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YOUR AWARD WINNING, INDEPENDENT, NONPROFIT SOURCE OF NEWS AND VIEWS
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Voices

Thanks for showcasing some great student essays

By
Martha F. Barkley
Wednesday, March 18, 2015 — Issue 297

What a beautiful page of clear thought by public high school students and huge NASA photo to catch the reader's eye.

Maybe the Leipzig student will decide to return to the USA and help us reduce our national debt? Germany's economy is booming, but maybe Friedemann Schmidt will find work in journalism here in Vermont?

It will be interesting to follow Ryan Taggard, placing second in the state in Sen. Bernie Sanders' essay contest. Will he go on in science and eventually find work at NASA?

Well done to both - and isn't it great that their teacher, Bill Holiday, encouraged all students to give the essay a try? Winning or not, putting ideas on paper helps clarify our thought. Maybe framing good paragraphs of thought even helps determine our life's passion and work?

Thanks for a worthy read and beautiful layout in The Commons.

Voices

The power of protest

By
Mary McCallum

Mary McCallum used to contribute regularly to the commentary series that used to air on...

We have a well-founded fear based on firsthand experience

By
Timothy Belknap

Timothy Belknap describes himself as a "downtown resident and Brattleboro lover." BRATTLEBORO-The yes vote to...

‘Tropes and lies’

By
Eileen Hayes Arama

WEST TOWNSHEND-When I learned, as a girl, about the lead-up to Kristallnacht, I had thought...

Victimizing a merchant over poorly chosen words

By
Phillip Macracken

BRATTLEBORO-The headline made me curious enough to read this one person's opinion of a local...

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Other Great Stories in The Commons

News

Voice and choice

By
Olga Peters
Wednesday, June 10, 2020 — Issue 565

Seth Andrew, founder of Democracy Builders and the new Degrees of Freedom at the soon-to-be former Marlboro College campus, explained the importance of civil lives and middle-class lifestyles. Andrew said his family instilled in him an interest in public life, civic engagement, and public policy. His family's dinner table conversations often centered on public issues. When Andrew reached college, he realized not all people felt obligated to participate in their democracy. This awakened in him the desire to focus on...

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Voices

How did we get into this mess? Look back to Act 60.

By
David Clark
Wednesday, June 21, 2017 — Issue 413

As most people are well aware by now, the Legislature and Governor Phil Scott are at an impasse over the state budget, and the sticking point seems to be Scott's strong desire to utilize the putative potential savings that the new health insurance coverages might generate. More specifically, the governor has based his calculations on what would happen of teachers picked up 20 percent of their premium costs. Well, the dumb farmers and truck drivers down here in Windham Northeast...

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Arts

Climate Change Café screens ‘The Wisdom to Survive’

Wednesday, May 21, 2014 — Issue 255

Post Oil Solutions Climate Change Café screens “The Wisdom to Survive: Climate Change, Capitalism, and Community,” on Tuesday, May 27, at 6 p.m. at Brooks Memorial Library's meeting room. Asking whether humankind has the wisdom to survive its climate change crisis, the film features author, educator, and journalist Bill McKibben; author, scholar, and systems theorist Joanna Macy; environmental lawyer and advocate James Gustave “Gus” Speth, and biologist and environmentalist Roger Payne. The film focuses on how we can live creatively...

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