Archive

Human Services Secretary Doug Racine recently acknowledged his own agency’s defeat in reducing childhood poverty in Vermont – a concession that frankly astonishes me. The Agency of Human Services is… Read More

As a society, we’ve committed to certain government roles and responsibilities like national defense, tax collection, business regulation, and administration of justice. Our commitments, however, to a postal system, transportation… Read More

Quick. Pop quiz: what’s free, fun for all ages, and brings neighbors and friends together for a half-day of loud, smoky excitement? Answer? The East Charlotte Tractor Parade! After an… Read More

For generations, the organizing principles of tribal and melting pot societies have been religion, commerce, and government. Each has occasioned both great human advancement and incalculable human suffering. They are,… Read More

The novel, I Am Baybie, is a first-person narrative of a blind street singer in New York City. “Her early life was marked by a succession of tragedies,” Bill has… Read More

In Denmark, I recently heard the term “curling parents,” the Danish idiom for “helicopter parents.”  For those unfamiliar with the sport of curling, one player runs in front of the… Read More

Vermont has committed to meeting the standards imposed by the new federal healthcare law and also to pioneer a single-payer system by 2017. And while few would debate the need… Read More

I love photographs. I have several thousand photographs of family and places from 1868 to the present. I grew up in a family of photographers. Most are black and white.… Read More

Among the common frames through which we view the quality of our lives are health, knowledge, ethics, wealth, beauty, and spirit. A life well lived uses all these frames to… Read More

The danger in believing we are special is that it can blind us to what’s right under our noses. We mix and drink our Kool-Aid and then bask in our… Read More

This is the kind of question that causes people to stare at their shoes during Town meeting. “Does the greater Burlington area, from Milton to Richmond and Charlotte really need… Read More

Any honest priest who knows his altar boys will tell you they’re prey to mortal sin, especially as they pass through puberty and their fervid imaginations evoke that which they… Read More