Book bans, censorship… what’s next?

Courtesy Morrisville Centennial Library I oppose book bans. Having said that, I don’t believe freedom is an absolute. History has taught us that we need commonly agreed upon limits to… Read More

Rural Free Delivery (RFD)… Rest in Peace (RIP)?

Shutterstock I think the heat-drunk garter snake living in our mailbox is an omen. As I lower the dented cover and reach gingerly inside to get our mail, I wonder… Read More

The Arc of Aging and Leadership

  Shutterstock image Like a good novel, our lives have a narrative arc, during which we are actively participating in and relevant to our world. We are born, rise slowly… Read More

School Budgets and Property Taxes

Champlain Valley Union High School Do we honestly believe we overpay our children’s teachers? There is a logical disconnect in our discussions about local school budgets driving property tax increases.… Read More

The Ghost Quartet: Part I

                         If we zoom out and look with cynicism at the health care crisis in America, we see a… Read More

Can We Get our Legislative Act Together?

Public domain image   I don’t know whether it’s the natural wariness of Vermont’s early immigrants who succeeded the native peoples who had foraged and hunted here for millennia but… Read More

Save the Children: Eliminate Cellphones in Our Schools

Public Domain image Vermont Senate Bill 284, “Phone-free School Legislation,” now sitting in the House Education Committee is winding its way through the legislature and should garner the attention of… Read More

What are the dumbest things we do or don’t do in Vermont?

We like to think of ourselves as progressive, pioneering and aware of our neighbors’ needs. Why then do we have some of the worst socioeconomic benchmarks in America? Unsheltered: As… Read More

Up the Down Staircase

By 2030, Vermont’s ability to govern had descended into entropy. After decades studying, tinkering with, and deferring action on Vermont’s increasingly complex challenges, we came to understand we needed to… Read More

Leveraging Government’s Role by Funding Designated Agencies and Specialized Service Agencies in the Nonprofit Sector

The socio-economic governance spectrum divides itself into the for-profit business sector, the nonprofit mission-driven sector, and the government sector. There are statutory regulations that, often rather loosely, regulate the governance… Read More

Oppose Senate bill S.211….written by Vermonters for Vermonters?

Senate bill S.211 is an attempt by the Vermont Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (VAHHS) to gain more power. Their dominant member is the UVM Health Network (UVMHN). Over… Read More

Leadership and the Governor’s “Affordability Crisis”

For over 70 years, I’ve confronted each New Year reviewing what got better, what got worse, and what I hope for in the ensuing year. At 78, I’m grateful that… Read More