MacLean Gander
Don’t mourn. Organize.
Although the ruling felt tragic, it came as no surprise that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, sending the country back to a time when women died from injuries suffered from wire hangers used to perform illegal abortions.
We already had the memo in early May, in the form of a leaked draft of the majority opinion. We knew what was coming.
Not how things are done in Brattleboro
Yoshi Manale’s brief tenure highlights a paradox: the town needs quick, decisive action on a number of urgent and difficult problems. But our town government is set up to discourage that approach.
I've covered a lot of stories that were difficult to report, but after weeks of covering now-former Town Manager Yoshi Manale's resignation and associated events, I have to say that this has been the most challenging. Part of the reason? No one will talk on the record, except to...
After notice of violation, a race for a cure
In response to a citizen complaint of violation of state public information laws, Brattleboro Selectboard publicly affirms Rescue decisions made behind closed doors but changes process for invoking executive sessions, creating a two-vote process
In April, the Selectboard voted 5–0 to end its contract for emergency medical services with Rescue Inc., setting in motion a new model for EMS that would make it the responsibility of the fire department. But the fire has not yet burned out on that controversy, which has divided...
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Brattleboro town manager will leave the job after five months
Energy, innovation, and deep experience in city governance brought Yoshi Manale to the position of town manager last fall, replacing Peter Elwell, who had served in the role for many years. For a small town with city problems - crime, substance use, homelessness, and poverty - it seemed that Manale would bring new vision and direction to town administration. It did not work out that way. Last week, Manale and the town Selectboard reached a “mutual agreement” that he would...
I feel tired, but I resist the idea of burnout
When I sent a short story by email to The New Yorker about a character who had inherited half a million dollars and decided to put it into gold, I was startled to find that on my various news sites and my Facebook pages the ads became all about ways to buy gold. Then I bought some sweaters and winter clothes, and I began seeing ads from places like Gap, Garnet Hill, and L.L. Bean offering good deals on clothes.
The dogs of war have been unleashed
It is impossible to be a student of history without being a student of war, and this is what I have learned so far, after 45 years of studying both. War starts on impulse; the outcome can never be predicted and the aftermath never understood. War is what happens when all diplomatic means are exhausted. War is what happens when the ability to communicate and find common ground is broken apart. War is what happens when equations of power get...
Christmas is America doing what it does
This is such a happy time of year for some people and such a hard time for so many others - suicide and overdoses go up in this season. Christmas itself has become an orgy of consumerism, with nothing to do with any of its ancient roots - just America doing what it does. If you have kids and don't have money, it's tough, and while these charity programs that provide presents to children who otherwise would not have them...
‘You killed Joe. Enough!’
JoAnne Rodriguez Heckman had already contacted The Commons to talk about what it has been like for her and her husband, Benjamin Heckman, to live at Great River Terrace, in one of the small apartments that replaced the old Lamplighter Motel on Putney Road. They originally talked off the record about the drugs, prostitution, and crime that they witnessed, because they were afraid of retaliation from neighbors in the complex, owned, and operated by the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust.