The Op/Ed opinion section
What is the risk of our Vermont Congressional politicians and all of those across the United States of American voting in the United States Congress to protect the rights of the “middle class”?
The risk is that the poor could revolt.
After being a student at Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont and University of Massachusetts, I wandered westward and experienced some formative years in Los Angeles.
Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH), our small community non-profit hospital, is facing what looks like its most challenging financial situation in its 121 year history. It is frightening for the 807 employees (as of 2023 according to an August 2025 IRS 990 filing) who depend on the institution for their livelihood. The prospect of having to lose access to a local hospital would also change the lives of 40,000 people who live in Windham County.
Sadly, it is not clear what is going on at the hospital because the board of directors has not said much other than putting the CEO on leave. Hospitals are notorious for hiding their dirty laundry and BMH is no exception. I worked there on and off for about 14 years and I was always at odds with many of the higher level management team.
I think the biggest stories in the United States right now are the protests against National Guard Troops which President Donald Trump wants to send to various cities, all of which have filed lawsuits to stop deployments.
The problem, as I see it, is there is a full moon tonight, and that can get people going. How excited will protesters be during a full moon?
What are the best baby names for babies born to a homeless mother sleeping on the streets in the freezing cold in Vermont on Christmas?
According to WCAX https://www.wcax.com/2025/09/26/auditor-vermont-homeless-situation-worsening-despite-millions-invested/ Vermont taxpayers spent an average of $80 MILLION a year for the past TEN years, totalling $800 MILLION dollars, and there are still homeless people in VT.
On September 16 the United Nations said that the State of Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. During the past two years, this violence has directly struck the Green Mountain State. Dylan Collins, a journalist, was shot by the Israeli military on October 13, 2023, with no ensuing accountability. The following month a gunman shot three Palestinian students in Burlington. And on April 14, 2025, masked U.S. federal agents kidnapped another Vermonter, Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian lawful U.S. resident.
Many Vermonters are left asking: How can we stop our tax dollars from fueling abuse and devastation around the world, which is making us less safe and robbing our own communities of housing, food, and healthcare?
Charlie Kirk did not ‘die’. Mr. Kirk was assassinated by a single sniper shot to his jugular vein. He was, to all who knew him, a powerhouse exemplifying freedom of speech. He would invite his audiences to debate, to talk through issues and to engage in the most peaceful activity of society: to explore truth through discourse.
Responding to comments to my post about RTM on Sept 17th:
Since last read comments remain most in mind I shall respond first to the statement that you “could buy the argument that RTM members were more informed if about 140 attended Selectboard meetings.” First, it isn’t clear if you are saying that all 140 should attend all 25 or so meetings each year or some members attend some. The next obvious question is: how many SB meetings should be required of voters choosing to attend an Open mtg? How would we ascertain this in either case? But we should put this aside because it gets into enactment details before we have a goal to act upon. There is a deeper implied issue. Should there be any qualifications at all?
In the first part of this examination of RTM and democracy it was demonstrated that RTM is in fact more representative now than it has ever been. In this part we compare direct democracy to representative democracy in the context of RTM. Open town meeting versus representative town meeting.
Virtually the entire body of literature on the subject of political democracy agrees on one thing. Direct democracy is ideal but it only works in a small body (say 10 to 15). This is because everyone can participate directly. Everyone can speak. Every view can be heard. But in larger bodies, all agree, democracy is better achieved through representation because, given the fact that only a limited number of people can participate systems and standards can be set up to enrich the quality of participation. Serious representatives working in a sound and democratic meeting structure will produce decisions close if not the same as those in a direct democracy. Even in a group of ten decisions will likely not represent the views of every member. A perfect decision, 100% agreement, is rarely achieved. Democracy simply tries to get as close as possible.
I have called Brattleboro home for the last 37 years, most of which I have been quite civically and socially engaged. Until now I had never heard the claim that Representative Town Meeting was not representative. Has something changed? I’ve given this a lot of thought and done some investigation. Resources include my complete set of Town Reports to 1992 and scattered editions stretching back to 1974. Town Reports contain the agendas and minutes of every meeting as well as the names of all Representatives, elected officials and a rich history of each year.
When my tenure as an RTM member began in the late 90s about two-thirds of the membership were upper middle aged, male, white property and business owners and professionals. Of the latter they were typically lawyers, finance people, landlords and such. Many of the other third were their wives. On the rare occasion, back then, when a couple did not vote the same way a mirthful chuckle would ripple through the crowd. Most of the decisions in those days were decided by votes in the order of 130 to 10. There was unity!
Is President Donald Trump really going to be Impeached this time? People on social media are in a frenzy and they want a list of names of people who were clients of the now deceased Jeffrey Epstein.
In this new YouTube video today, July 12, 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFfACyu4BWY
Florida Congress Members visited Alligator Alcatraz and were allowed only partial access, (but denied full entry and full examination of the facility), but did see that 32 men are put in each cage with barely walking space between bunk beds, there are 3 toilets per cage and drinking water comes from the top of the toilet, so that if 3 men are sitting on the toilets then no one else can get a drink of water, 2 out of 3 toilets at any time can be overflowing with feces on the floor, and the temperatures inside are 83 degrees F and higher, and the meals don’t meet nutritional requirements of human beings, etc. One Florida Congressperson said that there was someone screaming that they were a U.S. Citizen.
You may have come across in the news various stories about how Elon Musk is going to start a new political party in the United States of America!
We must counter this immediately as best we can here in Vermont!
For every vote his newly proposed party takes, we must have equal and opposite votes to dilute his!
The passage of the 2025 budget marks the transition from democracy to oligarchy. Once the drastic economic and social changes are in place it will be extremely difficult to make meaningful change. In order to restore democracy, if such a move will even be possible, it may require the American people to overtake the current government by force.
Complacency is no longer an option. You may fall into one of three categories. You may be a MAGA maniac and are happy with the turn of events. You may have you head under a rock and have been able to ignore all of the current news or you are in a constant state of anxiety over the direction that American government is taking.
Here’s the definition of oligarchy according to the Merriam Webster dictionary.
There are many news reports to read, but I want you all to start thinking about who could be President in 2028. None of the current Democrats were strong enough to lead both sides of the aisle into defeating this Big Beautiful Bill.
There is no one currently in office who qualifies, because no one currently in an elected office stepped up to the plate to lead a bipartisan group to defeat President Donald Trump’s bill.
This is the most important Speech today during the debate on the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
(1) Recall to active service.
In the event that President Trump should call a national emergency because Trump helps Israel bomb Iran and Iran decides to try to bomb U.S. Military bases over there somewhere, then people are concerned about retired U.S. Military people being re-called to service. This is what people are talking about, from the grocery delivery guy to the handyman repair guy. Even a lady at the grocery store knows this fear.
Isaac Evans-Frantz made some good points about the parking system and downtown business at Tuesday’s Selectboard meeting. His points deserve underlining and emphasis because he latched on to some logical flaws of the current parking system, and hinted heavily that it might be really harming downtown business.
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Isaac began by asking why, if there was a deficit in the parking fund, would the board consider offering any free parking at all during holidays.
As did the authors of the Declaration of Independence, we find ourself in rare times. For the first time in our history, democracy itself is under assault by people bent on its destruction and along with it, the democratic values that guarantee our freedom. On Saturday, June 14, the two sides in the great battle between democracy and fascism face off in the first show of force since the Trump dictatorship began, officially, five months ago.
Is Elon Musk committing federal criminal extortion by threatening to deny Astronauts return trips on space ships?
Have you ever noticed when you behave like a doormat, you get treated like one, have you ever had a friend or a family member who acts like a doormat and it makes you livid because you can see the footsteps coming? Walking all over them?
I think I want to reinstate the council of Censors. What is the council of censors, you may well ask? The council on censors is, or was, and will be again, an independent body elected by the people to report back to the people on the laws being passed and entertained in the statehouse. The Council of Censors would alert, and if I can get it going again, will once again alert the people of legislation that trespasses on the Constitutions of the state and the US.
