and half a dozen relatives are chatting dressed for Christmas Mass. Adela and Felicia can be seen listening. One young man, Buddy, dressed in a police uniform addresses Corazon who's stuffing taco shells. Your tacos are the best. The soft shell amends me. The delicious soft Corazon. Christmas Eve would not be Christmas Eve without your tacos. Gracias, Buddy. Fortunately, I made extra this year. Remembering you from last year, you seem to save up a year's worth of appetite. Corazon, who wouldn't make a pig of himself with those tacos? His cell phone rings and he excuses himself. Corazon continues stuffing the taco shells. He returns and is obviously annoyed. What's the matter? You seem upset. It was a border policeman. He's looking for a runaway wetback and thinks she may be around here. Why would he think that? I don't know. Some letter or something? Anyhow, he wants to meet me here. I told him he'd have to wait until after Mass. Jesus, why don't those ruches stay down in Mexico where they belong? Buddy, you sound like those awful people who hate Mexicans. Besides, I had the people coming in now out from further south. Anna, you're soft on these people. Now take over. Fill our schools, take our jobs. They're so poor, they'll work for peanuts. Buddy, our state used to be part of Mexico. You could just be easy as born as a Mexican. Only you would have been born before New Mexico was a state. Well, I wasn't. I was born an American.  And I hear they are mostly children. Children trying to reunite with their families. Children. That's what's the matter with these people. They keep breeding. They can't take care of their kids. So they want us to. It's not right. I thought you were on your way to celebrate the birthday of a child. A child who grew up and said, feed the hungry? Well, yeah, okay. Well, we should feed them, I guess. But food doesn't grow on trees. Isn't it my duty to feed my own kids? Actually, lots of food does grow on trees. Maybe my kids versus your kids is the problem. Well, it's a fact. We'd better get going, or we'll be late. Are you sure you won't join us, Mama? No, I'm going to sit here and take care of Adela. I'm sorry I couldn't convince her to go with you, Anna. Me too. It isn't surprising that she's not here to say goodbye. She must be ashamed. I'd say confused. Have patience with her. She's a good child. Anna hugs Corazon, calls to the others, and they exit. It's all right now. Come out. Are you all right? Did I hear right? The border police are coming here. How did they find out? I'm sorry you had to hear that. I'm afraid they may have gotten some information from your brother. That means he's alive. It could, but be careful. I don't want you to get your heart broken. But my heart's already broken, thinking he's dead. Anna, don't make it worse. The question is, how do we hide Felicia? What is it? It paints the baby. So soon. Ideas. Lord, help us. Come with me. And the lights go down. At three, scene two. Adela is helping Corazon outside. Corazon is bent over, clutching at her chest. But she's able to walk with help. Adela leads her to the table with two chairs and helps her sit in the evening light. There, I thought the air would help. I'm sorry, Miquita, to frighten you. Shouldn't I call the doctor?  Oh, Anna. I think the air will revive me. Don't worry. You have to be very strong now. Felicia needs you. You must go to her. If you see the baby coming, come get me right away. I don't want to leave you. Of course you don't do Adela, but Felicia needs you more just now. I'll be all right. I just need to rest up a moment. Build up my strength to go help her. Please go to her. I'll come in just as soon as I can. Go. Corazon leads back, looks up into the sky. Distant Christmas carols can be heard. First, it came upon a midnight clear. It came upon a midnight clear. That glorious song of old. I never thought that when death came for me, I would have so little understanding. It's always made things seem so clear. With angels bending near the earth to touch their hearts of gold. Angels near the earth. Anna, Adela, Felicia, Felicia's baby. Angels in us all. All of us falling upon the earth. Falling. I'm tired. So very tired. Her head slowly falls to her chest. The hymn, Angels We Have Heard On High begins.  She raises her head, Apparently still asleep, and smiles. I always love this one. The Gloria. It's lovely tonight. I can hear Christmas Eve. I've been dreaming of burnt-out candles. A line as far as you can see. A handful are still burning at the head of the line. Really? Can you see in the dark? We've been exploring. And the others? Us, you, me. Remember the lost horizon? I can't see. Can't see in the dark. The carols are so comforting. Full of hope. No. You. Thought I'd never see you again. Where's the baby? We're waiting. All the people singing together. Lively peace. I can't sing anymore. Angels we have heard on high Sweetly singing for the plane. I used to wonder, plane what? The plane is Anglo-Fermesa. Table country. Under the stars. You have to tell me. Where are you? Here, with you.  Here, with you. Let me hold you. Let me hold you. Always. Corazon grabs at her chest, crumples, but does not fall as the lights go down. Act three, sing three. The group, including Anna and Buddy, who bring up the rear, enter into the living area in twos. Singing angels we have heard on high. Stopping after the first Gloria, before the line beginning, annexed Chelsea's. They gather at the creche. Anna places the statue of the baby in the crib, in the center. It appears that the prince of peace means peace for our world. And prosperity here at home. And charity for the dispossessed. And happiness for our families. Anna goes to the counter, where the tacos are covered, and begins uncovering them. Buddy, bring me the plates. As she goes for them, there's a loud knocking at the door. Who's that? Buddy, would you get a plate? Bob and Kim. Kim, who's carrying her medical bag, they enter. Buenos noches. How may we help you? Thank you, man. We're here on immigration business. On Christmas Eve? Senor, you come into our house and want to check the idea of my family, my friends. Our people were in New Mexico before there even was in America. I called earlier. Where's the guy I spoke to? Yeah, I forgot. You're the one looking for the illegals? Yeah. These people here, are they Americans? They're people first, and all Mexican-Americans for your information. Well, maybe you Mexican-Americans feel more loyal to Mexico than America.  What are you talking about? We just came back from Mass. We're about to share Christmas if tacos. If you're respectful, you can join us. We don't mean to be disrespectful, man. We have information that a runaway immigrant may be here tonight. We have to find her as soon as we can. You see, she's...  I believe that's why I'm here. What's going on? Mother, Adela. Give me a minute, Mama. Where's Mother? Corazon, valeme Dios, somebody help me. Buddy, Bob, hurry all stage after her. In a minute, they return, each with an arm around Corazon, helping her walk slowly toward a chair, followed by Anna. Mother, God, what happened? Shh, don't worry, Anna. Don't worry. Are you all right? How do you feel? Did I fall? What's happening with Felicia? Is she all right? Felicia? Mama, everybody, Felicia's done it. Don't want me, Nita. Felicia has a bundle in her arms.  Felicia lifts her bundle toward the people. My babies. Him then steps into the light, also holding a bundle. Felicia's daughter. My son. Isn't it wonderful, Mama? It's Christmas, and Felicia has had twins. A boy and a girl. God loves girls, too. Who is this Felicia? These babies. Of course, God loves girls. Mother, what is this? Felicia, tell Anna. Kim looks at Corazon, hands the doll at the baby, and then moves quickly toward Corazon, taking her wrist and feeling for the pulse.  It's above Harry's backstage, and quickly returns with the AIDS bag. Kim takes out the stethoscope, listens to Corazon's heart. Meanwhile, Felicia addresses Anna and the others. I am from Guatemala, but these, my babies, they are now from America. Kim brother just threw the bag. Thank goodness, I do have some. Get us some water, quick. But he quickly gets the water. Take these, now. Who are you? Kim Lee, medical aid. Sent to you on Christmas Eve so you could have another Christmas morning. I see. I see I'm here for another Christmas morning with my family, with Felicia. See our Christmas babies? My son, and Felicia's daughter. She presents the baby to Corazon, who appreciates her, and smiles knowingly at Adela. My heart is so full of thank you. Please, Abuela, help me name him. Florencio, after his father, you think? Or Carlos, after his uncle. It must be Florencio. One Carlos is enough. Felicia, I told you we'd come. I told you we'd be together again. Felicia holds her son toward Carlos. He goes to her, but he can't pick up the baby because of the handcuffs, and he looks at Bob. Can you take these off and let me hold him? Okay, but I have to take you and her back. The uncussing Carlos takes little Florencio in his arms. You can't take my babies. They're American. Would someone please explain to me what's happening? These are illegals, ma'am. I'm here to take them back as a custody. You can't take them away. It's my job. They're not a job. They're people. And the babies were born here in America. They're Americans. Carlos takes a letter from his pocket and hands it to Anna. Here, it's from my mother. Anna takes the letter and starts to read. But this can't be. Where did you get this from? My mother gave it to me to give to you. Your mother? You're my son? You knew my mother? We were girls together in high school. Before she married, we were friends so close. We took all our classes together. She and her husband moved back to the village he came from. You can read the letter? Oh, yes. It's in short time. We learned this script together. She wrote it hoping you would help us.  They killed our mother, but they didn't catch us. Oh, Maria's dead? Oh, no. We'd be dead, too, if she hadn't made us escape. So, now do you have no place to live? Only if you'll help us. Carlos, come here. Carlos, do as she says. She helped save me and my babies. Carlos goes to Coral's room still holding the baby. How can I thank you? Please tell me. You, you are my gift. You and Felicia and the babies must stay with us. I'm afraid that's not possible. Maybe you can keep the babies, but not Carlos or Felicia. Yes, yes. That must be happened to you and your babies must stay with us. These are illegals, ma'am. They have to go back. And I'm afraid I have to take them. These are people, Bob. People in need of a refuge. Can't you see a way to let them stay? As far as I know, the courts are only letting those illegals with relatives here stay. Anyhow, I'm not a judge.  You are deciding right now the fate of this family and of us. What's your real job on this earth? Ma'am? When it's your time to die, what work will you have done? Protecting my country, my people. How is it protecting your country to separate this family? Remember your father, how hard it was for him when his family was broken. Didn't you say judges were letting people stay with relatives?  Couldn't you think of these people as family? Remember our talk. The idea of family needs to get bigger.  What makes these people not your people? I didn't say that. Besides, didn't you say that refugees legally can stay? Sure.  But that's what these children have done. It's true. Doesn't that impress it? I don't know. Maybe, I mean maybe. I guess maybe I could use the letter. Why do we need proof of anything? Felicia and Carlos and the babies need a home, and they can have one right here, right now? That's right, Abuela. They all belong here now. Please, sir, use your authority to help us. Leave these children with us. Let them stay here until your judges and courts have given us permission to keep them. Please, Bob, it's your chance to really protect people. People you actually know. I have to make a report. I guess I could base my report on this letter. I could report that they carried a letter saying they're running from being killed and that they have people willing to take care of them. That would be wonderful. Adela steps forward with the baby and holds her out to Bob. So you'll help protect her? And Bob takes the baby. I don't have any kids myself. What's her name? I'm calling her Maria, after my mother. I want Mama's spirit with her always. Bob looks at the baby's face. Mary was my mother's name. You two. Most day ain't help us bring any cleanness. Bob looks sheepishly to our kids. I'll be damned. Looks like we're part of the family tonight after all. I told you we needed a bigger idea of family. I just didn't realize that included us.  Proud to share being family with you. No, they can stay. Felicia, Carlos and the babies. It seems Christmas too is born anew. Even with so many deaths. My son Hector. Lorencio, Maria. Or maybe through so many deaths we've rediscovered life here tonight. Through death? Don't you mean through God? Maybe in a way I do. Birth, death and all. She turns to Buddy, who's been slack-jawed during this entire experience. Buddy, can you sing Hector's favorite carol again, the angel song? An excesses caritas? Sure, caro son. Caritas is all about caring, yes. It's in excesses caritas.