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Your support powers every story we tell. We're committed to producing high-quality, fact-based news and information that gives you the facts in this community we call home. If our work has helped you stay informed, take action, or feel more connected to Windham County – please give now to help us reach our goal of raising $150,000 by December 31st.
Our society does little or nothing to help young people negotiate the difficult transition from childhood to adulthood. By and large, we do not honor, let alone celebrate, the significance of this passage.
Among indigenous peoples all over the world, the passage to adulthood is seen as a second birth. The first birth is into the family, where ideally the young one is nurtured and protected from any threat to his or her safety. Sheltered within the family cocoon, the child can grow, play, explore, and learn. The second birth is out of this womb of innocence and irresponsibility into the challenges and responsibilities of adulthood.
The child must die for the adult to be born. But the death of the child demands that the young person give birth to who he or she truly is, independent of family and the narrowness of his or her culture.
To accomplish this difficult second birth, indigenous peoples created formal rites of passage. These initiations created a context within which the young person would be tested in order to find out what he or she was made of. The outer challenge mirrored the symbolic death that he or she needed to undergo in order to assume his new identity as a man. The outer challenge contained intimations of death, for it is only in a confrontation with death that an individual can truly find life. ...
After several successes in theater in high school, Scot Borofsky, a member of Brattleboro Union High School's class of 1975, started out studying theater in college. He didn't like the environment and ended up quitting school. “I was in a lot of plays after Fiddler on the Roof, but...
Nomination papers due Jan. 24 BRATTLEBORO - If you wish to run for local elective office this year, time is running out to get on the ballot. Nominating petitions for town and school offices are now available at your local town clerk's office. The deadline to turn them in...
Music • Buckwheat Zydeco coming to BF: WOOL Radio presents a Mardi Gras benefit concert for the nonprofit community station with music legend and 2010 Grammy Award winner Buckwheat Zydeco on Feb. 1o at the Bellows Falls Opera House. The son of a Louisiana farmer, Stanley “Buckwheat” Dural was born in 1947 and, while still a boy, began performing as an organist with American originals like Joe Tex and Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown. In 1976, he joined Clifton Chenier's band, found...
A group of local musicians will be blending their harmonies to benefit the new Greater Falls Warming Shelter in a concert on Saturday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m., at the Immanuel Episcopal Church (the Stone Church) in Bellows Falls. The suggested donation is $10. The Greater Falls Warming Shelter is a valuable resource in Bellows Falls. In its first year, the shelter served 44 individuals for 371 bed nights during the 93 nights it was open. More than 75 volunteers...
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital announces its annual Giving from the Heart Gala will take place on Saturday, Feb. 12, starting at 6:30 p.m., with proceeds from the event going to support the hospital's oncology services. The festive affair will take place at the West Village Meetinghouse (All Souls Church) on 29 South St. in West Brattleboro. It will be catered by North End Butchers, while Johnny & the Triumphs will perform music for dancing. A cash bar will also be available.
Obituaries Editor's note: The Commons will publish brief biographical information for citizens of Windham County and others, on request, as community news, free of charge. • Eleanor L. Abel, 92, of Brattleboro. Died Dec. 25 at Holton Home in Brattleboro. Wife of the late John H. Abel for 62 years. Mother of John Jr., and his wife, Karen, of Dummerston; and Richard Abel and his wife, Robin, of Westminster. Born in New York City and grew up in Rockville Center,
The Vermont Public Service Board held four days of technical hearings last week on petitions from environmental groups seeking to shut down the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant and revoke its state operating permit in the wake of revelations that the facility was leaking radioactive water into the environment. A year ago, Entergy Corp., the owner of Vermont Yankee, announced that tritium from the plant had been released into soils on the compound. In the hearings, lawyers for the New...
In a traditional clinic encounter, the patient's frightened, intimate first-person voice becomes transmuted through jargon and evidence into the doctor's omniscient third-person point of view as she gives her medical history. The physician's “authored” interpretation of the history she's hearing is subject to flaws in mishearing, misinterpretation, and misunderstanding. These snafus may be amplified by either party. That's a lot of near misses for the least complicated aspect of what doctors refer to as “working up the patient.” As a...
Over 40 years ago, 42,000 pregnant women enrolled in a prospective study of neurologic disorders in children. The women gave birth to 55,000 babies who were continually assessed for the presence of birth defects and other conditions. When the infants were eight months old, psychologists put them through a series of cognitive and developmental tests while quietly assessing the affection the mother showed for her child. Testers ranked the mother according to five visible levels of affection: “negative,” “occasionally negative,”
By the afternoon of Monday, Jan. 10, weather forecasters were predicting that a major snowstorm would hit New England on Wednesday, Jan. 12. Snow predictions varied widely, but it was clear that the Brattleboro area would get at least a foot of snow on Wednesday morning. The Brattleboro Public Works Department, fresh off of dealing with a dusting of 4 inches of snow on Saturday, Jan. 8, knew what was ahead of it. Highway General Supervisor Al Franklin and the...
I keep finding little piles of fir needles mixed in with the dust balls around the floors of my house. I wake up in the middle of the night and fixate on how this year I will lose those ten extra pounds. I am filled with hope and grand expectations for humankind. It must be January. Each year this happens. I was quite controlled and Spartan over Thanksgiving. Those who read my Commons columns will recall my relatively fat-free menu...
Local AmeriCorps Volunteers hosted the Martin Luther King Day of Service, a community event to commemorate the slain civil rights leader, at the River Garden Monday. Volunteers from Brattleboro Community Justice Center, In-Sight Photography Project, UVM Extension's 4-H Youth Agricultural Project, Youth Services, and about 20 members of the public watched and discussed the 2007 documentary, Greensboro: Closer to the Truth. Organizers hoped the film would help illustrate King's principles of nonviolence, which were behind civil rights actions such as...
Dover continues its propulsion into the digital age with its participation in the e-Vermont Community Broadband Project. According to VCRD e-Vermont Community Director Philip Petty, e-Vermont is a two-year federally funded initiative to help residents of particular communities use broadband “in new, different, and exciting ways.” “Geographically, roughly half of Dover has access to some degree of HSIS [high-speed Internet service], and this is concentrated in the area of West Dover,” Economic Development Specialist Patrick Moreland said. “A majority of...
As we went to press Tuesday, we learned that a student at Brattleboro Union High School died Monday morning by her own hand. We struggle to comprehend the pain of Leah Short, a sophomore from Dummerston. We struggle to grasp the shock and the sorrow that her family and friends are enduring. In a small community, when someone dies so tragically, the loss touches us all. In an area like Brattleboro and Windham County, nobody is a total stranger. It...
When I was young, I used to play with balance. I started with railroad tracks, and moved on to fences and other objects: anything I could do to stabilize myself on a thin, small surface was fun to me. I even would walk on top of guardrail fences on cliff edges. I was that confident about it - not that I would never fall, but that if I did fall, I could control the direction of the fall. And I...
For years, Putney has been the epicenter of nordic ski racing in Vermont. Until the recent successes of the U.S. program at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, the ski program in Putney produced the greatest group of cross-country skiers ever to represent this nation. John Caldwell was an Olympian as a competitor (1952) and coach (1968, 1972, 1980, and 1984). As coach at The Putney School from the mid-1950s until his retirement in 1989, he trained some the greatest...
Women still find themselves underrepresented in politics on a national level, but their ranks are growing in Vermont. While women make up about 17 percent of the House of Representatives and the Senate in Washington, the percentage of female representation in Vermont is 38 percent in the House and 36.6 percent in the Senate - among the highest in the nation. It's a trend that other parts of the country aren't following. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures,
Rotary International, along with its various clubs throughout the world, has established January as Rotary Awareness Month. According to Brattleboro Rotary Club President Cindy Jerome, “A lot of people don't know about all the good work Rotary International does locally and around the world. We want to get the word out.” One of the biggest focuses of the international organization is collaborating with its partners in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) - the World Health Organization, UNICEF, and the...
A group that for 30 years has helped parents find the child care they need now is now itself running a program that addresses the needs of those working late afternoons into the night hours. On New Year's Day, the CABA (Community Action Brattleboro Area) Evening Care program become the first direct administered care program of the Windham Child Care Association (WCCA). Now known as the Windham Evening Child Care Program, it provides “a great opportunity for those parents who...
The Green Mountain National Forest (GMNF) recently released for public comment its Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS) for the proposed Deerfield Wind Project in Searsburg and Readsboro. The Deerfield Wind Project is a proposal to construct and operate a wind energy facility on public lands, adjacent to the existing Searsburg facility currently operated by Green Mountain Power on private land. The U.S. Forest Service is evaluating several alternatives in detail, including the original proposal for a 17 turbine project.
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The Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs (VCNAA) has recommended giving state recognition to the Nulhegan Abenaki of the Northeast Kingdom and the Elnu Abenaki in southeast Vermont. The recommendation is now being passed along to Vermont's General Assembly for final review. Members of the Commission and Sen.Vince Illuzzi,R-Essex-Orleans, along with legislative sponsors, supporters, and leaders of the two tribes, will gather in Montpelier in the Cedar Creek Room at the Statehouse on Wednesday, Jan. 19, to hold a press...
Our most valuable gift, other than the gift of life itself, is the ability to make choices. Why are you reading this? It is because you choose to. Have you ever considered what a difference choices have made in your life? Have you ever realized that the choices you make every day determine your every action? Do you realize that everything you do is the result of making a choice? From your birth until you reach the age when you...
Meeting Waters YMCA is accepting applications for its Child Care Transportation Program in Brattleboro. Its morning run picks children up from their home and delivers them to any state-licensed child care program located in Brattleboro. In the afternoon, it brings children back to their homes. A staff of two assures children's safety during transitions and transportation. The program is available at no cost to Brattleboro children and families. Eligibility is limited to children who are in state Protective Service Care,
Marlboro has an opening on the select board for a three-year term. This elected town position offers an opportunity for someone to step forward and share the responsibilities of overseeing the running of many aspects of the town. The main qualifications are an open mind, the ability to listen to your neighbors, and to do your best to make reasonable decisions. It is interesting, varied, and rewarding. With the support of an able and hard-working assistant, it is not even...
1) Nonviolence is a way of life for courageous people. • It is active nonviolent resistance to evil. • It is assertive spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. • It is always persuading the opponent of the justice of your cause. 2) Nonviolence seeks to win friendship and understanding. • The end result of nonviolence is redemption and reconciliation. • The purpose of nonviolence is the creation of the Beloved Community. 3) Nonviolence seeks to defeat injustice, not people. • Nonviolence holds...
A scholarship fund that was started to honor the memory of Londonderry lawmaker Rick Hube is closing in on its fundraising goal of $100,000. Friends of Hube, who died suddenly on Dec. 21, 2009, started the Rick Hube UVM Scholarship Fund last year. Scholarships will be awarded a student who lives in Londonderry, Jamaica, Stratton, Weston and Winhall - the towns that Hube represented for nearly 10 years in the Vermont House - who wishes to attend the University of...
Representative Town Meeting members will vote on proposed changes to the Town Charter at a Special Town Meeting on Saturday, Jan. 22, at Academy School on Western Avenue, starting at 8:30 a.m. The meeting is the culmination of three years of study and meetings by the town Charter Review Commission. Some of the proposed changes include lowering the percentage of signatures needed to put forth a binding initiative on a town ballot from 20 percent down to 10 percent; expanding...
I read your story on Treasure Hunters Roadshow [The Commons, Jan. 13] and wanted to tell you that I think you did an excellent job. As you are aware, I have been investigating THR and its affiliated companies for more than a year. I would like to point out one thing regarding Matthew Enright's comments. Regardless what he says about me, you will find other media outlets that have come to the same conclusions regarding pricing , advertising, etc. Additionally,
