Archive

I have no aspirations for political office, so free speech comes quite easily. The massacre in Arizona ought to have raised the volume on our hushed national discussions about gun… Read More

I was taught it’s not polite to talk about money, so here goes. Honesty, however, requires context. I grew up in a middle class family in Vermont. My stepfather’s family… Read More

We are at a critical turning point in Vermont. We must confront who we are, who we want to be and what we believe in. As the nation at large… Read More

Much is being written today about the Supreme Court’s recent Citizens United decision, extending the right of free speech to corporations. This about-face in legal tradition immediately opened the floodgates… Read More

Much of what I hear these days is, “I’m gonna vote for balance. If the legislature’s gonna be Democratic, I’ll vote for a Republican governor to keep them in check.”… Read More

In these opening days of the new decade, I am haunted by Yeats’ ominous stanza in his poem The Second Coming: Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy… Read More

If you go to the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s website and click on “Reports” and type in the word “outcomes,” you’ll get a free copy of a report entitled “Reframing… Read More

Vermont’s last Republican Century ended in 1962 when Phil Hoff became the first democratic governor in a blue dog’s age. The Republican Party then bore little or no resemblance to… Read More

Having written much about Vermonters, their stories and communities, I am invariably asked if I am a Vermonter, which leads into a discussion about just who is a Vermonter? I’ve… Read More

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

Vermont has options. In these perilous moments of great change when old things get brittle and break, savvy people design and build new things. There is opportunity in chaos for… Read More

We should be wary of political candidates who try to evoke non-specific fears in us about terrorism, impoverishment or racial conflict. They do so to divert us from the rational… Read More