Opinion

More than anything else I hope, maybe a lot of people hope, that the Selectboard can come to function as a unified body.  Not that they all need to have the same beliefs and opinions about everything.  Unified in the sense of a mutual desire to listen to and bring out the best in each other.  A body that can consider matters in such a way that, even if they don’t entirely agree with one another they know they have reached the best possible conclusion they can.

Tradition dictates against that.  The modus operandi of the Selectboard, as I have observed it for the twenty-five years I’ve been in town, is five separate people vying to prevail.  The result is that they quickly tire of their own “deliberations” long before anything is fully discussed or analyzed.  At that point, having grown impatient and irritable, one of them calls for a vote and whichever three find the same solution least disagreeable determines the final decision.

Since Vermont is one of the 17 states to (finally) decriminalize possession of marijuana, one could say that the Legislature and governor should be patted on the back for doing the right thing.

But wait. Not so fast.

Is decriminalizing marijuana really an admission of guilt and culpability in criminalizing people who were not criminals before?

Hey folks, this debate on the town budget and property tax rate has spurred me to register here and join the conversation, as my schedule does not permit me to attend meatspace meetings at this time.

Let me say first off that my fiance and I, as well as every friend and neighbor in town that I’ve talked to about the issue, voted and/or reads the budget rejection not as merely a repudiation of the police and fire project, but rather as an outcry against the exhorbitantly high tax rate in Brattleboro in general.   There seems to be some debate on whether the rejection of the vote was asking for a scalpel to excise the police and fire project or a wider issue.  

This was posted on the Reformer Face Book page tonight.

SELECTBOARD CONSIDERING HALTING POLICE-FIRE PROJECT.
The board met for 90 minutes Tuesday to consider making cuts to the FY 2015 budget. The board is asking interim Town Manager Patrick Moreland to investigate a range of cuts, including cutting positions in the library and Parks and Recreation Department. The board is also considering halting the $14 million police-fire project. The board is going to meet on April 29 to make final decisions about the budget.

Note: This was the text I had composed and sent to the board prior to being scheduled to appear.
…

It is fair to say that Brattleboro has asked about as much as it can of its citizens from property taxes. There is, however, another route to gaining more resources. It does not include taxation or fees. Rather, I am suggesting that the town take advantage of some key but under appreciated qualities it enjoys and raise money from contributions over and above the property tax. I am suggesting that Brattleboro do what many, if not most, charitable organizations do: invite, or appeal for, charitable contributions from those who appreciate the community and its services.

I have not yet met Steve Gordon, the new CEO of Brattleboro Memorial Hospital, but after I wrote to him about a problem I had experienced at a BMH physician’s practice, the problem got resolved.

This was refreshing. It was the first time since the Reformer ran my Oct. 5, 2007 op-ed, “Hospital’s complaint process needs reform,” that I felt a glimmer of hope. In that piece, I had written:

“Patients are naturally vulnerable, and rely on the hospital staff and administration for kindness and protection. To prevent lapses, there must be a trustworthy complaint procedure.”

FCC, the Federal Elections Commission, is using 1950s Jim Crow Laws that were created by the U.S. Congress to keep Negroes out of political candidate debates, but they are STILL using them today, even in 2014, to keep independent candidates from participating in Vermont Public Radio general election debates.   (Bernie Sanders runs in the Primary in the summer as a Democrat and takes millions of dollars from them and their PACs, and then switches at the last minute in the general election for November to “independent” so he is not a “real” independent.) 

I have noticed that our lovely town has a fire problem. The big fire, before I arrived, was on Main St. where the Paramont theater once stood. I waltz down memory lane: I am sure there are house and apartment building fires I will have missed. But here is a list of fires I have witnessed:

Wilder block, Lawrence block, Sam’s, 214 Elliot, 107 Elliot, 119 Green St., 72 Green St., Brooks House-

Some say the fires are because Brattleboro has so many old wooden buildings. I am sure part of the problem is that the buildings are not sprinklered. Cigarettes & cooking grills may have contributed. I’m sure that’s one of the reasons we are seeing a move towards smoke free housing.

The Palestinian problem has been an enormous thorn in the relations between Israel and the greater world. This has prevented a capable Western styled government from bringing the full fruits of its democracy to the Middle East. With the constant niggling and debate of rights, it is time for Israel to assert its full historic right to the full and final occupation of Greater Israel from the Mediterranean to the Jordan River to Lebanon and south to Sinai. We can stop the illusion and fantasy of a Palestinian state in the West Bank. Historically, this land was Israel, with stretches of time occupied by every power in the region. Though we had a period of Diaspora and left the area for two thousand years does it matter whether it was two days or two thousand years? Of course not.