Archive
Besides his books, Bill has written a variety of poems, short stories, opinion pieces, and more.
Vermonters are Stingey with Syllables
While today’s young Vermonters favor the glottal stop: mount- ain, import-ant, apart-ment, hunt-in’ and fish-in’, etc., older Vermonters tend to avoid unnecessary syllables, favoring the terser elision. Can you match the...
Do We Fully Understand and Account for Addiction in Vermont?
Last year, well over 100 Vermonters died of street and pharmaceutical drug overdoses. Like traffic deaths, we keep track and publicize annually our drug deaths both as an indicator of...
A.G. Bill Barr-barism: Will execute the only woman on death row on Dec. 8th
Rarely do I repost another’s blog, but I cannot express my own horror better than that expressed by the Cornell Law School’s Center on the Death Penalty Worldwide. Please read Cornell...
Vermont Politics
A friend from California recently asked me about two televised electoral charts she’d seen showing Vermont’s electoral voting response. She pointed out that the presidential chart was blue, mottled here...
Christmas Wish List or New Year’s Resolutions?
It’s the end of what has been for many a devastating year. 2020 has magnified and amplified the damaging toll that our persistent socio-economic and environmental inequities have exacted on...
It’s Time to Question Our Public School Curriculum
While a taskforce of educators and consultants works to envisage and create a new and sustainable Vermont State College System this winter, the dialogue about our public grade schools continues in the...
When is a Tool a Device and When is it the Buyer?
I love to work with my hands. I love tools – the simpler the better. The ratio of a tool’s utility to its simplicity defines a tool’s excellence for me....
How Can Vermont use Local and Regional Councils to Inform its Strategic Planning?
The Vermont Council on Rural Development(VCRD)’s deep dive into the issues facing Vermont is informed by interviews with and input from thousands of Vermonters. Proposition 8 was of particular interest to me...
The Elegant Clarity and Broad Misunderstanding of Nonprofit Governance
The Vermont Nonprofit sector is a major contributor to Vermont’s economy and to the well-being of Vermonters. Its 6000 organizations represent about 20% of Vermont’s overall economy and employ about 14% of...
Vermont Healthcare: A Mare’s Nest
As I’ve written in the past, we’ll never sort out the hot mess that health care’s become in Vermont and in the U.S. until we agree on the fundamental question...
Early Childhood Education and Child Health
The institutional and administrative silos that differentiate the care and wellness of children from their progress through the public education system can derail a child’s education and development if he...
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...
