Op/Ed

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.

On March 22nd Brattleboro’s Representative Town Meeting defeated the 1% optional sales tax and approved the FY15 budget, which includes the first interest payment on the second police/fire facilities bond.  So, what happens next?

First let’s state the obvious:  Brattleboro is in a bind.  It took many of us to get it there, myself
included.  We initially approved the police/fire facilities project and then rejected cutting the overall budget
enough to scale it back.  Meanwhile, we defeated the 1% sales tax multiple times.

Ever since I’ve moved to this town, I’ve noticed that virtually all except those I’ve conveyed the following sentiment to who call me on the phone employ the most miserable phone etiquette I’ve encountered in the many states and provinces I’ved lived in.

When I was a child, I lived on the Upper West Side in a communal situation that had three women (including my mother) under 30.  It being NYC and Ma Bell being the only game in town, it was standard practice for women to only give their first initial and last name when listed in the phone book.

Representative Town Meeting members repeatedly tried to “send a message” to the Brattleboro Selectboard at their most recent meeting. Throughout, representatives also stated that they didn’t think the Selectboard was getting that message.

As an outside observer, the message was simple: Taxes are too high. If you are going to cut something, cut additional Police Fire bonds and not the Library or Recreation and Parks departments. The bonds can wait.

I eavesdropped on ibrattleboro’s excellent coverage of your town mtg, & was pleased to see the discussion about the ill-conceived proposal from the legislature to kill our local school boards.  I believe the Vt legislature originally met for much shorter sessions, and like so many institutions has grown bigger just because there was time available for it to do so. This proposal suggests they have too much time on their hands and are inventing fixes for things that ain’t broke.

Sure, we can always use improvements to our public education system, but abolishing our citizen school boards seems misguided, especially since they cost almost nothing to maintain (in Guilford, for example, just over $2,000 a year in a school budget of some $2 million!)

While watching town meeting today many downtown merchants spoke about their opposition to the proposed  1% local options tax because it will send people to NH (as if those of us on the border towns don’t shop there already). I was very disappointed to hear little to no discussion about how NOT approving this tax continues to hammer those of us who pay property taxes in Brattleboro.

Downtown merchants shifted their focus to out-of-state visitors long ago. We have very few stores that provide necessities anymore: a drug store, a hardware store, an Elliot Street convenience store, the Co-op. The bike stores, specialty/gift stores, and even Sam’s non-clothing sections target specific hobbies or are for discretionary items.

THE POLICE AND FIRE FACILITIES PROJECT

It is not a mystery that the Selectboard placed the sales tax but not the Police/Fire Facilities project on the March 4th ballot as a straw or nonbonding vote.  Were they on together both would have likely been voted down.  Thus the Selectboard gave us only one choice.  In the same way the P/F project itself was presented at Town Meeting as only one choice. Town Meeting Members were forced to accept it all even if only one piece, or none of it at all seemed necessary.  It was as if the administration believed that citizen input had no place in the development of the project.  Since the vote was taken any further questions have been dismissed with ‘it’s been voted on.’  Conversation over.

I’m turning 50 this year, which means I have 15-20 years to retirement age — if all goes well.

Let’s look at the news and see if things are going well. Lost airplane, Crimea, oh wait, what’s this?  That might impact my retirement. You have my attention.

The article says collapses are a normal part of the cycle of civilization. Rome, for example. OK, we knew that. Nothing new there.

To the Brattleboro Business Community,

The Brattleboro Area Prevention Coalition (BAPC) would like
to thank the businesses that participated in the Responsible Beverage Service Trainings held in March co-sponsored by the Department of Liquor Control.

BAPC recognizes the important role that local retailers and restaurants play in preventing underage drinking. Thank you to the following businesses for participating in the training:

Several years ago I advocated that courses in the humanities be offered and taught to those within Vermont who might have otherwise gone without the opportunities and benefits of these. For example: people living in poverty; people living homeless; persons incarcerated in jails, prisons or other institutions; people living in the throes of drug or alcohol addiction.

What I had been urging be established was for programs along the lines of the Clemente Course in the Humanities model (clementecourse.org).

For years I have been warning marijuana advocates not to take the easy way out by using medical marijuana as a wedge to “soften up” public sentiment. Regrettably, many marijuana patients had this “we need our medicine now” mentality. Too many medical marijuana people were self-interested only in their needs. Some even stated to me it was more important to legalize marijuana for medical needs than it was to legalize it for all adults. The fact that millions of Americans were and are trapped in the criminal justice gulag did not matter to them, just as long as they got their meds.

As I feared, medical marijuana only muddles marijuana legalization. In the long run, the advent of pundits pushing the medical angle did so at the expense of the larger marijuana consumer population.

Before releasing your pets via a “Free to good home” ad, please do some research on this problem and arrange a follow up plan so you can see that your beloved pets DO recieve the care and love they deserve.  You can begin by typing “Free to good home” in Google and see the extent of risk of doing this.  Pet-abuse.com has some great articles on this.

Vermont is once again ranked as the least religious state in the country. Over half the people in our state are less likely to believe in God than the rest of the country. However, being the least religious state doesn’t stop the sectarian denominations from their power struggles for domain over man, land and beast. The upshot is that our state is a target for overt religious proselytizing.

Dear President Maduro, slanderous Western media, promoting war and violence for capital gains of the mercilessly amoral automaton functioning speculative interest banking industry, has put you in their spotlight to better target you with defamation. This is then your opportunity to be heard a bit world-wide. In telling the truth about the USA, you will be protecting all of us, Venezuela included.

The issue that needs to be examined is the ‘claw back’ provision of Medicaid. Unfortunately, even many legislators are unaware of this problem. This provision in the law is punitive and prejudicial. It will be imposed only on the very poor – those who qualify for Medicaid. This is a death tax that will be imposed only on the very poor. Will poor unmarried citizens be ‘penalized’ for their low income and also for not having a spouse? Those who are dirt poor will now even have their dirt taxed away from any heirs. Of course, those with accountants, lawyers, financial planners can avoid this unfair tax – but poor people do not have that kind of support system.

An open letter to Governor Shumlin and to our federal and state delegations:

This winter Route 9/Western Avenue off of Interstate 91 Exit 2 in Brattleboro has been in abominable shape.  Despite the best efforts of the Brattleboro Department of Public Works to keep ahead of new pot holes through patching, both new-timers and old-timers in town say this is the worst shape they have ever seen the road.

Traffic has slowed to a crawl as everyone tries to avoid flat tires or damage to their undercarriages. 
Drivers bob and weave like prize fighters, hopefully not into the fists of oncoming traffic.  (Of just the
drivers the DPW has heard from, department head Steve Barrett reports well over 20 blown tires.)  This focus on the decrepit road condition distracts drivers from watching for bicyclists and pedestrians.

Humans are not like penguins. We are not designed to walk on the ice. My father, who is in his 70’s, was walking in his hometown. The sidwalk was not cleared, and he slipped and fell on his side with a sickening cracking and terrible pain.This simple fall resulted in 6 broken ribs. He is in much pain, can hardly move, and even breathing is hard for him.

On my street, here in Brattleboro, I have noticed that again and again and again, some people clear their sidewalks, and some do not. South Main should be passable all the way from one end to the other.

Right now, there is slush, and tonight, the slush may well freeze, bumpy and slippery.

Sixteen Senators and what do you get? “Another day older and deeper in debt. Senators Sanders and Leahy don’t you call me cause I can’t go. I owe my soul to the company (stole).”

We spend a broken record’s worth of time in repetitive cadence about the vagaries of entitlements, the disabled, the plight of the elder poor, the kids, and then just your general poor people, not to mention the downtrodden middleclass.

Here’s what I got out of the budget discussion at Tuesday’s Selectboard meeting:  “We’re broke.  Must close library, sell parks.”  Now I know that they didn’t actually advocate for any of these draconian changes, but these items were mentioned, and somehow that became my takeaway from the meeting.  Unnecessary frills may have to be eliminated because important things like police and fire facilities must be built and next year we’ll need a new grader.

Welcome to the new reality, folks: Towns can no longer afford themselves.