Op/Ed

The Vermont Senate is considering a bill that will provide tax incentives to school that find ways to cooperate with surrounding districts to improve efficiency and student opportunities. The schools in our supervisory union are widely recognized as leaders in these kinds of changes, having begun implementing them a decade ago.

The bill also cuts supports for small schools, and cuts support for schools adjusting to declining numbers of students. Guilford, Putney, Vernon, and the high school district benefit from these supports and will see tax rates increase if they are cut.

The family of Oscar Mark Delgado, Sr.  from Johnson, Vermont are looking for someone to provide a home for their adult son, Oscar Delgado, Jr. In the State of Vermont, people are held in prison after their sentences are completed if they can not find a qualified home that the probation officer approves. This results in a high rate of prison over-population in Vermont and it results in sending people to out-of-state prisons because too many people who have already completed their sentences are forced to stay in Vermont prisons because their probation officer will not “qualify” the new residence of the person to be released.  

The misappropriation of ‘bisexual’ into the collective initialism of LGBTQ remains one of the worst things to happen to human sexuality since the days of Leviticus.

It’s bad enough that both sides of the sexuality fence have wasted humanity’s precious time embattled over the black and white issue of straight versus gay but to drag bisexual people into this self-centered mess has no conscious behind it. Gay people’s action of taking “something for one’s own use, typically without the owner’s permission,” did a great disservice to bisexual people and to the future of our sexually.

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Some, if not most, of the most accomplished jazz musicians in the world performed brilliantly at the United Nations on International Jazz Day, April 10, 2015, at the same time sanctifying with music a failed United Nations, which, since its creation by the colonial powers, has facilitated genocide for profit of the amoral wealthy elite of Western speculative interest banking. Why? Celebrities as influential role models have added responsibility for the actions of their government.

How I wish Brattleboro would follow Westminsters lead. This mornings Reformer let us know that residents of Westminster will be receiving a mailing with information regarding their “new” trash/recycling program. Included with the mailing will be 52 STICKERS FOR 52 WEEKS OF TRASH …………….. and they’re FREE, FREE, FREE! If residents use more than one bag per week they’ll have to purchase additional bags for $3.00 each. This is a perfect example of those in charge governing and at the same time considering and showing compassion and understanding towards their residents.

Maybe it was those snowflakes in our weather forecast, but I had a lot of snow-related synchronicities this week.  It started with the news that a new monument had gone up overnight in Brooklyn’s Fort Greene Park, not far from the Brooklyn Bridge.  The monument consisted of a bust of Edward Snowden, with his name emblazoned across the column below it in big Roman capitals.  It was an impressive gesture by a group of artists who wrote (as you shall see below) some powerful things about freedom and heroism and the public’s right to know.  And even though the government covered it up, by sending park employees to smother Snowden’s bust in a tarp so no one could see it, civil disobedience had happened and it was noteworthy.  — it’s a nice statue.  

I just received an email from a lawyer and peace activist in Boston named Ralph Lopez, in which he references an .

In the article, Lopez states that “High quality images from just-posted evidence exhibits in the Tsarnaev trial by the US Department of Justice show conclusively that the backpack carried by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a surveillance video, and the one said to contain the bomb which killed eight-year-old Richard Martin, do not match in color.”

From a March 26, 2015 Hampshire Gazette editorial:

It’s not shocking that several public officials stood up at a public meeting to complain that the state’s Open Meeting Law is cumbersome and confusing.

What is shocking is that they derided it as “unfair and undemocratic” and claimed that a request for meeting minutes is tantamount to harassment.

Even more shocking is that in a room full of 100 elected and appointed public officials from Hampshire and Franklin counties, these comments elicited applause.

 A Saker is a very large falcon, native to Europe and Asia.

“The Saker” is a pseudonym for a top level American military analyst who lives in Florida, the author of the leading blog covering Russia and the Ukraine crisis, , which gets an astounding 50,000 page views per day.   Of the many blogs covering the subject, his has shot far ahead of the others, due to his sharp analysis and insight.  

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Dear fellow Town Representatives:

I have been meaning to write an open letter reporting out my concerns and observations about this year’s Representative Town Meeting, items on the agenda, the budget, etc. I have left this until the last minute in hopes that others of you might finally step forward to join me in drafting a brief report as your Town Finance Committee.

This is the

The site has not been updated in a year. I can’t do the work of the committee by myself, so please regard this as merely a personal letter.

Our nation’s police department’s primary objectives have to be enforcement of existing law as enacted by the various state and federal legislatures.

The latitude exercised by each department is affected by a dizzying array of various police departmental and community circumstances. There is no template except that which falls back upon established law.In a real sense, the Executive Summary and therefore the full report of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) to the White House Task Force on Community-Police Relations (January 2015) is putting the cart before the horse.

 Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan administration, claiming the title of “Father of Reaganomics”.  He has been associate editor of the Wall Street Journal and columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate.

He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are and .

*Please Visit the on the below letter.*  

To Mr. Governor Shumlin,

I am a hard working Vermont State employee for the Agency of Transportation (District 3). I plow the roads. As you may recall, we in AOT have endured many challenges in the recent past ….Including Tropical Storm Irene (2011), Pay Cuts and Pay Freezes (2008-9), Changes to our Health Insurance with Higher deductibles and less coverage (2014). And despite all these hardships and challenges, we still get up, as needed, at 3am (sometimes working 7 days a week) to make sure our roads are safe so Vermonters (including yourself) can go to work, so tourists can come here and spend their money, and so everyone’s kids can get to school.

Richard Evers is a write-in candidate for a District 3 Town Meeting Member seat.  I have been well acquainted with Richard for twenty years and have always known him to be interested in and aware of town issues.  He is thoughtful and uses good judgement.  I recommend writing in his name for a District 3 Town Meeting Member seat.

Thank you.

Because the media are not perfect, there are three misconceptions that persist about the amendments and I would like to clear them up in these last days before the election.

First, the charter clearly shows how the representative town meeting (RTM) restricted the rights to call for votes.  Anyone can check this our on the town web site:  See brattleboro.org, click “Charter, ordinances” > “charter”. 

The RTM did uselessly lower a signature requirement but at the same time authorized
themselves to vote first and block the petitioned article from the ballot.  Their revision (charter article III 2 B)
says: 

3rd White House Error message at “We the People” petition section of President Obama’s official government White House website.  This has occurred at 1091 signatures on the Make Marijuana Legal petition, and it previously occurred at 1064 signatures on the Make Marijuana Legal petition, and before that it occurred when the petition had not reached the first 150 requirement. 

Brattleboro residents can vote on March 3 ( or by early voting now at the Town Clerk’s Office) about whether we should add a 1% optional sales tax here in Brattleboro.

This is a difficult issue because many fear it will hurt our downtown businesses and Brattleboro residents will also pay this extra 1% tax.( It won’t just be people who live out – of -town or out -of -state. ) On the other hand, it has been estimated that it could raise around $600,000 in extra revenue for the town.

I haven’t heard much public comment about this issue and I ‘d be interested to know what I-Brattleboro readers think.

At the top of the column it says “An error has” and then it states “Sorry there is a technical problem and this petition cannot be signed right now.  Please try again n a few minutes.   If you receive this error repeatedly, you may contact We The People to report the problem.  

Well, this is the 2nd time the “MAKE MARIJUANA LEGAL!” petition at the White House – We The People section of the official Presidential website, has occurred.  This really slows down collecting petition signatures!   Funny, I don’t see this “Error” message on other petitions.

I just received an email from the selectboard about town meeting.

“Town Meeting Representatives:  —  As you may know, the March 3 ballot contains three proposed Charter amendments.  Attached for your information is the “Proposed Brattleboro Charter Amendment Information Sheet” that was prepared and endorsed by the Selectboard.”

Well, it was not “Information”, it was “Propaganda”. It was telling us to vote the way the Selectboard wanted us to.

I guess they have a right to do that, but we have an equal right to ignore it.

For the record, here are the 3 proposed amendments:

I hope all of you will turn out for the sole meeting the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) will hold for public feedback on the proposed Post Shutdown Decommissioning Activities Report (PSDAR) Entergy hastily submitted to the NRC in December 2014. NRC meeting is February 19, 6 to 9 pm. Address and NRC notice is here: http://www.nrc.gov/reading-rm/doc-collections/news/2015/15-004.i.pdf