Opinion

I remember hearing the term, "melting pot" used to describe America. That was back in the '60s. 

The idea was that America takes all sorts of disparate human parts from  Europe, Africa, and Asia, and melts them down into an ingot called an American.  All traces of your old self were to disappear as you took on the new identity.

That was the theory. Of course, America was "whiter" back then.

Now, depending on who you listen to  America either soon will, or already has passed the point where European Americans are the majority.

I read a short report in today's Brattleboro Reformer about an "assaultive student" at the Austine School who was cited into court for simple assault and disorderly conduct. It's the second one in recent memory. A previous report sounded much more threatening, and was more detailed, but either way, there's something that doesn't sit well with me in reading about police being called for student discipline. As with so many other things, it's not the way it used to be when I was a kid.

The Brattleboro Retreat, although not recently, has also relied on the police to take authority over unruly or combative youth and there have been past incidents where those youthful patients were tasered into compliance.

Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, political critic and activist. He is an institute professor and professor emeritus in the department of linguistics and philosophy at MIT, where he has worked for over 50 years. History educator Daniel Falcone spoke with Chomsky in his Cambridge office on May 14.

He has some interesting, iconoclastic ideas on a lot of things. Here are a few excerpts from this interview.

Wilmington, where my house is got 2 inches of snow, northern Vermont received between 4 and 15 inches of snow, and Whiteface Mountain in New York received 3 feet of snow!!

Here is a link to photos and a few snowfall reports.

Why
is Brattleboro giving tax breaks to a group of millionaires who bought the
Brooks House and want to put in luxury apartments?  What if the project fails?  If the
project goes belly up, what is the financial guarantee to the town? Will the
town contiue to pay rent to Brooks house for the Harmony lot? Will the town
recoup the thousands of dollars it has already put into the Brooks house?

I encourage  taxpayers
to write to the Selectboard and oppose the subsidie for millionaires.

joe green

2012 will be remembered as an extraordinarily difficult year for Brattleboro residents. Since January the Vermont Legislature has voted out of committee to increase the state education tax rate by five cents; to increase the gas tax by two cents with another eight cent increase in the future; and to tax any drink containing sugar at one cent per ounce that will add thirty-three cents to the price of a liter.

At the local level property owners will be hit with a projected utility budget deficit of $600,000; the annual increase in the water and sewer rates for the new treatment plant; the increase in property taxes for the new fire and police station; the increase in the town operating budget; the increase in the town school budget; and the increase in the BUHS budget. Adding to the taxpayer’s misery is a town grand list that has flat-lined.

What is a homeowner suppose to do?

March 5; Tuesday is Brattleboro's citizens chance to take action and vote for the directions each feels best for our town.  Brattleboro is a nice place to live. It has many challenges needing to be addressed.  I am in hopes that the many people of this town take the time to vote.  So many of us have so many opinions of what is good for the town and what is not good for our town.