While the major media (owned and controlled by 1-percenters) continues to announce the voters' support of the current federal administration as 40 percent (ignoring some reports it's slipping to 30-percent range), they refuse to acknowledge or repeat the fact that 60 percent or more of voters disapprove of the current administration and policies.
The truth is most of the country rejects the bully tactics and trajectory of destruction brought to Earth by these seemingly soulless, heartless creatures of selfishness and greed.
We, the majority, reject all elitism in whatever form it takes or attacks, including but not limited to: racism, classism, nationalism, xenophobia, gender-ism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and any other form or misguided idea of supremacy.
We remember and subscribe to the age-old adage of “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We approve of sharing resources and blessings of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”...
Vermont Center for Photography, in collaboration with Turning Point of Windham County, is introducing “Focus Forward” - a beginner course in digital photography offered free-of-charge to people working on recovery from addiction. The program begins on Sept. 22 and runs for eight consecutive weeks through Nov. 22. Classes will...
Nancy Braus's voice is always a welcome call to clarity, a call to the best of what “human” can mean. The anguish, the questioning, the pain and outrage were what made this piece strong; there was an open-endedness in it, which was good: it was a raging, a questioning,
The Windham County Natural Resources Conservation District and the Windham Regional Woodlands Association are sponsoring a Game of Logging Level I workshop for women on Sunday, Sept. 29, in Putney. This session, for women only, provides an opportunity to learn how to operate a chainsaw and safely fell a tree. This program is designed for novice to advanced chain saw users who have never had formal training. Novices develop safe and productive habits from the start, while experienced chain saw...
During the month of September, Windham County Democrats will caucus in each town to reorganize their town committees. Vermont requires that political parties caucus between Sept. 10 and Sept. 30 for the purpose of reorganizing their town committees and selecting the committee officers who will serve for the next two years. John Hagen, chair of the Windham County Democratic Committee, said in a news release that his committee's goal is to organize caucuses in all 22 towns in the county.
New hours at Lydia Taft Pratt Library DUMMERSTON - To better serve their patrons, the Lydia Taft Pratt Library is adding an additional day to its weekly schedule. Beginning this week, the library will be open Tuesdays from 2 to 6 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1 to 5 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Lydia Taft Pratt Library is a free library with no membership fees or fines. Its collection includes large print, graphic novels, audio...
During the Civil War of the 1860s, our country mobilized its entire society and economy to wage an epic struggle in which 620,000 people died. During the Great Depression, with the New Deal and Square Deal, the Roosevelt administration wrestled with the economic meltdown, thus initiating a new era of government interventionism to address a national emergency. During the 1940s, the United States and its allies confronted fascism in Europe and in the Pacific. While on a wartime footing, the...
School news • The Brattleboro Area Lions Club recently presented Zachary Dunbar with the first-ever Brattleboro Area Lions Club Vocational/Trade award. A 2019 graduate of the Windham Regional Career Center, Dunbar is working for Farnum Insulators, but plans to attend college in the future. His goal is to work in construction management. During his high school years, he enrolled in the construction trades class at the Career Center and went to Florida during February vacation for Habitat for Humanity. Transitions...
The Sarasa Ensemble's opening program for the 2019-20 concert season explores the profound depth of J.S. Bach's solo cello suites alongside the great charm and tunefulness of Giacobbe Cervetto's trios. “Music for 3 Cellos: Bach and Cervetto” is set for Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., at the Brattleboro Music Center. Tickets are $40 preferred seating, $20 general admission. The program includes J.S. Bach's Suite No. 2 in D minor, Suite No. 1 in G major, and Suite No. 3...
Join the Windham County Humane Society on Saturday, Sept. 28, for their 17th annual Walk for Animals Event Fundraiser. The Walk will begin at the Grafton Village Cheese Company on Linden Street in Brattleboro. Registration opens at 9 a.m., and the walk starts at 10. After a short, 2-mile route through town, participants will return to Grafton Cheese Village for ice cream, treats, and prizes. Well-behaved dogs on a leash are welcome at the walk (no flexi-leads please). All walkers...
In 2000, Vermont was the first in the nation to legalize civil unions for same sex couples, and in 2009, Vermont became the first state to allow same-sex marriage by legislation rather than by court ruling. On Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, in partnership with the AIDS Project of Southern Vermont and Out in the Open (formerly Green Mountain Crossroads), presents a panel discussion on the key individuals, organizations, and moments in the...
On Friday, Sept. 20, at 7:30 p.m., St. Mary's in the Mountains, 13 East Main St., will offer its annual “musical dessert” as a conclusion to the Deerfield Valley annual Wine & Harvest Festival's Wine & Soup Stroll. After enjoying Wilmington's foods, wines, and shops during the afternoon and early evening hours, visitors and neighbors are invited to the historic main hall at St. Mary's in Wilmington for desserts and a concert of classical and choral works. Admission to the...
Youth bands and solo artists from around New England are gearing up to take the stage at the fourth annual Brattleboro Youth Rock Festival. BrattRock 2019 comes to 118 Elliot in downtown Brattleboro on Saturday, Sept. 28. Gates open at 2:30 p.m., and performances take place on two stages, one indoor and one outdoor, between 3 and 10 p.m. In addition to non-stop live music, the festival features food vendors, interactive performances by the New England Center for Circus Arts,
The overwhelming message during a meeting with the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission last week: Citizen advisory panels need more time and more resources. Chris Campany, chair of the local Nuclear Decommissioning Citizen Advisory Panel (NDCAP) and executive director of the Windham Regional Commission, told the NRC representatives that panel members need more time. Operating and decommissioned plants alike should have advisory boards as a matter of a general practice so the community has an avenue to connect with the state...
The Windham County Consortium on Substance Use will host a launch event on proposed actions to address the devastating impacts of heroin, fentanyl, and other substances in Windham County on Tuesday, Sept. 24, from 10 a.m. until noon at the Latchis Theatre. A reception and open house at the Turning Point of Windham County will happen immediately following the event. This event is free and open to the public. COSU is a collaborative effort consisting of organizations and individuals who...
Veteran domino toppler and YouTube superstar Lily Hevesh returns to the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center for the 12th annual Domino Toppling Extravaganza on Sunday, Sept. 29, at 5:30 p.m. Hevesh will be joined by fellow domino artists Nathan Heck, Shane O'Brien, and Chris Wright. Admission is free for children 8 and under, $3 for BMAC members, and $5 for all others. Doors open at 5 p.m. BMAC's domino topplings began in 2008, when brothers Mike and Steve Perrucci traveled...
Thank you for the thoughtful article about what to do with a legacy of collected artworks. It sounds like the author, Joyce Marcel, got more than enough enjoyment from the pieces as well as the satisfaction of supporting area artists and that the money value appreciation wasn't really the reason why she acquired them in the first place. A work of art is a bit different from, say, a really large pile of gold coins or Apple shares or something...
I am writing in support of the Climate Emergency Declaration that appears on the Brattleboro Commons Sense website. A former officer in the United States Coast Guard, I am a career business executive who voted Republican in every presidential election until 2008. That's when I registered as an Independent, choosing to align myself with candidates whose vision for the planet is best aligned with my own. When it comes to the terrors of climate change, we're all in the same...
I want to comment on the people helping the homeless people and paying them $15 per hour. A lot of other people in the community need help, too. I have been asking local restaurants if I can host for them, and I have a year's experience hosting at the Riverview Cafe. I feel like people deny me that position because of my disability and because I am not a beautiful women. Employers may not discriminate against qualified individuals with disabilities...
Back-to-school season has begun across America. Millions of children have returned to classrooms, ready to start a new school year. Now, thanks to the Trump administration, hundreds of thousands of struggling families - including many Vermonters - may have to worry about how they will be able to afford their child's lunch every day. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently unveiled a shameful new rule that could deny more than half a million needy students free school meals. The...
To the children of this Earth, Act as if your lives depend on it, because they do. Act as if your house in on fire, because it is. Act as if the glaciers are melting, because they are. This Friday, Sept. 20, we will be striking from school, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at Pliny Park in Brattleboro. Join us, because your lives depend on it, because your house is on fire, because the glaciers are melting. Because if you...
Putney Foodshelf asks for everyone's help to Top the Truck on Wednesday, Sept. 25, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., rain or shine. Once again, the truck will be parked in the Tavern parking lot between the Gleanery Restaurant and the Putney Town Hall. The goal is to fill the truck with bags of healthful, non-perishable foods. Volunteers will meet cars in the parking lot to take donations. Cash, check, and credit card donations will also be accepted at the...
To all the voters of Guilford: If you are interested in “doing something” about the upcoming primary and general elections, you are invited and encouraged to participate in Guilford's Democratic Caucus, on Thursday, Sept. 26 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., at Broad Brook Community Center, 3940 Guilford Center Rd. On the agenda: Discussion of the Vermont Democratic platform and its importance to Guilford; caucus to establish Guilford's new Democratic committee (all town voters can be committee members); election of town...
Hello and good day to you, residents of lovely Windham County, Vermont! I hope things are well with you. We've got an abundance of fair weather on the way for the next seven days. We'll start off on the cooler side with patchy frost potential late Wednesday night into Thursday morning. Thereafter, we will slowly begin to warm up such that by late in the weekend we could crest the 80 degree mark. Humidity will be on the rise as...
At the NRC hearing [see main story], Clay Turnbull, a staff member with the New England Coalition, announced that the anti-nuclear advocacy group and NorthStar have formed the Citizens Advisory Group at Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Plant. NorthStar Decommissioning is the current owner of Vermont Yankee and is in the process of dismantling the plant. In a joint press release, both parties said that the advisory group represents “a new process for public engagement in the decommissioning of nuclear power...
The annual Russ Pickering Invitational cross-country meet at Bellows Falls Union High School on Sept. 13 took on a different look, as the Stowe boys' and girls' teams dropped by to compete. According to Stowe coach Becky McGovern, the teams used to go down to Amherst, Mass., to run in a meet there and make a weekend of it with a campout and other team bonding activities. Now, the Vermont Principals' Association rules bar teams from competing out-of-state during the...
Just a few weeks after signing a letter of intent and mutually announcing high expectations for educational innovation and sustainability, Marlboro College and the University of Bridgeport said a proposed merger will not move forward. The university has said that it walked away from the deal, but Marlboro, which had framed the merger cancellation as a mutual decision, also hinted at deep concerns about the fate of its campus. “We realized that it was just at a certain point becoming...
Marlboro College presents Ensemble Pamplemousse, an innovative composer/performer collective founded in 2003, in concert on Sunday, Sept. 22. Part of the college's Music for a Sunday Afternoon series, the performance will take place at 3 p.m. in Ragle Hall, and is free and open to the public. Ensemble Pamplemousse fuses chamber music, popular music, theater, instrument building, electronics, and video. Over nearly two decades of collaborative work, Pamplemousse has developed into a close-knit group of divergent artistic personalities with “a...
Yellow Barn's 50th Anniversary celebration continues with the opening of a new season of Artist Residencies. The first retreat program for performing musicians in the U.S., Yellow Barn's fall, winter, and spring residencies bring world-class musicians to Putney for uninterrupted periods of work, often interacting with local audiences in discussion and performance. The WholeHearted Musician, the first residency of the 2019-20 Artist Residency season, fulfills this promise. On Sept. 22, Yellow Barn welcomes back Dana Fonteneau - career consultant, psychotherapist,
Next Stage presents Jay Craven's 2016 seaside drama film, Peter and John, as part of its Framed hosted film series, on Friday, Sept. 27, 2019 at 7 p.m. Based on the 19th century novel Pierre et Jean by Guy de Maupassant, Peter and John tells the story of two brothers whose relationship strains when the younger one receives news of an unexpected inheritance, a dire situation compounded when they both fall for the same woman. Directed by Craven, Peter and...
When the Seventh Avenue Presbyterian Church in San Francisco built a new sanctuary in 1928, the church signed a contract the next year with the Estey Organ Company of Brattleboro to build one. One year later, the assembly work on Estey Opus #2886 was completed, and it was dedicated on April 27, 1930. At its dedication ceremony, the church elders said they hoped that the organ would enrich the church's music ministry to “cheer the hearts, and to kindle holy...
As a musical treat for local residents and foliage visitors alike, Friends of Music at Guilford is presenting “A Celebration of the Classical Guitar” at 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 29, at All Souls UU Church, 29 South St. Featured performers include David William Ross and the Procter/Hale duo of Steve Procter, guitar, and Alison Hale, flute. Vocalist Jessica Gelter introduced FOMAG to Keene-based guitarist Ross in February 2018, when he was a member of the instrumental trio for her...
We are taxpayers in this school district. Many of us are parents and grandparents of children in our public schools. On June 5, many of us attended a Youth Climate Summit at which a group of seven middle- and high-school students each read a heartfelt and powerful statement about how climate change and the existential threat to the planet is affecting them. Many of the adults present were deeply moved, some to tears. We have been asked by these same...
Make no mistake - our country is being incinerated. I'm not referring to the awful wildfires that have ravaged the United States for the last four-plus years. I'm talking about the Trump effect. Since he slithered down that gilded escalator on June 16, 2015 and bellowed out his hatred of immigrants as an opening salvo, Trump has managed to promote, bully, and lie his way into the political and social fabric of America, mainly by escalating hate and fear. He...