BRATTLEBORO-The Commons' report in the Jan. 15 issue about a community forum organized by Hank Poitras, aka Planet Hank, touched some nerves, to say the least.
Several points to clarify or correct:
• In distilling remarks from Elizabeth Bridgewater, the executive director of the Windham-Windsor Housing Trust, Marcel characterized the perpetrators of crime and disruption in WWHT properties inflicted on WWHT tenants as "undesirables." Bridgewater wants to make it clear that she did not use that word and that such language is not in keeping with the WWHT's mission and values in describing people.
• Brattleboro Police Chief Norma Hardy said that officers attending the meeting had come "to check that everything was OK due to threats we were made aware of." The uniformed police personnel were not there on their own and in uniform, said Hardy, who did not attend the event so as not to have it "mistaken for a police-sanctioned function."
• And, of course, an obvious correction is our boneheaded mistake in getting the name of Poitras's effort wrong in the headline. "Real Progress" is, of course, the actual imprimatur, as named in the story and as shown in the background of four photos from the event.
Responses ranged wildly to this particular news story, and we plan to explore these reactions more thoughtfully in a column in a forthcoming issue. If you'd like to weigh in privately, send a message to [email protected].
This News item was submitted to The Commons.