Archive
Besides his books, Bill has written a variety of poems, short stories, opinion pieces, and more.
Vermonters Want a Real Ethics Commission
The Vermont legislature is at an impasse trying to decide whether to establish and fund a statewide Ethics Commission. There has been considerable favorable testimony by Vermonters, ethicists, and our...
Vermont’s Ageing Legacy Systems
Vermont’s Ageing Legacy Governing Systems How we understand our complex systems affects the quality of our discussion about them, as well as any agreements we might make toward progress. Too...
Ethics Meltdown in Legislature
The Legislature is at an impasse trying to decide whether to establish and adequately fund a statewide ethics commission that has real enforcement capability. There’s been considerable favorable testimony by...
Stay the Course in Vermont Healthcare
How quickly we forget. Just short of four decades ago, Vermont policymakers decided that a competitive healthcare system had not lowered healthcare costs, but was, in fact, driving costs up,...
Getting Closer in Vermont…Affordable Health Care for All.
When I was young, Morrisville had three doctors, two dentists and the wood-framed, four-story, Copley Hospital, which had the town’s first elevator. Theoretically, there was competition, but price wasn’t the...
Our 4-Speed Legislature
The legislature has a four-speed gear box: inaction, study, nibble around the edges, and overdrive. The under-utilized overdrive gear brings forth bold action and initiates substantive change. The perennial re-appearance...
An Ethical Epiphany in the Legislature ?
I just searched Senator John Campbell’s official State website and typed in “ethics.” The site yielded “no results” and urged me to check my spelling. Campbell has been an outspoken...
Economic Development?
I no longer believe in economic development. There, I said it. Now, let me clarify. I believe the best business development strategy is being a great place to live, educate,...
Vermont’s Next Governor – Why It Matters
The national media’s rife with bread-and-circus candidates of every ideological stripe and I.Q. and that’s gotten me thinking about what I’ll want to see in Vermont’s next governor. There are...
Sustaining Our Communities
In physics, centripetal forces propel objects toward the center and centrifugal forces drive them away. And today, our societies and communities are engaged in an epic battle between these two...
Open Letter to Vermont Legislators
As the new legislative session ramps up, I’d like to offer some thoughts. Don’t micromanage complex issues. We already have too many laws and administrative statutes, many poorly drafted, ambiguous,...
A Heedless Death
I grew up reading Vermont Life in the fifties and continued reading it until shortly after the turn of the century. It always had a prominent place in our home, moving quarterly...
