Op/Ed

There was much talk at the recent Representative Town Meeting about “sending a message” to the School board and Selectboard.

One clear message was that people are reaching a breaking point with tax increases. We heard repeated stories of fixed incomes, dropping salaries, and rising costs making it increasingly hard to get by in our hometown. 

Another clear message is that budgets were approved as presented. Attempts to cut budgets failed, and Representatives approved all expenditures.

Which message was sent, and which was heard?

If you do not try then you fail.

I see the internet as a tool for colective problem solving. As a community the internet gives opportunity for the many great ideas to be seeded into the minds of all who wish to subscribe to finding solutions to many of the daily challenges we all face.

A term “Crowd Sourcing” seems appropriate to describe how I see this tool can become effective in finding solutions, such as the current financial crises our area is facing.

The Vermont Legislature is still churning out “Hate” Bills against low income Vermonters and Disabled Persons
on “Benefits”.

This constant harrassment of poor people and people with diseases is unjust and un-American.

Hannaford has made corporate decisions that play out in strange ways at the checkout aisle.

Having shopped for nearly half a century (and with a grandfather in the grocery business), when I’m ready to check out I put my groceries on the belt in easy bagging order. Heavy things, cans, bottles, and boxes go first, then the smaller, lighter things such as parsley or garlic.  A cashier could simply scan and pop it into the bag. We worked as a team to keep things moving along.

Not too long ago, I realized cashiers were scanning and piling all groceries to the other side without bagging anything. Only after all items had been scanned would any bagging occur. It was taking almost twice as long.

Please note that the following message and was sent to Representative Town Meeting Members today. If you are a Town Meeting Representative, please accept my apologies for seeing this message twice. If you concur that amending Article 21 to require continued operation of the River Garden while ownership issues are resolved with oversight from Town Meeting, please reach out to Town Meeting Members in your District.

The following is an article that I wrote a couple weeks ago. I should have sent it to iBrattleboro immediately but didn’t. My apologies for that. But here it is.

This week (the week of Feb 16) the Senate passed what is referred to s.77. Make no mistake – what we passed was not S.77. S.77 was a well thought out bill modeled after the Oregon law that allows a competent adult with a terminal illness the ability to have control at the end of his life. Many objected because they felt that no one should take his own life and this was condoning suicide. Some objected because they felt there were not enough safeguards for the disability community, that it discriminated against those who had lost the ability to self-administer the drug, and that it did not put enough emphasis on palliative care.

The world of words is full of material of uncertain authorship, some venerated as Gospel- literally.  I mean literally literally. The Bible is a work of anonymous scribes, much of it clearly apocryphal. Yet it’s not only cited as a source for our morals and laws, it’s referenced on legal tender, used on the witness stand as a goad against lying, and hauled out at the inaugural podium- divine proxy for winners to swear by.

It was claimed by one writer on this site that an opinion was null and void because the handle used was not authentic, not declarative enough. The charge of coward was brought forth more than once.

March 5, 2013 Tuesday, Town Meeting Day in Vermont

Will President Barack Obama allow United Nations “peacekeeping” troops to kill Americans who are growing marijuana in violation of the United Nations  INCB treaty?

Isn’t it time to end “one world government” so that we can MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL?

Isn’t it time to end all of these Treaties that the United States has signed onto so we can get back in control of our own country?

There’s nothing disgraceful about politics – I chose to live in Brattleboro in part because I knew that here, my ideas would be heard. Other place where I have lived and been involved in politics, things haven’t been anywhere near as open or fair.

I wrote an endorsement of Kate O’Connor which appeared in the Brattleboro Reformer on Thursday. I would like to add more here about why I have made this choice. At the bottom of this new commentary, I will append my letter in the Reformer in case you haven’t read it. I’m also going to add a brief public apology to Spoon Agave at the end.

Because, I’m White

I will not be stopped
for driving while black.

I will not be shot dead
for wearing my dreads.

I will not be rejected
subjected or ejected
Bent over & inspected.

$12 trillion in banker bailouts, billions more in quantitative easing that now will continue monthly. Constant war and military interventions, yet people keep voting Republican or Democrat as if this is the answer. Our sons and daughters are being sacrificed. FOR WHAT? For freedom and democracy? Do you really think so?

The film below is well-researched and less than 45 minutes long. If you review it on its factual merits versus the propaganda that has been drilled into your head since birth, perhaps an awakening will occur.

(Nice new Spring colors on iBrattleboro while it is snowing outside!)

Pittsburgh, PA  Political Corruption Trial  – When Will We Do That In Vermont?

If it is illegal for the State of Vermont to give taxpayer money to Vermont Public Radio, UVM, VLCT, VTdigger,
and Vermont Law School knowing that they will hold debates that include some candidates and not others,
or write articles that specifically disparage voters from voting for some candidates, (acting as illegal and unregistered political action committees funded by taxpayer dollars) then that means that state taxpayer dollars are being used to promote the political campaign of Governor Peter Shumlin, while not equally promoting some of the other candidates.

Next year’s Town School budget does not include a position for someone to help elementary teachers, students, and staff with the various tasks and challenges involved with technology. 

Things like learning and running programs, exploring the web, taking and editing pictures, making slide shows, playlists, videos, virtual spaces, interactive stories, comic books, digital posters, blogs, navigating the cloud, connecting devices, and platforms etc..etc. These essentials of a well-rounded education are vanishing.

Dear Friends, Neighbors, and Readers of iBrattleboro.com:

You will recall that the Selectboard acted a handful of months ago to commit to a contract with a design firm, which has since been working on the design for the skating facilities at Crowell Park.