Op/Ed

The Op/Ed opinion section

“Thinking Outside The Box”

by RobertOeser | Op/Ed

We often talk about the merits of “thinking outside the box,” yet the reality is, we live within the confines of culture, experience, tradition and . . . the law.

But there are some unique individuals who can think creatively while both recognizing those boundaries and working to change them in meaningful ways. I believe that David Gartenstein is one of those individuals.

This is particularly evident in the area where criminal justice and mental health issues intersect.

IDF Killed 64 Children While Freeing 4 Hostages  An Exchange Instead Would Have Brought Happiness 

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Ever since October 7, 2023, NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, CNN, PBS, along with BBC, DW, NHK other Western entertainment/news conglomerates and wire services like AP, UPI, Reuters and Israeli media have sought to keep their viewers, readers and listeners attention on the hostages and away from any explanation, reason or justification of Palestinians seeking to exchange the hostages for some of the thousands of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. 

Don’t Celebrate July 4th Birth of a U.S.A. Founded by Owners of African Slaves – Wait! Be Patient!

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Every year, Americans are supposed to celebrate July 4th as the founding of a U.S.A. both free and enslaved. The fourth of July is a federal holiday. 

On July 4, 1776, the population of the United States, then the Thirteen Colonies, was estimated to be about 2.5 million people. This population included both free individuals and enslaved people.

Out of this population, approximately 500,000 individuals were enslaved African Americans. The remaining population, roughly 2 million people, consisted of free individuals, which included various groups such as European settlers, Indigenous peoples, and a smaller number of free African Americans.

We Watched Them Murder Many Thousands of Captive Children in Their Concentration Camp! Woe Unto Us 

by jay janson | Op/Ed

It’s now June of 2024. Nearly 40,000 human beings, mostly women and children are dead, maybe 90,000 injured, many with limbs amputated, and another 10,000 lie buried beneath the ruble of the approximately 80% of the destroyed homes and other buildings of what were the cities of Gaza,

Let’s go back eight months to the beginning of this extraordinary and heartless slaughter happening openly for all the world to see via videos and photographs.

The Most Important Vote Ever

by RDavis | Op/Ed

The November presidential election will be the most consequential election in the history of the American republic. We’ve heard that before, but this time it’s for real. If a convicted felon, who also happens to be a deranged egomaniac intent upon turning this country into a dictatorship, wins this election the United States will head into uncharted territory.

Those who support the orange maniac don’t see any problem with this new direction. It is clear to me and many others that those who follow Trump are the worst kind of cult followers. It still confounds me how the U.S. congress Republican majority still supports him. They have made it clear that all they care about is votes and they have decided that following him is their best bet for grabbing more power.

I Miss A Parade

by cgrotke | Op/Ed

Brattleboro used to have a healthy number of local and visiting parades; nowadays not so much.

Some of the earliest parades were put on by the volunteer fire brigades around town. There were lots of volunteers firefighters in the 1800’s and if the reports are correct, they liked to parade around town at least once a year to show of their uniforms, equipment, hoses, and in-house musical bands. Coronets were popular for a while.

Brattleboro marched up and down Main Street to celebrate the railroad arriving in town for the first time.

Money Making Military Will Praise War & Parade During America’s Memorial Day of Solemn Mourning 

by jay janson | Op/Ed

U.S. Memorial Day, originally intended as a solemn day of mourning for families of dead veterans has long become an opportunity for jingoistic war celebration, deceiving politicians and recruiting officers to parade and glorify warfare as a means to entrap young volunteers for future wars.

Instead of solemn mourning, on Memorial Day, war promoting corporate media, having tricked so many Americans into fighting and dying in unjust, murderous wars based on lies, now hypes our loved ones’ inglorious death as beautiful military service to  entice recruits for their continuing wars.

U.S.A. UK EU Journalists Accessories to Gaza Genocide Prolong It Deceivingly As ‘Defensive War’

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Journalists of wars prolonging U.S. and NATO nations media are providing cover for a monstrous genocidal crime against humanity by portraying the Israeli U.S. provisioned devastating bombing and air strikes on Israel’s military occupied Gaza Strip as ‘defensive war.’

“Israel can’t claim a right to defend itself from the people it oppresses and whose land it colonises,” UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, April 8, 2023.[1]

Can’t Impeach-Prosecute Joe Biden For Illegally Continuing to Supply Bombs Dropped on Homes in Gaza

by jay janson | Activism, Op/Ed

Biden has been guilty of breaking a U.S. law against providing U.S. weapons to a nation using them against a civilian population as Israel has been doing openly for five months.

“When the President of the United States becomes aware of the possibility of violations of the Arms Export Control Act (AECA), the law mandates specific actions:

Prompt Notification to Congress: The President is required to promptly notify Congress about the potential violations.”

Officer Did Not Falsify Evidence

by Kurt Daims | Op/Ed

CORRECTION: The officer did not falsify evidence. To falsify evidence means to alter it after it is admitted into a court record. That’s really serious and worse than what happened. Here’s what happened.

The Brattleboro “health officer” came to our emergency homeless shelter February 7 2023. We had three RVs for free shelter. He had been told that there were no sewer connections to the RVs. See the video. at brmse.org .

Awful Feeling! ‘Starving Palestinian Children Are Watching Me Eat Their Food ‘- Can’t Take It Anymore

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Am feeling some slight pangs of hunger as I sit down to my dinner, and the thought automatically arises, ‘how could a starving person take the immeasurably more severe hunger pain caused by the strong contractions of the stomach when it’s empty,’and that makes me think of the poor desperately hungry children being starved in Gaza. Am still aware of the good taste of the food in my mouth but suddenly am not enjoying eating.

Awful Feeling! ‘Starving Palestinian Children Are Watching Me Eat Their Food ‘- Can’t Take It Anymore

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Am feeling some slight pangs of hunger as I sit down to my dinner, and the thought automatically arises, ‘how could a starving person take the immeasurably more severe hunger pain caused by the strong contractions of the stomach when it’s empty,’ and that makes me think of the poor desperately hungry children being starved in Gaza. Am still aware of the good taste of the food in my mouth but suddenly am not enjoying eating.

I want to tell the children I feel are watching me eat, to go watch the sky for an American plane dropping meals to them, but I imagine the severely traumatised children (who have their eyes on the food on my plate), have had their homes, playgrounds and schools destroyed, many of their brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, teachers and playmates killed or horribly wounded, some crippled, by bombs dropped by American planes piloted by Israelis dropping American bombs on them day and night for as long as they can seem to remember. I sense they are still watching me and my (their) food.

(America has also been allowing its client state Israel to starve the citizens of Gaza by blocking food and water from entering into Gaza and U.S.A, has used its veto power to vote down demands of the UN Security Council for a ceasefire.)

Hegemonic Western Colonialist Media Journalists Are Accessories to Israeli Mass Murder of Children

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Since October 7, journalists of hegemonic Western colonialist media have made themselves accessories after and then before the fact of crimes against humanity ordered by the Israeli government and committed by Israeli military in their continuous mass murderous bombing and air strikes demolishing homes and entire cities of Israel’s captive Palestinian population in Gaza – indiscriminately killing thousands of residents, 70% [1]of which are women and children. These journalists became accessories after the fact and then before the fact. How?     

“The ‘Reality’ Around Us Is Constructed By Liars “Journalists are War Criminals” Julian Assange Explains 

by jay janson | Op/Ed

Albert Einstein argued that 

“private capital tends to become concentrated in few hands”, resulting in “an oligarchy of private capital the enormous power of which cannot be effectively checked even by a democratically organised political society”.

Moreover, under existing conditions, private capitalists inevitably control, directly or indirectly, the main sources of information (press, radio, education).

It is thus extremely difficult, and indeed in most cases quite impossible, for the individual citizen to come to objective conclusions and to make intelligent use of his political rights.” [May 1949 edition of socialist magazine Monthly Review]

If Pres. Lula Quoted Martin Luther King “Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World is My Own Government,”

by jay janson | Op/Ed

If, On Martin Luther King’s Birthday and U.S. National Holiday, President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil could have quoted from King’s mainstream media covered up 1967 New York sermon ‘Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence,’ which condemned his government’s atrocity wars to protect predatory investments, he might have started by quoting what King said about Latin America.

If Xi-Jinping Reminded that Martin Luther King Called U.S.”Greatest Purveyor of Violence in World?”

by jay janson | Op/Ed

If, during the three day Martin Luther King birthday holiday, a world attention getting source, for example, a high enough profiled Chinese government official, pointed out that the government of the United States of America was condemned as the most violent in the world by America’s own idol, this writer believes it would be a sensation, and a most difficult moment for the U.S. government and America’s wars supporting mainstream media which has for 57 years totally suppressed all mention of King’s condemnation of his government’s wars to protect predatory investments.

If Pres. Petro Quoted Martin Luther King “U.S. Helicopters Are Being Used Against Guerrillas in Colombia”

by jay janson | Op/Ed

If, On Martin Luther King’s Birthday and U.S. National Holiday, President Gustavo Francisco Petro Urrego of Columbia would quote from King’s mainstream media covered up 1967 New York sermon ‘Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence,’ which condemned his government’s atrocity wars to protect predatory investments, he might start by quoting what King said about his own country Columbia: