Editorials
When he takes the oath of office today, Joseph R. Biden will become the 46th president of the United States of America. President Biden entered the race for the White House endeavoring to restore the “soul” of America, and he now has his work cut out for him.
We think the only appropriate response to the deadly storming of the Capitol, and a President who incited an armed insurrection over blatant lies about election fraud, is blanket condemnation.
More than half a century on from the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., his mission toward a more perfect union lives on — and rests on all of our shoulders.
Do blue lives only matter when Black lives are perceived as the threat to them?
Not so long ago, the dangers posed by global warming and climate change loomed off in the future, allowing Americans to put off finding solutions. But tomorrow has arrived, and the new reality is impossible to deny.
The clock is ticking down on the most disastrous presidential administration this nation has ever endured. In only a week and half’s time, Donald J. Trump will no longer be president. The word “only,” however, is small consolation to the reality that the man who incited a riotous invasion of…
It’s been two weeks since U.S. officials began what ought to be the largest vaccination campaign in the nation’s history. So far, things are going poorly.
The Christmas season is often one characterized by charity. Even Scrooges and Grinches can be convinced to give a little and to help the less fortunate.
Dec. 14 was the 229th anniversary of ratification by the United States of the Bill of the Rights.
Principle: It’s a notion that’s sadly often absent from the form and function of political parties. But for members of the Republican Party who would espouse the priority of country over party — of principle over partisanship — it is gut-check time.
Representatives from nearly every country on Earth met in Paris five years ago and promised to work together in an unprecedented effort to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, with a preferred goal of capping the rise at 1.5 degrees. It took a lot of maneuver…
In his 1979 book about the pilots who would become the first Project Mercury astronauts selected for the NASA space program, author Tom Wolfe introduced an archetype for the sort of courage and competence that it would take to get America to the moon.
Columnists
The Brattleboro Baha’i Community is observing World Religion Day today.
Over the holidays, I really missed television. You know, three channels, or even 12, if you went through VHF. It was all so simple then. If you wanted to watch Cheers it came on just once a week, at exactly the same time, day, and network. Yes, now there are a hundred-eleventy choices, but i…
Two of the greatest words in my world are “Hey Dad ...” Kids are the epitome of sweetness. There is something to the core of a child that you cannot credit to any upbringing, something internal that no parent can take recognition for. I smile when I hear those two magical words, wondering wh…
Any aware person knows that Donald Trump is a lawless miscreant: an authoritarian who can’t see beyond himself; a sociopath incapable of empathy; and a pathological liar. Since his presidential defeat, he has toyed with a coup d’etat by encouraging his followers to invade and occupy the U.S.…
As the Trump administration fades to black and the curtain is drawn, all we’ll have left is a catastrophic mess that hits us on an economic, health, and Constitutional level — a trifecta of pain that will be felt for the next several administrations. I’ve written in the past that there are t…
Many have expressed their feelings of depression. The isolation, the suffering and death, the raging spread of the virus, the division in our nation, the economic uncertainty, and uncertainty of our future, has created “Situational Depression.”
As communities across our nation are grappling with a new awareness of the harm caused by the evils of systemic racism, many are looking to what changes should be made at the local level to better support those who are most harmed. I’m proud that Brattleboro has once again sought to be proac…
It was an interesting contrast to witness the horrifying events in Washington, D.C., on January 6 juxtaposed against what was happening in Montpelier that same day as Vermont legislators were freshly sworn in and settling into their new committees. In fact, work had already begun in December…
Shocked. Dismayed. Saddened. Ashamed. Horrified. Disgusted. Outraged.
“The biggest deficit that we have in our society and in the world right now is an empathy deficit. We are in great need of people being able to stand in somebody else’s shoes and see the world through their eyes.”
More than a few Vermonters have asked over the past four years: Why is Gov. Phil Scott still a Republican?
Growing up in Vermont in the 1950s and ’60s there were a few things we never saw. We did not see Canadian geese, coyotes were just beginning to make a comeback but I never saw any, the opossum had not yet arrived, and we never saw any blue herons. You could say the same for those big turkey …
In response to the Brattleboro area COVID period Unsung Hero recognitions and Teacher Tributes organized by Compassionate Brattleboro and the Reformer, students themselves are now stepping forward to engage in discussions about compassion and their experiences of it. These offerings are the …
Letters to the Editor
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