Op/Ed

I am in shock at the high cost to repair Brattleboro’s Ice Arena.   The Brattleboro Recreation Department as with almost every other department in Brattleboro keeps getting hit with all these expenses.   I read the town meeting notes here, last week. Thank you Chris. Putting all other town business aside reading how our selectboard addressed this issue was comforting. 

Seeing how the estimate of repairs obtain by the town had been so far off from the bid received for the job reading that the selectboard had chose to not pull the checkbook out and pay the the extra 120,000 was comforting. The board wanting to step back and access what other options are out there just seems like the most practical thing to do giving the state of economic affairs at the moment.

DESCRIPTION:
Blaming policy, politicians, media, corporations, but never holding America, Americans, responsible as MLKjr did, antiwar journalists expose mass-homicide for thievery by Americans in dozens of poor nations beginning with America’s bloody overthrow of democratic governments in Greece, Guatemala, Congo, Korea, Vietnam and Laos thru today’s crimes in Syria  Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Libya, and murderously occupied Afghanistan,

TEXT:
Preface to the Survey Question:

An Explanation Of Why It Is Put Principally To Antiwar Writers And Investigative Journalists:

Fear of Speaking Freely

Being afraid to speak, is a Civil Rights issue. Students, Teachers, Journalists and the Public should have the freedom to speak freely and to assemble, yet they do not.

Students and citizens need to know, to see and hear alternatives to mainstream media and decide for themselves what is fact and what is fiction. Important issues of fact are being intentionally omitted; key items of history are being rewritten and replaced with contrived innuendo. Few who are normally relied upon for investigation or debate, dare to stand up to these forces.

TITLE:
Obama War Criminal? What About Investors, CNN, Clergy, Soldiers, You & I? by jay janson

DESCRIPTION:
David Swanson, of War Is A Crime.org, although endorsing, along with almost every serious antiwar journalist and organization, the King Condemned US Wars International Awareness Campaign, wrote recently: US Presidents Should Be Prosecuted for War Crimes and Military Aggressions” Readers in nations bombed, invaded and murderously occupied by America and Americans will sense or suspect a ‘fall guy’ trick to absolve everyone else

This veteran is waiting for the year in which the Veterans For Peace, in its Memorial Day Press Release, states that Veterans mourn first, the lives America took in poor countries, both the civilian men, women and children and the patriots that fought our illegal and criminal invasions since 1945. Only then should come bitterly mourning GIs who were duped by our elected officials and the CIA and Pentagon fed, corporate-controlled war-promoting media cartel fooling them with lies, misinformation, disinformation and psyop techniques that deceived them into proudly following homicidal criminal orders.  Orders given, as Martin Luther King Jr. cried out, “for atrocity wars and covert homicide meant to maintain unjust predatory investments overseas.”
[see Beyond Vietnam – a Time to Break Silence sermon]

On Saturday, just after 1 PM, WVEW played a very long selection of dissonant vocal noise that could not be called music in any way.

I tolerated it for 10 minutes, and then complained to the disk jockey, who thought my assessment of it as “noise” was just an opinion.

Les Montgomery and Susan Avery both had recent LTEs in the Reformer about the proposed skateboard park at the Crowell location, and cited several reasons to explore an alternate site.

Ms. Avery further suggested that no alternate site solution had been offered. She went on to say: “Neighbors of the Crowell Lot and concerned citizens of our town must continue to collaborate in working toward finding alternate locations for this activity. We need a better place; better yet, we need to come together for a “win-win” resolution.”

Here’s my suggestion:

To the editor,

I’m pleased that legislators have agreed to decriminalize possession of marijuana, but the conversation shouldn’t end here. Marijuana is a much safer substance than alcohol or hard drugs, and that’s one reason legislators should move swiftly to begin regulating-and taxing-this market similarly to the way we regulate alcohol.

As Attorney General William Sorrell explained at public hearings on the decriminalization bill, it would be better if users had a legal way to obtain marijuana rather than continuing to buy it from the illicit market. Sorrell suggested decriminalizing possession of a small number of plants, which would make a lot of sense, but ultimately the best solution is to allow regulated cultivation and sale of marijuana to adults who wish to use it.

How Well Is Medicare Plan D Working For You? How well is Medicare Plan D working for U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and U.S. Congressman Peter Welch? (all over age 65)

I received this letter from my current Medicare Plan D today, simply dated, “May 2013”  so  I have no idea what day of the month they actually sent it.

I took my family to the Top of the Hill Grill for dinner on Tuesday night around 7:00 pm. Just before we arrived, apparently someone walked off with the staffs tip money, jar and all!

If anyone at that time noticed that happening, I would hope that they would tell someone anything that might bring the theives to justice. Maybe a description or a licence plate #.

Cornel, how am i doing?

TITLE:
IF Our Re-elected Prez is WarCriminal, What Are We? King would have asked! by jay janson

DESCRIPTION:
Cornel West, most outspoken anti-imperialist and defender of Black and minority civil rights since Martin Luther King now says Obama is a war criminal, a black puppet of corporate plutocrats, head of the US killing machine. Will West tell us that King said America, Americans, are responsible for the atrocity wars, being capable of making them unacceptable and inoperable through non-participation and conscientious objection?

DESCRIPTION:
 Presiding Judge, “he knew about everything that was going on and he did not stop it, despite having the power to stop it from being carried out.” US President Ronald Reagan also had the power, greater power, to stop the massacres being perpetrated by dictator General and President Ríos Montt.  Instead visited him in Guatemala City and praised Rios Montt as “a man of great personal integrity and commitment. Who was more guilty?

t

Shumlin’s List

If the ” Nazi’s”  over at the Vermont Board of Medical Practice and the “Nazi’s”  “we” elected to the Vermont State Legislature would stop telling doctors how much prescription pain killers they can (and can NOT) prescribe, and stop hounding and stalking patients and trying to falsely accuse them of “selling” the scant few prescription painkillers they are allowed, while simultaneously the Police are scanning the Vermont  Prescription Drug Monitoring plan  patient history so they can harrass the patients; if all this wasn’t going on, do you seriously think people would want a Lethal Injection if they had enough prescription painkillers to be comfortable?

Referring to front page article in today’s Reformer 5/15/13 “Clements also said that the plans are only on paper at this time and machinery or changes in drainage could have a further impact on the trees. These two trees will be trashed. I don’t see any other way around it, ” said Clements. The Reformer article neglected to mention one of the trees to be removed as a consequence and unlikely to survive the construction of the proposed skatepark project is the majestic Norway Spruce many have come to identify with Crowell Lot as one of the original estate trees that has up to now survived at least two major hurricanes, Irene most recently, and has often been the center of this contoversy and a primary example of what’s at stake for those wanting to defend the right to preserve the park as a green area and natural tree lined setting void of excess concrete. 

“But what can I do?”  It’s a question that comes up a lot in conversation and one I’ve grappled with in recent months as  I’ve tried to figure out a response to it.  When nothing we do seems to make any difference, why should we even care what’s going on let alone try to do something about it?  Or to put it another way, what is an ordinary person to do in the face of the kind of unsettling news that has become routine in the last ten years?    

DESCRIPTION:
Antiwar leaders do not call for the prosecution of US homicidal crimes against humanity ALREADY committed in Syria, nor of crimes committed in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Grenada, Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Cuba, Lebanon, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Guatemala, Congo, Korea and Greece. Crimes committed without arrest, arraignment, indictment, punishment, imprisonment, or hanging

TEXT:
 Antiwar leaders protest, “Hands off Syria!”, but do NOT call for the prosecution of US homicidal crimes against humanity ALREADY committed in Syria by CIA, State Department, Congress, the Executive branch and investment bankers.

A recent LTE from Putney resident Elan Moses contained too much misinformation to be useful (Governor’s misguided views on gun control).

While his point that Vermont’s lack of gun legislation opens the door to many abuses, his suggestions for curing this were naïve and disingenuous.

“It does not mean we do not make efforts to make it harder to acquire semi-automatic weapons here in
Vermont”. I don’t think he has any idea what a Semi-Automatic firearm really is. (Unfortunately, this attitude is widespread in America. The very word “semi-automatic” has a high scare factor despite the fact that the
overwhelming majority of hunting rifles used in the USA today are semi-automatic).

The citizens of Brattleboro had rejected the Police Fire Station proposal at least three times, as I best remember, over a ten year peiod. I was aghast again to find not only was the town and Slectboard was pushing this, the town and Selectboard knew that if they gave it the voters it would be rejected. This was the opinion of the Selectboard.

They then had the town representatives vote on it.  When I spoke to representives in my district, he  said, “I’ll vote the way I want, regardless of what you would like.”  This is the most egregious example of the town representatives. He was absolutely in favor of the Police Fire station regardless of what the people in his district wanted. I aksed him if he would reconsider and put this before a town wide vote, and he said, “No, I have made up my mind. And the citizens don’t have the information they need to make an informed decision.” 

Open Letter to Governor Peter Shumlin:

Dear Governor Shumlin,
If you would please read the Vermont Journal, page 6A, May 1, 2013, you will find that Vermonters are outraged and angry at your Administration.

I join them in their written protest against over-regulation.

I just had the quintessential bad experience trying to return a rug to Macy’s; hard to reach customer service, no call backs, endless e-mails, and then being told the rug was not returnable because the 30 day period had expired (due to Macy’s own unavailability and failure to respond).

Because our struggling little hamlet is not without her own public relations and customer service issues, I am with the hope that it will hit a mark and make a difference for the better.