Letter Box

Gallery Walk: Brattleboro’s must-see, monthly event

Editor of the Reformer:

Jerry Goldberg, head of Brattleboro’s Chamber of Commerce and an old college friend of my wife, has been telling us to stop by at Gallery Walk for several years. We have lived in Brookline on a seasonal basis for about 15 years, spending the remainder of the year in New York City and Key West. Frankly, although we have modest art collection and my wife is a successful watercolorist, we never felt inclined to spend an evening at the Walk, until last Friday, that is. We had a house guest for the weekend and decided to pass some time at the Walk before dinner at Peter Havens.

We couldn’t believe the wonderfulness of the experience. Highly sophisticated shops and galleries, delightful and helpful clerks and proprietors, lovely young people wandering in and out of the stores: An extraordinary evening of casual and warm enjoyment. I found three pieces which I would love to have in our Key West cottage and my wife and our guest returned on Saturday and bought yet another pair of must-have shoes.

Whether or not one buys, the event in and of itself is unique, delightful and shows Brattleboro off in the best possible light. It was, for us, an extraordinarily pleasant surprise. We have marked our calendars and will not miss another.

Larry Fisher,

Brookline, Aug. 6

A good book has the power to change someone’s

Editor of the Reformer:

On behalf of the Prison Book Project of Hadley, Mass., I would like to give my sincere thanks for the generous donation of books from Everyone’s Books and Brooks Memorial Library. By donating books, these organizations prove their dedication to enabling all people access to written words and literature, despite someone’s income, educational achievement or status as "criminals" in our society.

Prison Book Project donates free, second-hand paperback books to prisoners across New England and Texas. While budget cuts continually decrease the educational and rehabilitative opportunities for people in prison, groups across the country like Prison Book Project are doing their best with minimal resources to help prisoners fill their time with constructive and productive endeavors.

Working with Prison Book Project has made it very clear to me what happens to people who don’t have access to an effective eduction during youth and, worse yet, how we as a culture generally choose to deal with people who don’t succeed in school. From my experience volunteering, I have answered letters asking for everything from children’s books for struggling readers to GED instructional booklets, popular self-help to Islamic and Christian history, Shakespeare to advanced physics. No matter what mistakes people have made, everyone can retain the desire to learn, change and grow.

If you are interested in volunteering or finding out more about the Hadley Prison Book Project, please visit their website at prisonbooks.org. For carpooling information from Brattleboro, please e-mail vermontaction@gmail.com or call Julie at 704-904-4063.

Thanks again to Everyone’s Books & Brooks Memorial. Your donations will help empower people for years to come.

Julie Etter,

Vermont Action for Political Prisoners,

Prison Legal News,

July 25

Nuclear industry’s positive affect on our environment

Editor of the Reformer:

Since coming on line in 1972, Vermont Yankee has produced more than 150 million megawatt hours of electricity and has displaced more than 69 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.

Nuclear power plants like Vermont Yankee provide large amounts of 24/7 base load electricity without burning fossil fuels. They emit virtually no greenhouse gases. On a per-kilowatt comparison with renewable energy sources like wind and solar, the lifetime "carbon footprint" of a nuclear generating plant is about the same as wind and much smaller than solar.

The United States has 104 nuclear reactors in 31 states that produce about 20 percent of our country’s electricity. According to the Nuclear Energy Institute, in 2011, the U.S. nuclear industry prevented more than 613 million tons of carbon dioxide from being released into the atmosphere.

The electric power industry in the United States is responsible for releasing 2.3 billion tons of carbon dioxide into our air every year. Coal-fired power plants are the source of most of these emissions. If all U.S. nuclear reactors were closed they would be replaced by either coal or natural gas generating units, releasing an additional 623 million tons of carbon dioxide each year.

Climate change is a cause for concern, but removing nuclear power from our energy mix would do nothing to protect our environment.

Ben Egnew,

VY employee,

Keene, N.H., July 19

Share the road

Editor of the Reformer:

And now for my annual share-the-road safety letter. Actually, I have been seeing a lot of good safety practices -- cyclists wearing bright clothing and helmets and riding on the right hand side of the road and motorists driving at a reasonable speed and leaving enough room when passing a cyclist.

There is one specific type of situation that still needs attention, and that is pulling out into the road from a driveway, parking lot, or T intersection. Lots of cyclists and motorists either forget to actually stop, or forget to look both ways. We need to stop and then look both ways and then, if it’s clear, pull out. Looking both ways includes looking in the direction you are not planning to go.

Heidi Henkel,

Putney, Aug. 6