Mutual Aid?
Published February 2, 2011
An agripreneur’s barn burns. A state budget burns the most vulnerable. Who helps whom?
Continue reading Mutual Aid? »
Poli Psy: A Poverty of Solutions
Published December 15, 2008
Vermont is about to push through another round of “child protective” sex-crimes legislation. These laws won’t protect kids. There is a way to do that — but it won’t grab any sexy headlines: attack child poverty.
Continue reading Poli Psy: A Poverty of Solutions »
Poli Psy: Cruel and Unusual
Published August 13, 2008
Hysteria, said Elia Kazan, “is inflamed by mystery, suspicion and secrecy. Hard and exact facts will cool it.” Kazan was wrong about a lot of things — for instance, his decision to inflame anti-communist hysteria by naming names of alleged pinkos during McCarthy’s Hollywood inquisitions. But he was really wrong about this.I come to this [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: Cruel and Unusual »
Poli Psy: “Death Wishes”
Published July 19, 2007
Two weeks ago attorneys for Donald Fell, the first person sentenced to death in Vermont in 50 years, brought an appeal to save his life. Last week, Rachel Lawler, a Woodbury College pre-law student, was convicted of holding a banner reading “Stop Executions” on the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court. These events made me [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: “Death Wishes” »
Poli Psy: “History Happens”
Published June 22, 2007
Some years ago, I clipped a newspaper item about a Vermont girl who was struck by lightning while playing baseball. Her parents sued the Little League. The coach, they alleged, had failed to take the kids off the field in a timely fashion, and thus had not averted a preventable accident. This lawsuit struck me [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: “History Happens” »
Poli Psy: God on Their Side?
Published June 7, 2006
“The Chaplain is not a law enforcement officer, but a representative of God . . . Believing that God is the answer to man’s dilemma, the Chaplain stands ready to bear witness to the forgiving love and redeeming power of God, through Jesus Christ, to all people, especially to those in crisis.” So reads the [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: God on Their Side? »
Poli Psy: Naming Names
Published March 15, 2006
It was Memorial Day 2005 when Ross Connelly, co-publisher and editor of The Hardwick Gazette, decided to use his weekly editorial to name the American soldiers killed in Iraq. By that time, 34 months after the U.S. invasion, the American casualty count was 1735. Connelly headlined the column “In Memoriam.” Trying to squeeze in as [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: Naming Names »
Poli Psy: No Room at the Inn
Published February 15, 2006
The cookies lay uneaten at the Lakeview Union Elementary School on Friday evening, February 3. This was no feel-good gathering. A third of Greensboro (pop. 770, tripled in summer) was meeting representatives of Northeast Kingdom Human Services, which wants to convert the former Lakeview Inn to a residential treatment facility for eight mentally ill patients [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: No Room at the Inn »
Poli Psy: Wrongful Commitment
Published January 18, 2006
On January 4, Vermont District Court Judge Edward Cashman sentenced Mark Hulett to the minimum: 60 days in jail, probation predicated on compliance with 21 conditions, including participation in community-based treatment. Hulett, 34, had pled guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a friend’s daughter when she was 6 to 10 years old. Defending [...]
Continue reading Poli Psy: Wrongful Commitment »
Poli Psy: Burning Compassion
Published December 7, 2005
The response last week to a fire in my town, Hardwick, exemplified everything that’s good about small-town life — in fact, everything that’s good about people in general. Before the fire trucks had left Main Street, townspeople were raising money, donating everything from furniture to new underwear, and making up the beds in their spare [...]