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Senator Gannett remembered
Editor of the Reformer:
Every community benefits by having doting god parents, and I would like to propose that Senator Robert T. Gannet has been just that for us.
My contacts with Bob were mostly through my work in the non-profit world. I would suggest that few have done more than Bob to make our community a good place to live, to work, and to raise a family.
He moved with quiet dignity, expressing his care in many ways. With the late Helen Harris, he helped Youth Services establish its program for run-away youth. When Windham Child Care Association faced fiscal challenges in the late 1990s, he helped the agency find resources that enabled it to continue and strengthen its work with families and providers for quality child care in the area. Bob Gannett’s name is found on plaques and in annual reports all over the county. The skating rink, the hospital, many of the hundreds of non profits in Windham County are indebted to him.
For decades, Bob guided grants from the Dunham-Mason and Crosby Foundations. He helped found the Snelling Leadership Institute to develop future Vermont leaders of the caliber of his colleague Governor Snelling. He was a founding member of the Brattleboro Rotary Club, whose good works and service are legion.
Thank you, Bob, for your long and loving service to Vermont and especially to this community. We will not forget you.
Elizabeth
Putney, Aug. 29
Remembering Lynn
Editor of the Reformer:
I want to express gratitude to my dear friend, Lynn Corum, who passed away on Aug. 29. In our creative endeavors, Lynn was one of the best, easiest, and most enjoyable people to work with that I have ever had the pleasure to know -- a genuine treasure.
Lynn and I agreed on almost every goal we had for our community, and for the world. However, we disagreed about almost every way in which we might reach those goals, though that made our friendship all the stronger. This demonstrated to me that we have much more in common than our perceived differences might suggest. When asked by Pastor Joe Amico of First Congregational Church in West Brattleboro about what she thought happened between Republicans and Democrats in heaven, she replied, "It won’t matter. That’s a petty human thing."
Fare thee well, Lynn. While I now experience deep sorrow and thanks as I say goodbye, I suspect that there is one amazing welcoming party going on somewhere else.
Daniel Kasnitz,
Bratleboro, Sept. 2
Support for Dunbar
Editor of the Reformer:
I am writing to share my excitement about Emmett Dunbar who is running for Vermont State Representative from the mountain area. I have known Emmett and his family intimately for the last three years and casually for six. I got to know him first by visiting the Anjali Farm stand at the Londonderry Farmer’s Market, and later when my daughter attended the West River Montessori School with his daughter.
Emmett is deep listener, a smart thinker and passionate about his community. He is a man who is close to the earth and knows the regular, every-day people of who live here. He is also a man devoted to serving others and bettering the world we live in. I will be voting for him to represent me in the Statehouse. I hope you will do the same.
And if you haven’t yet ... get to know Emmett, you will be pleased.
Jeremiah Burrow,
Jamaica, Aug. 31
Singin’ Irene away
Editor of the Reformer:
On Aug. 28, 2011, Tropical Storm Irene tore through Vermont, putting the Latchis Theatre out of commission for nearly seven weeks, and affecting hundreds of businesses and households in Windham County.
One intense year later, on Aug.28, 2012, the Latchis Theatre was packed for a fun-filled screening of "Singin’ in the Rain," a communal commemoration of the one year milestone.
Not surprisingly, our community didn’t just celebrate, but also remembered those who are still burdened with the after effects of the flooding. While the movie was free, donations were accepted to benefit the Southeastern Vermont Long Term Recovery Committee. The donation box was literally stuffed full of cash and checks, and the miraculous total came to $1,089.86.
Thanks to everyone who came out, especially the kids and their parents on what was, for many, the first school night of the season. What fun it was to remember the great experience it is to share a movie in a packed house. Thanks for clapping for the musical numbers. Thanks for agreeing that "Singin’ in the Rain" was the perfect way to wave good-bye to the year of Irene.
Gail Nunziata,
managing director,
Latchis Arts, Aug. 27
Get angry for change
Editor of the Reformer:
Sometimes you need to see things with your own eyes before you really understand. As I was standing in the grocery line the woman in front of me took an inordinate amount of time and all she bough was two packs of cigarettes ... with food stamps(!).
What is going on in this country that we are paying for her cigarettes and inevitably her future healthcare? Multiply that by millions. The same day the Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent article -- "Are Entitlements Corrupting Us?"(Sept. 1, 2). The article would not have had nearly the effect on me if I had not just witnessed the corruption first hand.
I am not blaming any political party for this, I think we are all responsible, but I think there is a much better chance that Romney can change this nonsense than Obama. We all need to get angry before things will change, we can’t just accept "that is how it is" if we want to live in a more sensible country.
Marcia Leader,
Putney, Sept. 2
So what of our future?
Editor of the Reformer:
As the elections grow closer and there is nothing to hear but endless and mostly meaningless blather I remember the time years ago when a woman called me in response to a letter, and reminded me that one of the most dangerous things our country thrives on is the deliberate disconnection between foreign and domestic policies.
As long as those in power speak only about abortion or welfare, can anyone (but the American Friends Service Committee, or the War Resistors League) know that "the total cost or war since 2001 is over $3 trillion, or $1,000 a minute? That we have over 1,000 military bases and are building new ones called "Lily Pads" in the Pacific? That the U.S. Military budget is more than all other countries combined? That the U.S. Armed forces use about 14 million gallons of oil a day? That since 2011 the reported civilian deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan is 132,000? (Since these numbers have been suppressed the number is surely closer to a million). That, during the 1990’s, about a half million children under the age of 5 died from contaminated water because of so-called sanctions? How can we ever know how many deaths have been caused by the military’s use of "depleted" uranium, since most deaths from cancers and birth defects happen years after people are exposed?
We can know however, that we have contaminated the Earth and its children with radioactive materials more or less forever. There is no end of what we are not told. The U.S. has been responsible for the deaths of at least 6 million people since World war II. Drones, our most recent and to me the most pathological means of killing people, have been responsible for at least 400 civilian deaths, with about a third of them children.
In an article by Thomas E. Woods, called "Military Spending Drains and Distorts Civilian Economy," he wrote that "astronomical military budgets, surpassing the combined military spending of the rest of the world and exceeding many times over the destructive power needed to annihilate every enemy city," were an excess that he called "overkill."
Along with all this, federal spending on education is less than 5 percent of the Federal budget. Kurt Vonnegut was right when he wrote, "the biggest truth to face now is that I don’t think people give a damn if the planet goes on or not ... I know of very few people who are dreaming of a world for their grandchildren."
Jane Newton,
So. Londonderry, Aug. 21
