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White talks about election signs, voting
Editor of the Reformer:
Dear Windham County supporters: The election is once again upon us and we are beginning to see those nasty little yard signs pop up like the daffodils in the spring. They certainly aren’t as beautiful and they don’t smell as nice but they are almost a given every two years. While we would all rather do without them, they have become part of our campaign reality.
So, to my supporters in Windham County, time to dust off the old signs, rescue them from their current duty -- blocking that broken window in the barn, catching the drops from the cat’s food bowl, the temporary roof on the dog house. These are all good and valuable uses but I would ask you to put use them for their original intent from now until the election (perhaps with a break between the primary and the general election) and then they can go back to whatever other useful life they lead.
If you don’t have a sign, or yours is just too ratty to use again, you can pick one up at the Windham County Democratic Headquarters on Flat Street (a good place to visit in any case).
And don’t forget to vote. The primary ballots are now at your town clerk’s office and you can vote there any time up to Aug. 27 or you can vote at the polls on Aug. 28. Then there is the general election on Nov. 6. Voting is important -- make your voice heard.
Jeanette
candidate for Windham County Senator,
Putney, July 27
O’Connor on her candidacy
Editor of the Reformer:
A recent letter to the editor questioned Gov. Peter Shumlin’s endorsement of my District 3 House candidacy and my ties to the community. While I’ll let the governor speak for himself on his support for me, I’d like to share my history with my hometown.
My family has called Brattleboro home for four generations. My great-grandparents came from Ireland to Elliot Street. My grandparents raised my father on Grove and Spruce streets. I grew up on Oak Street (walking to Saint Michael School on Walnut Street and Green Street School) in the house my parents still live in 45 years later.
Yes, after graduating from Brattleboro Union High School I had the opportunity to travel the state and nation as senior advisor to Gov. Howard Dean from the beginning of his state service in 1991 to the end of his presidential campaign in 2004.
But be it my frequent time home to visit my nephews (thanks Daniel, Jacob and David) or help my family continue the town’s Fourth of July parade or my past year volunteering as a town meeting representative and member of Building a Better Brattleboro and the Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation, this town has always been my physical and emotional anchor.
District 3 deserves a representative who understands both problems locally and how to solve them at the state level. Brattleboro-born and Montpelier-ready, I believe I’m the best candidate for the job and welcome anyone with questions to e-mail me at kateoconnorvt@yahoo.com.
Kate O’Connor,
Brattleboro, July 27
Blame the Republicans
Editor of the Reformer:
It was disappointing to see the Reformer (editorial "Fiddling while America burns") join the ranks of those critics of our dysfunctional Congress who engage in the practice of false equivalency by blaming the Democrats and Republicans equally for the unholy mess the Congress is in. It’s not both parties that engage in blockade, obstruction and sabotage so that nothing serious gets passed. It is the Republicans. Don’t take my word for it, but take the words of the two most eminent congressional scholars, Thomas Mann and Norman Ornstein. (Ornstein, by the way, works for the conservative and republican-leaning think-tank The American Enterprise Institute).
They write in their excellent new book, "It’s Even Worse than it Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism": "[T]he Republican Party has become an insurgent outlier - ideologically extreme; contemptuous of the inherited social and economic policy regime; scornful of compromise, unpersuaded by the conventional understanding of facts, evidence, science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the center of American politics, it is extremely difficult to enact policies responsive to the country’s most pressing challenges." There is nothing I can add to this.
Reto Pieth,
Grafton, July 27
Here’s a solution
Editor of the Reformer:
"(Senior Solutions) wanted to consolidate its offices at the Gibson Aiken Center, since it made more sense to be near the seniors, but the town did not have space there." ("Senior Solutions office to close," July 27).
The town does have space there. Senior Solutions’ two-person office at the Gibson Aiken Center is next to a three-person office occupied by two people. The senior solution is that they switch offices and the Senior Solutions case worker at the Municipal Center joins them.
Howard Fairman,
Vernon, July 27
Grega should be free
Editor of the Reformer:
John Grega has already been in jail for 18 years for a murder he may not have committed. New testing from the victim’s body has produced another man’s DNA and the tests have shown a lot of these DNA "fingerprints." So, if Grega has already been thrown in prison for almost 20 years and there are some serious doubts that he is guilty, why not release him now? How long is long enough for a crime he may not have committed? If the authorities that are steadfastly against releasing Grega were dealing with a family member rotting in jail who may be innocent, would they hold to the same ironclad position, refusing to consider he may be innocent? I seriously doubt it. If Grega was a cop or somebody "important" who may be innocent, he’d be out now.
This double standard in our courts is disgusting. When will the public wake up to this? This case is not about Grega only. It’s about the courts acting in an arbitrary manner. Is justice really equal in America? Hello. It’s always the same thing. Apathy rules our society. But, when the crap hits closer to home people wake up. If it’s somebody’s else’s problem, nobody gives a damn.
Tom King,
Shaftsbury, July 30
Kudos on Neighbors
Editor of the Reformer:
Thanks to Becky Karush for an unforgettable Our Neighbors column in today’s edition ("I watched the fervor and mess ..." July 28). She channeled the endearing and enduring spirit of Brooks House in a most remarkable manner. Her words and the photographs of Zachary Stephens brought the building to life, and carried with them hope for the future of this heart of Brattleboro.
Devin J. Starlanyl,
Chesterfield N.H., July 30
