Step In The Right Direction

The CVS pharmacy chain just announced that it has ceased sellimg tobacco products.

Quote:

Health is everything.
Your health is our #OneGoodReason to be tobacco free.


Thank You from BS&L

Community Appreciation Day was a huge success on Friday and we have you all to thank for that!!

We would like to extend a special thank you to Vermont Country Deli for allowing us to purchase a whopping 1250 fresh baked cookies, Gougers Market for prepping all of the lettuce tomato and onion, Putney Road Market for helping us to purchase several hundred hot dogs, veggie burgers, and hotdog and hamburger rolls, and Hannaford’s for helping with the purchase of 20 lbs of summer slaw and hundreds of hamburgers.

Thank you to these local vendors for helping to make such a successful event!


Sanders on Labor Day

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 31 – U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) issued the following statement in advance of Monday’s observation of Labor Day:

“Today, we salute the trade union movement and all Americans who are fighting for the needs of working families.

“The sad reality of today’s America is that while the wealthiest people and largest corporations are doing phenomenally well, the middle class is disappearing and millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages. Congress must start listening to the needs of ordinary Americans, not just the billionaire class and their lobbyists.


Blaming God for ‘All-Living-Things’ Massacre in Jericho Set Hair Raising Precedent

DESCRIPTION:

Another slaughter of men, women and children in the land of the Bible. Probably many have heard the voice of God demanding it. The Jewish Bible is in the Christian Bible. Intelligent understanding of sacred scripture might make it more difficult for the mega genocidal thieving and enslaving amoral private speculative banking backed neocolonialist media and military to overcome Mankind’s natural spirituality and humanity


Congressman Peter Welch To Visit Brattleboro

Congressman Peter Welch
United States House of Representatives
Official Appearance Schedule

Monday, August 25th, 2014

10:30 a.m. Roundtable Discussion: Brattleboro

Rep. Welch will participate in a roundtable discussion on the Support and Services At Home (SASH) program. SASH is a federally funded, integrated care pilot program that coordinates health care services for seniors with an emphasis on improving health outcomes.


The Right To Remain Silent

……………. “the candidates being considered for Town Manager is a confidential personnel human resources matter. The names of the candidates are therefore not made available to the public.”

Furthermore, the name of the new Town Manager after they have been hired will not be made public pending notification of next of kin who may want the applicant to find employment closer to home because property taxes in Brattleboro are unaffordable.


“The Suicide Tourists – Going To Switzerland”

Years ago one sunny morning, a messenger in my office came back from a delivery. He looked dazed and moved slowly to sit down. When asked what was wrong he replied that a man had landed with an explosive sound on the sidewalk in front of him on 34th Street. He had just jumped from the upper level of the Empire State Building. The man’s heart burst from his body and landed 10 feet from where our messenger was unchaining his bike. I asked one of our supervisors to take him home.

Too often successful and attempted suicides are unnecessarily violent. The fact that other people are affected by someone’s suicide is compounded when they are particularly brutal. And, too often many suicides are gruesome because they have no way out other than ending their life violently.


Please Write-In Dean Corren for Lt. Governor

Please get out and vote in the Democratic Primary next Tuesday, August 26 [or vote in advance at the Town Clerk’s office] … and please WRITE-IN the name of Dean Corren for Lieutenant Governor! We in the Windham County Democratic Committee voted without dissent on Monday, August 18 to give him our FULL SUPPORT. Dean Corren needs your write-in vote as a Democrat in order to run as a Progressive / Democrat on the November ballot.


The Biggest Political Error Vermont Will Ever Make

Book: The New Nuclear Danger 2002 by Dr. Helen Caldicott page 203: Three Tennessee Valley Authority commercial nuclear reactors —
Watts Bar Unit 1 (near Spring City, TN) and Sequoyah Units 1 and 2 (at Soddy Daisy, TN) — have been chosen as the “preferred” sites to manufacture tritium for U.S. nuclear weapons. The decision breaches the longstanding policy of not producing bomb material in civilian nuclear power plants. According to Robert Tiller of Physicians for Social Responsibility, “Our leaders are upset that Iraq might use civilian facilities to produce components for weapons of mass destruction, but the United States is now committed to do that very thing — turning a civilian reactor into a bomb facility.”


Final Windham County Democrats Forum in Brattleboro

Following successful forums in Townshend and Bellows Falls, the Windham County Democratic Committee will host its final candidate forum in Brattleboro.

Guilford, VT, August 15, 2014 – The final State Senate candidate forum hosted by the Windham County Democratic Committee will be at the American Legion Hall in Brattleboro, beginning promptly at 6:30pm. Regarding the forums, organizer Betty Frye said:


Too Urban?!

Too Urban?

It’s seeming that the Elm Street parking lot is quickly becoming the favorite choice for the location of the Brattleboro skatepark. It’s an odd turn of events considering this location is not supported by BASIC or the larger skateboarding community. It’s a little bit confusing because when the new Selectboard pulled the $50,000 dollar designer rug out from under BASIC and roped everyone back to the start line it was to “ensure due public process and identify the most ideal location for a skatepark.” Is the Elm street lot the best location for a skatepark?


Social Security Turns 79

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 13 – Marking Thursday’s 79th anniversary of Social Security, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called today for expanding “the most successful federal program in modern American history.”

The law creating the retirement program was signed on Aug. 14, 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Vermont has a special place in the history of Social Security. The first monthly retirement check, for $22.54, was issued in 1940 to Ida May Fuller of Ludlow. A legal secretary, Miss Fuller retired at age 65 and lived to be 100 years old. Today, there are 134,000 Vermonters on Social Security.


Turtle Island Park

What distinguishes the Jicarilla Apache from the Seminole, the Tlingit from the Zuni, the Pit River from our local Abenaki is less a matter of substance, and more of style. Style derives from form, and form comes from elements and conditions that dictate the hows and whats of daily existence. 

Some tribes thrive by way of the waters, others thrash in the dust and become stalkers of the wind and brush. People hone their ways based on a vast palate of diverse currents. Some travel by great longboats hewn from massive redwood trees, others tame equine energies.


Vermont Awarded $1.7 Million for Homeless Veterans

BURLINGTON, Vt., Aug. 11 – Vermont will receive $1.68 million from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to help address veteran homelessness, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman, announced today.

The grant to the University of Vermont is part of the VA’s Supportive Services for Veteran Families program, which is providing approximately $300 million to 301 community agencies to help low-income veterans and their families.


Windham County Economic Development Program Application Workshops Scheduled for August 19

MONTPELIER, Vt. – On July 28, the Agency of Commerce and Community Development released a Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) and the application for the first round ($2 million) of the funds made available by an agreement between the State of Vermont and Entergy for the Windham County Economic Development Program.

The funds will be distributed through a competitive application process to projects that promote economic development in Windham County. Eligible applicants for the grant program include municipalities, non-profit organizations and governmental agencies. Applications from businesses will be considered for financing via the Vermont Economic Development Authority (VEDA).


Memorialize US Military’s Worldwide Genocidal Crimes Against Humanity Awaiting Special Trial in …

   It’s now 2022. During the last eight years the economic, political, military balance of power has shifted. Emerging economies led by China, India, and Brazil have the greatest productivity and financial growth. With the dollar ceasing to be the world’s trading currency, the US lost ability to print new money to cover debts and threaten sanctions. A reconstituted UN has set up a special court to try US & NATO for genocide.


The Vermont Primary Election Is Coming Up On August 26th – Vote Dean Corren for Lt. Governor

During four terms in the Legislature in the 1990’s Dean co-authored the single payer healthcare bill, and introduced the first bills for marriage equality and death with dignity. All of these are now law and highlight Vermont’s national leadership.

After the Legislature, he was the Outreach Director for Bernie Sanders and since then has worked in renewable energy developing systems that generate power from tides and river currents based on a technology he patented. 


Water-Cooler Diplomacy

I liked the forced integration in the 50’s and 60’s because it had a jarring affect on American consciousness. Segregation was outlawed, and integration became the rule of the land. And, that watershed moment is a mighty and essential part of what changed our country for the better. Integration-by-law had and has a widespread effect on changing attitudes to this day.

No matter what blacks and whites thought of each other, the lawmaker’s gave them a way to violate their own bias behavior. Many American’s immediately became aware of how their thinking was changing.

What the Lincolnesque 1964 Civil Rights Act elementally did was take starkly dissimilar peoples and said, “Yes, you must be allowed to drink from the same fountain!”