To talk or to listen, that is the question.

To talk or to listen, that is the question. The shrill chaos of a million tweets, blogs and call-in cable and radio shows has entranced us with the sounds of… Read More

Our National Weight

I’ve wrestled with my weight since I was ten years old. The range of that struggle has been substantial. I once lost 200 pounds only to have some of it… Read More

Tardiness?

My father taught me to be on time. Being late was considered arrogant and implied that my time was somehow worth more than other people’s. On my grade school report… Read More

Why Do We Do This, Again?

Vermonters have again decided in favor of equal rights for its diversifying citizenry. While there are some who see Vermont as The Pied Piper of New England, leading us down… Read More

The New Economy of Local News

When I was very young, we read about national and international events weeks after they occurred. Signal events in the Korean War, advances in nuclear science, or the discovery of… Read More

Laying Off Human Beings

A friend was just laid off… badly I must add. It’s not that her employer did not have to lay her off. That was not the question. The “badly” part… Read More

Chaos and Gratitude

An unavoidable part of this particular holiday season is the need to survey the wreckage of last year, and the staggering damage we and our elected leaders have wrought on… Read More

Talking about Government

A central, if unspoken, ideological argument today is about government, whether it is good or bad? Government of course is neither. It is simply an organizing principle around which societies… Read More

Personal Responsibility

In healthcare, we do know a few things. We know for example that very few will ever be able to afford on their own all the healthcare they will need… Read More

Toys

When I was first married 40 some years ago, there was little spare money for Christmas toys. We relied on well heeled relatives to fill the empty white area under… Read More

Death and Taxes

I am going to talk about everyone’s least favorite subject, not death, the other one. At its best, taxation is how a citizenry funds the services it feels are be… Read More

The Loneliness of the Long Distance Dialer

Why can’t we communicate? Too much communication. How do you feel while talking with someone who’s reading emails? We’re in the Metropolitan Opera to hear Renée Fleming in La Traviata.… Read More