BRATTLEBORO - There's a new tool to help people escape abuse. Available at bit.ly/746-help, it's an online guided interview that helps Vermonters prepare forms to ask for protection from abuse.
According to Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont, the tool "provides simplified questions and explanations to guide users and ensure more complete and accurate filings. Normally, someone who needs a protection order fills out four paper or PDF forms to give to the court. Now they can use their smartphone or computer to work through one web-based, guided interview." They say those seeking help may also visit that website if they want to talk to an advocate about abuse they are experiencing.
For other general civil (noncriminal) legal information and help finding free and low-cost civil legal aid, help, and services, visit Vermont Legal Aid and Legal Services Vermont's website at vtlawhelp.org.
This Town and Village item was submitted to The Commons.
Obituaries • James Anthony Eno, 93, of Westminster. Died Dec. 15, 2023 at Springfield (Vt.) Health and Rehabilitation Center, following a short illness. He was born on July 9, 1930 in Bellows Falls to Charlie Eno and Theresa DeNuzzi. James graduated in 1948 from Bellows Falls High School, and...
Brattleboro Community TV (BCTV) has hired current Springfield Area Public Access Television (SAPA-TV) executive director and Brattleboro resident Johnny Gifford as their new leader. "We could not be more excited to have found Johnny, and for the new perspectives and opportunities he'll bring to the BCTV community. He has...
Two electronic music performance concerts will celebrate synthesizers, circuit-bending, and sound manipulation on the second Saturdays of the first two months of 2024 - Jan. 13 and Feb. 10 - at Stage 33 Live, 33 Bridge St. Each session will open with a meet-and-greet at 6 p.m., where concert-goers can get a close look at the gear, talk with the performers, and settle in. Five 20-minute performances will begin at 7 p.m. The players will be in the center of...
On Dec. 23, I, joining many others, attended the Pliny Park (Brattleboro) protest of the Israeli bombardment of Gaza. I think it is irrefutable that the Hamas attack on innocent Israeli citizens on Oct. 7 was horrific and an abomination. In my opinion, however, the actions of Israel's Netanyahu-led right-wing government have been an abomination for years now, encouraging more and more Israeli settlement of Palestinian lands. Also, I believe the unquestioning support of the U.S. for Israel, and the...
The Brattleboro boys' ice hockey team got off to a rough start, but they are starting to pull things together. On Dec. 20 at Withington Rink, the Bears lost in overtime to the Amherst-Pelham (Mass.) Hurricanes, 3-2. Even though it was a loss, coach Eric Libardoni was happy with the effort. This was a game where both coaches had a legitimate beef with the officiating. There were 17 penalties in the game - nine for the Bears and seven for...
Mitchell-Giddings Fine Arts, 183 Main St., invites everyone to "Masterworks: The Inside Story," a reception and conversation with artist and master printer Dan Welden, on Saturday, Jan. 6, at 4 p.m. As his exhibit "Dan Welden Solo 100" (open through Jan. 14) draws to a close, the public is invited to view more than 50 "masterworks" - impressions, or prints pulled by hand by Welden -as he recounts personal tales, anecdotes, and the intimate details of his collaborations with artists...
Garden Path Elder Living recently received a Creative Aging Grant award from the Vermont Arts Council. The grant will fund the "Wisdom in Our Community" program for residents at Bradley House, Garden Path's Level III Residential Care Home. The Wisdom in Our Community program consists of arts-based projects that elicit personal and family stories. The program will be led by teaching artist Susan Rosano, who will provide arts instruction and memory prompts to the residents. Participants will learn how to...
Brattleboro Union High School senior Ben Berg has received a congressional nomination to the Air Force Academy. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., and Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt. recognized 19 young Vermonters who are being nominated to be members of the class of 2028 at U.S. service academies. The nominees were recognized at a reception at the Vermont State House on Dec. 30. Applicants to the academies - the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, the United States...
Latchis Arts begins the new year with a pair of film series. The Movies for Kids program returns Saturday, Jan. 6, with screenings of family-friendly films by donation on Saturdays and Sundays at 11 a.m. The series opens on January 6–7, at 11 a.m., with The Lego Movie. This "hilarious and heartfelt" 2014 release features Emmet (Chris Pratt), an ordinary Lego figurine who always follows the rules, but then gets mistakenly identified as an extraordinary being who is key to...
The Putney Public Library, 55 Main St., presents a pair of Putney writers on Thursday, Jan. 11, at 6:30 p.m. This event is free. Carolyn North had been living in Berkeley, California, until a year and a half ago when she returned to Putney, the place she says she loves the best in the world. She is the author of 18 published books, and has taught improvisational dance as a healing modality in Berkeley for four decades. North will read...
Members of the Saxtons River Art Guild (SRAG) will display their work in three southern Vermont locations during January and February. These exhibits feature a variety of media, including watercolor, oils, acrylics, and colored pencil, as well as varied subject matter. Currently on display at the Rockingham Medical Group at 1 Hospital Court in Bellows Falls is a solo display of watercolors by Ann Newsmith of Brattleboro, featuring landscapes and florals. Additionally at this site is a group exhibit featuring...
The Sarasa Ensemble presents "French New Wave Baroque" on Thursday, Jan. 11, at the Brattleboro Music Center. The 7 p.m. concert will feature Ashley Solomon, flute; Susanna Ogata, violin; Jennifer Morsches, piccolo cello; Timothy Merton, cello; and John McKean, harpsichord. The "nouvelle vague" of French Baroque music heralded a wealth of chamber music from the likes of Couperin, Jacquet de la Guerre, Mondonville, and others. According to the BMC's news release, "Telemann caught the wave with great panache, resulting in...
The Brattleboro Concert Choir presents "Songs for the People" in two concerts on Saturday, Jan. 13, at 7 p.m. and Sunday, Jan. 14, at 4 p.m. at the Latchis Theatre. According to Music Director Jonathan Harvey, "Songs for the People" is "a concert for this moment in history, consisting of music by living America-based composers that grapples with contemporary issues like climate change, immigration, and racial injustice." Harvey added that "every piece on the 'Songs for the People' program grapples...
Next Stage Arts and Twilight Music present roots, ragtime, and jazz quartet DiTrani Brothers plus Jatoba's multi-instrumentalist /singer Jason Scaggs at Next Stage, 15 Kimball Hill, on Saturday, Jan. 6, at 7:30 p.m. DiTrani Brothers play "bent melodies and driving rhythms, play perilous tunes for the hopeful, with elements of Balkan music and early American jazz/swing," notes a news release. "They deliver both wistful and raucous performances at venues ranging from The House of Blues in New Orleans to DIY...
I am writing to stand with Nancy Braus and Samia Abbass in their respective Viewpoints [Voices, Dec. 20]. The two pieces are related in my view insofar as they express the feelings of both a Jewish woman and an Arab woman at a time of heartbreaking conflict that affects not only Jews and Arabs but all of us. Braus's piece, "For Jews on the Left, a terrible position," speaks to the effect the Middle East catastrophe has had on those...
Due to a performer testing positive for COVID-19, The Baker Street Readers postponed their performances of An Evening with Jeeeves & Wooster from Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 30 and 31, to Friday and Saturday, Jan. 19 and 20. The show will still be performed at the Hooker-Dunham Theater and Gallery, 139 Main St. The Readers are most known for reading Sherlock Holmes mysteries but are changing things up with another of England's famed literary duos. Bertie Wooster and his trusty...
Thank you for covering the priorities of Windham County legislators. Numerous issues were reported about my colleagues, but the only bill described for me was the Vermont State Mushroom bill. I am excited about that bill, which honors not only mushrooms as a symbol of Vermont but also promotes youth engagement in the democratic process. However, as I stated in a recent piece in The Commons: The mushroom bill is not the most important issue the Legislature will be facing...
Not everybody has the strength or capacity to hold the greater/larger picture of the Earth. Not everyone has a big enough heart to encompass the vast amount of pain that Israel is inflicting. The people who are being killed are my brothers, sisters, and children. We are of one flesh, one being, one life. The children who have lost their short lives or have been maimed or wounded by the bombs, shootings, and rough treatment are the saddest loss, for...
I appreciate the local writings of Dan DeWalt, Tim Stevenson, and others who try to bring fact, common sense, reason, and human decency into addressing the disasters we are facing throughout our crumbling world. It's becoming increasingly difficult to bring people together to address the problems we face because we lack common ground, hindered by increasingly locked-in religious, cultural, political, and ego-protecting beliefs. Most of us fall back on some or all those beliefs when we feel cornered and don't...
Watching history sadly repeat itself, I recently had the following scary thought: It wouldn't take a huge leap of my imagination to envision the Republican Party being willing to run Adolf Hitler as a presidential candidate if that would give them the power that they are so desperate to seize. Scientific studies have apparently shown that the human brain operates on a negative bias in order to survive, so it's an easy political card to play to get the scared,
A recent political cartoon pictures President Biden dressed as Santa Claus standing in front of a present-laden Christmas tree with a family in their living room. His presents include things such as reduced unemployment/more people employed, inflation down to pre-pandemic levels, low gas prices, etc. The family is depicted rejecting his offers, saying something to the effect of "No, we're not buying it!" This captures comically yet frustratingly the kind of headlines one sees these days of Biden's approval ratings...
At first I thought I would refrain from debate sparked by the atrocities of Oct. 7. I felt appalled that, from the safety of Vermont, warmed-over "party-line" polemics are being thrown around, which is of no benefit to Palestinians or Israelis whose survival is at risk. But finally, driven by the increasing normalization of antisemitism and acceptance of Hamas as "freedom fighters" (even by some politically active Jews), I had to speak out. Is anti-Zionism antisemitism? Can any informed person...
Rachael Morse's life is a testimony to hard work, determination, and never, ever giving up despite life challenges that many, even most, would find insurmountable. The 36-year-old Brattleboro native just graduated magna cum laude from Southern New Hampshire University with a bachelor of science degree in geoscience. Morse's thirst for knowledge is never-ending: "Statistics, physics, chemistry, coding computers - I love learning about it all," she says. While graduating from college honors achievement for a student of any age, it...
Fran Lynggaard Hansen, a Brattleboro native with deep connections to local history and to people everywhere, is a Commons reporter and columnist. The Chinese town of Hangzhou is the place where centuries ago the silk industry began. Since it was only a few hours from the school where I worked, I took a bus there for a long weekend and explored the city's many silk museums and traditional gardens. When traveling alone, I begin with a list of must-see places...
Susan Avery is the author of Addicted: Our Strength Under the Influence, published in 2023 under her pen name, Annie Augustus Rose. She is a facilitator for Nar-Anon Family Groups. Dear Son, My December birthday came and went last week. I thought I might've heard from you, but I did not. And then came Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and, as family and friends gathered at home to celebrate, there was something missing. I didn't hear from you. I know...
The closure of Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) Good Buy Thrift Stores in Springfield and Bellows Falls leaves what could potentially be a huge hole for helping financially struggling individuals and families get necessary clothing, furniture, and household goods. To prevent that outcome, SEVCA has announced the implementation of a new partnership with thrift stores throughout Windham and Windsor counties. Stores participating in the Thrift Store Network voucher program, which started Jan. 1, will honor SEVCA-issued vouchers given to qualifying...
It's taken over 20 months, but Rolling Twenties cannabis dispensary, at the junction of Darby Hill and Rockingham Road (Route 5), had a soft opening on Jan. 1, and its grand opening is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 6. Rolling Twenties is owned by Joe Ruggiero, under 802 420 LLC. Pat Greenleaf will manage the store with a full staff of six, including two cannabis experts known as budtenders, who have experience at other dispensaries around the country. Ruggerio is a...
The writer adds: "I'd like it to be known that in submitting this letter for publication consideration, I appended 12 references to it." I want to make it clear at the outset that war and violence of any sort horrify me. For the U.S., I believe war is merely everyday business. We have a voracious and rapacious military-industrial complex (MIC) that requires constant care and feeding. I don't think our government in Washington cares where death and destruction take place,
The story of Jacob Estey begins like a Charles Dickens novel: Born into poverty in 1814, the late New Englander was farmed out as a child laborer at age 4 and ran away at age 13, only to establish a namesake local company that became the largest organ manufacturer in the world. Estey sold pump models to families seeking entertainment in the days before electronics, as well as pipe instruments to such luminaries as automaker Henry Ford, who rolled into...
What will it take before the state decides that the benefits of cleaning out the rivers will outweigh the damage that flooding every 5{1/2} months causes? Also, how about the state/town taking the opportunity to purchase Wheeler Field (across from the bowling alley) while it's for sale to help with water levels? With the 100-year floods turning into less-than-six-months floods, maybe it's time to act before it's too late. Julie Moore Wilmington This letter to the editor was submitted to...
Retreat Farm is mourning the loss of its beloved Carlos, the nearly-2,000-pound, 7-foot-tall ox who was born on the farm where he became the iconic greeter for thousands of visitors over his lifetime. So are dozens of Carlos's human friends in the area. "If you don't live here, you may not know just how many people love Carlos and what an institution he has been," wrote Allyson Wendt on Facebook. "He will be sorely missed." Wendt added: "To echo another...
As I watched, from the sidelines, the Dec. 23 protest on Main Street in Brattleboro, I saw someone holding a small cardboard sign that helped me feel a little better about what I was witnessing. The sign read, "Yes Israel, Yes Palestine." Yes, that's a message that I would feel good sending out to the world. Yes, I want the fighting to stop; I want all sides to sit together and make peace. Yes, I, too, am horrified by all...
Protesters chanting, "Ceasefire now," "Shut it down," and "No more money for Israel's crimes," closed off Brattleboro's Main Street for more than an hour on Saturday, Dec. 23, one of the busiest shopping days of the year. After a brief rally in a small downtown square, the group moved into Main Street, where about a dozen activists blocked traffic with signs and images of babies killed in Gaza, while some 50 people lined the sidewalk chanting and singing in support...
I generally agree with Elayne Clift and Nancy Braus. And they have every right to express their opinions; it's called freedom of the press as per our Constitution. We are blessed to live in a democracy. The Trump-style bashing of journalists or anyone else we don't agree with is unfortunate, to say the least. Phillip L. Cutting Guilford This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
First off, on panhandling: We - my disabled husband and I - lived in a canvas tent up Putney Road from 2021 to 2023. Not once in our two years of being homeless did we ever need to panhandle for anything. Neither of us work. We have very little income from SSI (Supplemental Security Income) and SSDI (Social Security Disability Insurance), and we fall below the poverty line. Since we choose not to spend our money on drugs or alcohol,
The Crowell Art Gallery, 23 West St., will kick off its 2024 exhibition schedule with the Robert L. Crowell Art Collection. Bob Crowell was a strong supporter of the arts, and shortly before his death in 2001, he traveled to southern Vermont in search of works he felt reflected the vast diversity of the artistic culture of the area. The gallery, once a 200-year-old barn owned by the library, was transformed into an eclectic art venue by Crowell and his...
For the first time, Vermont's affordable housing and homelessness advocates have joined forces and are calling for more than $200 million in public funding to address the state's housing and homelessness crises. Prioritizing the urgent need for more permanently affordable housing - housing built on the condition that rents will always be capped - the Housing & Homelessness Alliance of Vermont (HHAV) is asking the Vermont Legislature for $160 million in one-time funding for the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board...