Sandy Baird – 1940-2025

Sandy Baird was committed to an amazing range of activism, including the struggle for justice for Palestinian people. It was clear: respect for the rights of women was her primary motivation, extending to almost every cause and individual project she worked for. She worked incessantly against racism: two days before she died she spoke about her 'pro bono' work for migrant people at a meeting of the Vermont Coalition for Palestinian Liberation. Also in the final few days of Sandy's life, she coordinated and moderated a Vermont Institute of Community and International Involvement Special Forum on "The Rise of BRICS and Trump: A Changing Global Landscape". Her legal expertise often led her to cite the US Constitution as providing guiding principles, along with her consistent opposition to use of military force to promote the desires and goals of imperial and colonialist countries. For instance, Sandy berated climate activists about the seldom acknowledged and officially obscured role of military contributions to fossil fuel pollution.
Our challenge: To collectively maintain the momentum Sandy created!
This from Kris and Mousa Ishaq: "We met Sandy Baird more than forty years ago and got together with a group of friends at least once a month ever since. We greatly admired her unwavering pursuit of justice, particularly for economically disadvantaged mothers and their children. When she lost a daughter to domestic violence, she and her family turned their pain and sorrow into productive action through the Caroline Fund. She was a fierce defender of Palestinian rights and of human rights generally. She was one of the co-founders of the Burlington-Bethlehem-Arad Sister City Program in 1991, which continues to this day."
Some press reports:
- Burlington woman’s sense of mission, devotion to civic engagement and unstoppable drive to help the oppressed left indelible mark on the city Seven Days
- Sandy Baird, Fierce Advocate and Lawyer, Dies at 84 Seven Days
- Death 'the only thing that could stop her': Burlington activist Sandy Baird dies at 84 Burlington Free Press