maddie

maddie's Posts

Criminal Justice: A Broken System

In the criminal justice system, three groups have agency: the victim, the offender, and society at large. Our ability to balance these interests will determine the efficacy of our criminal… Read More

A Different Catholic Church

I’ve been trying to picture the Catholic Church – the Mother Church if you will – as a matriarchy instead of a patriarchy, in which the first pope had been… Read More

Book Review: The Vermont Way by Gov. Jim Douglas

The Vermont Way: A Republican Governor Leads America’s Most Liberal State By Jim Douglas (New Haven, Vt.:Common Ground Communications / A Bray Book, 2014, pp. 359, paper $35.00). Former Governor… Read More

Book Review: Horse-Drawn Yogurt by Peter Gould

Horse-Drawn Yogurt: Stories from Total Loss Farm By Peter Gould (Brattleboro: Green Writers Press, 2017 pp. 217, paper $19.95) I had no idea what to expect when I began reading… Read More

A Tree Falls in our Woods

I love working in the woods and I’ve come to know all the great trees on our land. They’re like friends – the surviving American elm that looks like a… Read More

Aretha Brings It All Home

As a student fascinated with recording technology, I had the privilege of interviewing for a job at Columbia Records when I was in my mid-twenties. I was first asked a… Read More

The Arts: Soul Food

Efforts to defund the National Endowment of the Arts are a quadrennial budget issue here at home. And in many countries, artists, like journalists, are censored, jailed, or even assassinated.… Read More

Clean Water

My favorite way to recover after a hot afternoon’s hard work has always been to chug down a quart of ice cold water from a Mason jar and then jump… Read More

From: The Chinese Kitten by Edna A. Brown 1922

AT THE BEACH The house where the Merrills lived in Westmore was a brown cottage, but it seemed large and like a palace when the children saw the shack at… Read More

Hank Lambert Memoir: Horses Don’t Pull

Horses Don’t Pull Farm accidents happen all the time. There are so many things to trip over and fall down from in the barn, in the woods, in the hay… Read More

Elder College Memoir Assignment: Marcel Proust: In Search of Lost Time – Overture

OVERTURE For a long time I used to go to bed early. Sometimes, when I had put out my candle, my eyes would close so quickly that I had not… Read More

Comments to Lamoille Family Center Annual Meeting – 6/20/18

Many thanks. It’s an honor to be invited home to be with you all tonight. I greatly appreciate the work you do on behalf of Lamoille County’s families and communities.… Read More