Archive

Besides his books, Bill has written a variety of poems, short stories, opinion pieces, and more.

Categories

False Economies

As the legislative biennium winds down, it’s time to consider what happened, what didn’t, and more important, why? Many Vermonters are vocal about wanting their government branches to change how...
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News and Democracy Are Not Free

“Information wants to be free” is a mantra from the sixties that’s wreaking havoc with democracy. Our culture is at stake as digitization and the Internet largely eliminate the need...
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Getting to Know You….

Thanks to the VT Council on World Affairs and the Open World Leadership Program, we just hosted two young women who are journalists in Yaroslava, Russia. And I’m struck by how similar the...
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Children and Families

The nation was appalled by televised scenes on America’s southern border of ICE forcibly separating children from their parents after a Justice Department ruling that to do so was legal...
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Ethics and Wealth

On Tuesday, the 21st. The Guardian newspaper reported that Jeff Bezos’s wealth increased on the prior day by some $13B. … twice Vermont’s budget. His net worth now is some $189B. Bezos...
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Aging with Grace

Astonishing what we learn from others when we listen… I was talking with a friend only a few years younger who offered a suggestion that in my self-absorption had never...
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Guns and Suicide

VTDigger column May 29,2019 S.169, mandates a 24-hour waiting period for the purchase of a handgun in Vermont It’s sitting on the Governor’s desk awaiting his signature… or not. The...
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What is “lobbying”… and what is propaganda?

  When I asked a friend and retired federal judge about the ethics of “lobbying,” their response was simple. “When a congressional or legislative member asks a professional for advice...
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The Broadband Imperative: Where’s the leadership?

A few years back, I remember attending an author event at Bixby Library in Vergennes. It was after hours and the library was closed except to guests. As I entered,...
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Punt and Study?

House Speaker, Jill Krowinski’s difficult decision to do a punt-and-study of the looming pension crisis, about which we have effectively been advised for almost a decade, forewarns us of some intrinsic...
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Guns: A River of Blood

Photo of Schubart by Eric Borg I’ve spent my 76 years fighting impulses, impulses to jump into quarries, impulses to ride uninspectable motorcycles, and impulses to binge on food –...
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When the State Takes A Child

The most extreme authority Vermonters have accorded their government is the taking of a human life. This ended in 1972, 18 years after the last Vermonter was electrocuted in Windsor...
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