All the warning signs were there, if one cared to read them.
The Brits had tried three times to occupy Afghanistan; the Russians, once. Instead of coming to grips with al Qaida and then leaving, the politicians and generals decided to stay on, so that we could get even with the Taliban. (How puritanical is that?)
The misguided belief in raw military power solving all issues clouded their judgment. Might is right - so they say. They somehow thought they would be fine to remain.
The last attempt, by the Russians, had a nasty twist to it. The CIA and Pentagon came up with a plan to stick it to the Russians. They supplied the Taliban, who were resisting the occupation, with weapons, some of which were very sophisticated. This greatly contributed to the demise of the Russian effort.
Registration has begun for the eighth annual Way to Go! Statewide Commuter Challenge, which will take place May 14 through 18. This event encourages the use of healthier, more earth-friendly transportation, and less expensive alternatives to driving alone. Everyone who commits to walk, bike, telecommute, carpool, take the bus,
The Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. (BDCC) and Strolling of the Heifers have selected finalists in the 2012 Business Plan Competition for the Windham region, which offers a total of $60,000 in prizes. The 20 finalists, chosen by panels of community judges, were chosen on the basis of business prospectuses...
The Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) has launched the “Lock Your Meds” media campaign, a national multi-media campaign designed to reduce prescription drug abuse. Lock Your Meds is a call to action for all parents and families to take a stand against the alarming increase in prescription drug abuse. Because 70 percent of prescription drug abusers report getting the drugs from their friends and families, these “unwitting suppliers” can be a force in curbing the abuse. The campaign, produced by...
On April 23, Gov. Peter Shumlin came to Melrose Terrace in West Brattleboro to honor the residents there for their “resilience and courage” in dealing with flooding from Tropical Storm Irene last August. While it was fitting that the residents, many of whom were displaced for months by the storm, were honored with a plaque from Shumlin, a more meaningful gesture would be additional state assistance for the housing complex for low-income elderly or disabled tenants. Irene wreaked havoc with...
Many older outdoor wood-fired boilers (OWBs) that are not certified to meet Vermont's emissions standards are required by law to be permanently retired by the end of 2012. Specifically, uncertified OWBs that are located within 200 feet of a residence, school or health care facility not served by the OWB, must be removed and destroyed by Dec. 31, 2012 (See 10 V.S.A. Section 584[g]). To help Vermonters comply with the new law, the Vermont Air Pollution Control Division (APCD) is...
Obituaries • Edwina “Nan” Fletcher deMoulpied, 80, of Colonie, N.Y. Died April 24 at Ellis Hospital after a brief illness. Wife of David K. deMoulpied. Mother of Jeffrey deMoulpied, Melinda Budnowski and David deMoulpied. Sister of Dana Fletcher, Edwin Fletcher, Jr., Jane Whiting and the late Merrill Fletcher. Born in Brattleboro, the daughter of the late Edwin E. and Marie (Stafford) Fletcher, she was a 1950 graduate of Brattleboro High School and devoted 25 years to Russell Sage College in...
Putney Family Services, Putney Central School, and the Putney Co-op sponsored two teams that participated in the fifth annual Jr. Iron Chef competition on March 24 in Burlington. Jr. Iron Chef is a statewide competition that gives students an opportunity to gain hands-on experience preparing and cooking nutritious, farm-fresh foods. The competition highlights local agriculture and encourages students to make healthy eating choices and understand more about nutrition, farm-fresh foods, the culinary arts, and school food systems. The teams selected...
Vermont Old Cemetery Association to meet in Wardsboro WARDSBORO - The spring meeting of the Vermont Old Cemetery Association (VOCA) will be held on Saturday, May 5, at the Wardsboro Town Hall, just of Route 100. Coffee and snacks will be served at 9 a.m., with the VOCA meeting convening at 10 a.m. Following lunch at noon, Charlie Marchant will present a talk, “Where Were They Then, Where Are They Now?” Marchant, a Townshend Cemetery Commissioner and trustee of the...
United Way of Windham County and New England Center for Circus Arts (NECCA) are joining up for a night of clowning around and flying trapezes during a fundraising event to benefit United Way. On May 12 at 7:30 p.m., the professional-track circus students at NECCA will show off all they have learned this year at this gala event at the Greenhoe Theater at Landmark College. Admission is $15 for adults 14 and over, and $8 for children. Tickets are on...
I have long wondered why the consideration of morality has not assumed a prominent role in the debate about Vermont Yankee. After all, does not the fissioning of nuclear fuel lead to the production of high-level radioactive waste material, otherwise known as “spent fuel” or irradiated fuel that will be dangerous for hundreds of thousands of years? Isn't it unconscionable that some 60 years into the nuclear era, science has still not developed a means to permanently and safely store...
The Brattleboro Energy Committee is pleased to announce the three recipients of the 2012 Sustainable Business Awards. The three award winners are the Marina Restaurant, the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust, and jointly, Carbon Harvest Energy and the Windham Solid Waste Management District. These awards are given annually to Brattleboro-area businesses and nonprofits that are making extraordinary efforts to reduce energy and water use, lower carbon emissions, use renewable fuels, reduce solid waste, promote local food production, and use recycled...
The Brattleboro Music Center will hold a daylong marathon of student performances on Sunday, May 6, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Robert H. Gibson River Garden on Main Street. Music School students, performing as soloists, duos, and ensembles, will perform everything from Bach to traditional Celtic music and Lloyd-Weber show tunes during the BMC's annual “Performathon.” The public is invited to stop by and listen, have lunch and indulge in baked goods, shop for hanging flower baskets,
Main Street Arts is offering three opportunities for shutterbugs to improve their skills under the guidance of professional photographer Bill Sumner. Available Light Portrait Photography will meet Saturday, May 5, from 9 a.m. to noon, to understand how the camera works and take better portraits. The fee is $18 for members and $24 for nonmembers. On Thursday, May 10, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., a session on 360 Panoramic and High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography will explore using the camera...
It's been said often in the past few years: Vermont is growing older, and young people are fleeing the state in search of better opportunities elsewhere. What usually doesn't get mentioned by the demographic doom-and-gloomers is this fact from the 2010 U.S. Census: the percentage of Vermont's population that is non-Hispanic white has dropped to 94.3 percent, the African-American population here has doubled since 2000, and residents in both these groups are younger than their white counterparts. While Maine has...
Main Street Arts will hold a family dance on Saturday, May 5, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The dance will feature square, circle, and line dances for kids of all ages, from toddlers to grandparents. No experience is needed, and all dances will be taught. Andy Toepfer is the caller, with music provided by the Main Street Arts String Band. The dance is held as part of Screen-Free Week (formerly TV-Turnoff Week), an annual event in which children, families, schools,
The mark of a good team is how it wins games on days when things aren't quite coming together. Brattleboro had one of those days last Tuesday. The Colonels weren't particularly sharp, but they still managed to beat the Keene Blackbirds, 7-1, at Sawyer Field. It helped that Keene made several errors, and that pitcher Kayla Wood overcame some early shakiness. Rissa Smith hit a two-run single in the first inning, Kalee Graham scored three runs without the benefit of...
Homeowners, landlords, business owners, and others looking for ways to cut rising energy bills are invited to a free workshop and vendor fair on heating with biomass. The workshop will be held on Saturday, May 19, from 9 a.m. to noon, at the Marlboro College Graduate Center, 28 Vernon St. The workshop will be followed at 1 p.m. by a tour of a “mini biomass district energy system” owned by Jason Cooper, a local property manager. Workshop attendees will learn...
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Gov. Peter Shumlin will be among dozens of speakers who will address the second annual Slow Living Summit in downtown Brattleboro May 30 through June 1. Summit organizers have set aside registration slots with lower rates for Brattleboro area residents and students with limited means. The gathering will explore “cross-sector solutions for sustainable living and resilient communities,” according to organizers. Those attending include interested residents; entrepreneurs; investors; educators; students; and civic, foundation, and nonprofit organization...
The 95-member River Singers Community Chorus returns to The White Church in Grafton on Saturday, May 5, at 7:30 p.m. for its annual spring concert. The River Singers, a multi-generational community choir led by Mary Cay Brass, sings a wide variety of community-based music from many cultural and musical traditions. The May 5 concert will also highlight the American works of guest composer Malcolm Dalglish. Dalglish, a virtuoso performer on the hammer dulcimer, is a former member of the folk/Celtic...
Another excellent column by Joyce Marcel [“Kunin calls for a truce in the war on women,” April 25]. One minor correction: There are three women justices on the Supreme Court, not two. (We need them all, and more.)
Green Up Day 2012 will take place on Saturday, May 5. Vermont was the first state to designate a special day for cleaning up the entire state, 41 years ago in 1970. Anyone can help. Residents can arrange a group or just show up at one of the Windham County locations below. There they can pick up bags, check in, and have a complimentary coffee and doughnut, or even breakfast. Participants are encouraged to wear bright colors, sturdy shoes, and...
Two photography exhibits will be on display to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the In-Sight Photography Project, a Brattleboro-based photography program for youth. In-Sight's annual exhibition of local student work will be on display at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery all of May, with its opening reception on Friday, May 4, from 5 to 8 p.m. In its own gallery on Flat Street, In-Sight will present work from its satellite program, “Exposures,” with selections from the “24 Hour Project,” in...
Not only are infrastructures and people hurting after Tropical Storm Irene, our rivers were also injured when entrapped in manmade obstacles, unable to overflow their banks to do what water does in a watershed: find its lowest level. The rushing water swept hazardous waste into the rivers and streams, and we no longer know how safe it is for people to use the waters for recreation. The banks of the rivers have lost their tree dressings and consequently their tourist...
Susie Crowther's piece [“Plan A,” Viewpoint, April 25] puts me in mind of an old story. An old man is sitting at the top of a hill, in view of a small town, when he is approached by a young traveler. The traveler says, “What are the people like down there?” The old man says, “What are the people like where you come from?” “Oh, they are just awful - whiny, selfish, cranky, miserable.” The old man says, “Yep, that...
RE: “Why is marijuana still illegal?,” Letters, April 25]: Vidda Crochetta, there are studies dating back to 1894, when the Indian Hemp Drugs Commission issued the results of a very in-depth study. The LaGuardia Committee report in 1944, the U.S. National Commission on Marihuana and Drug Abuse in 1972 (Shafer Commission), and the Canadian Senate Special Committee on Illegal Drugs (2002) are the most significant of these studies. The one thing all of these studies have in common is that...
I have spent time in Costa Rica, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic. After reading Susie Crowther's “Plan A” [“Plan A,” Viewpoint, April 25], I am moved to caution her that the tropics seem to be paradise if you spend vacation time there during the dry season, January through April. Vermont can also be paradise during May through August, absent hurricanes. May through December is the rainy season in most of Central America and the Caribbean Basin. After four months without...
In 1912, our town celebrated itself with a theatrical extravaganza called the “Brattleboro Pageant.” Witnessed by thousands on the Connecticut River at Island Park, the program dramatized the community's history and hopes. A hundred years later, “Brattleboro Goes Fourth” - this time, with a commemorative July 4 parade. Brattleboro's 2012 Independence Day celebration will honor the community's past, present, and future with a variety of free family activities. The morning of July 4, the 39th annual downtown parade will feature...
The annual village meeting, in which residents will be asked to approve funding for a community garden, is scheduled for Monday, May 14, at 7 p.m., in the Bellows Falls Opera House. On Wednesday, May 15, voting to fill village offices will take place at the Masonic Temple at 61 Westminster St., from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. The Greater Falls Prevention Coalition has asked the Village for $1,500 to support a community garden initiative. At the Rockingham Town Meeting...
After 15 years, 17 different Selectboard members, three governors, and $2.8 million in repairs, Dummerston got what it wanted - the preservation and restoration of the historic green iron bridge over the West River. The bridge has been in use since last September, but town officials decided that the completion of the long-delayed restoration project deserved a special ceremony. So on the afternoon of March 27, past and present members of the Selectboard gathered at the bridge for a ribbon-cutting.
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower left office just over 50 years ago, he sounded an alarm about the unhealthy relationship between defense contractors and the U.S. Military, which he said threatened American democracy. “In the councils of government,” he warned, “we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists, and will persist.” Today, the threat of a media-industrial complex might be even...
For Richard Watts, who grew up in the 1970s in Putney not far from Vermont Yankee, the nuclear power plant just wasn't on the radar. “For my parents, it was the Vietnam War,” says Watts, who only dimly remembers class presentations about the plant, or maybe a field trip to the visitors' center that used to be on site. “I really don't remember Vermont Yankee being much of an issue.” Fast-forward to the mid-2000s, and the 52-year-old lives in Burlington,
New England is such a fabulous place to be in the springtime, especially if you like to eat food. Interesting things are popping up out of the muddy woods and from the sandy riverbanks: ramps, fiddleheads, mushrooms, wild lettuces, dandelions. Babies are popping out of farm animals, too. Mama cows, sheep, and goats are milking, and they're eating delicious, delicate grasses, flowers and herbs instead of boring old hay or silage. This is an ideal set of circumstances if you...
Funds earmarked for economic relief for Windham County passed one more Montpelier hurdle this week, with both the House and the Senate approving $225,000 in the state budget. The amendments include funding for a Windham County/Tropical Storm Irene Relief Initiative, a higher education collaborative, and for phase two of the Southeastern Vermont Economic Development Strategy (SeVEDS). At press time, the legislation is in conference committee, which reconciles the differences from the separate House and Senate bills into the final legislation...
Of all the video footage of Tropical Storm Irene's rampage through Vermont last August, there was nothing as striking as the video of the Lower Bartonsville Covered Bridge being swept away by record-setting flooding on the Williams River. Middlebury College professor and climate change activist Bill McKibben said that the video, which has been viewed more than 500,000 times on YouTube and made the national network newscasts, “made this the perfect place to kick-off climate impact events connecting the dots...
In the first days after Tropical Storm Irene last August, downtown business owners met to discuss their concerns. Andrea Livermore, executive director of Building a Better Brattleboro (BaBB), expected to hear about mud-caked inventory, water damage, and mildew. Instead, the conversation right-angled to one of Brattleboro's perennial kvetches: parking. The downtown has a reputation for having a hair-pulling parking situation. For most drivers, finding a space proves simple enough. Avoiding parking tickets, wrestling with parking meters and pay-and-display machines, and...
Brattleboro Farmers' Market opens for the season May 5 BRATTLEBORO - The Brattleboro Farmers' Market opens for the 2012 season on Saturday, May 5. The market is open rain or shine, from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on Western Avenue. The traditional celebration of spring - the Maypole dance - will be conducted by Andy Davis at 11 a.m. The Morris Dancers will perform at 2 p.m. Come with children, friends, family to enjoy this annual welcome of warm weather, good food,
If you love fresh cheese, now is the time to start looking for it. Because we are lucky to live in a region dotted with farms and skilled cheesemakers, there are quite a few gorgeous locally produced fresh cheeses for you to enjoy. And you can continue enjoying these fresh cheeses until about September or October, depending on how far north the farm is. One of my favorite regional lines of cheeses is made by Hannah and Greg Sessions at...
Ah, May. Was there ever anything more filled with promise? May allows me to imagine that anything is possible. In May, I walk around my garden and have the most ridiculous notions of what I will accomplish over the summer: an elaborate stone terrace, a fragrant rose hedge facing south, pear trees espaliered along the greenhouse wall, a permanent herb garden featuring walkways and tall urns filled with thorny spires of artichokes and cardoons. I see them all. Yes, I...
Nearly everyone who has lived through a spring in Vermont has heard of fiddleheads. Identifying the edible ones and knowing how to prepare them is not such common knowledge. Earlier this spring, a re-skilling workshop, sponsored by Transition Putney and guided by naturalist Gino Palmieri of Putney, taught 10 participants of all ages who wanted to know what plants are edible, more about gathering wild foods, and their preparation. The most tender edible spring shoots are already too old to...