BRATTLEBORO-Several recent commentaries in The Commons about the situation in Gaza are deeply problematic. And while many people have responded to these opinions to help set the record straight, there are still not enough voices decrying Israel's actions in the Gaza Strip.
It is deeply offensive to present Jewish opinion about the events in Gaza as monolithic. Any claim that suggests all Jewish people - in Israel or in the U.S. - share the same point of view about the actions of the Israeli government is patently wrong.
In fact, there are countless Jewish individuals Jewish-led groups who oppose the ongoing genocide in Gaza. Jewish Voice for Peace is one local example among many across the world.
The mainstream press calling what's happening in Gaza a "war" is propagandistic to its core. What is taking place in Gaza could be appropriately called genocide, ethnic cleansing, or collective punishment, it is not a war.
On June 30 (or earlier if people vote by mail), voters in Putney, Brattleboro, Dummerston, and Guilford, the four towns that make up the local school district, will vote on the school budget. There are a number of reasons why a yes vote on this budget is crucial. The...
As we pass another International Workers' Day, we find ourselves in yet another economic crisis. Ostensibly, this crisis is different, spawned by an unseen biological agent rather than the standard dose of late-stage capitalist destruction. But one could argue that workers are now being victimized by both. As the...
Before getting into the behavior of some Brattleboro adults, the students who protested at Saturday's Strolling of the Heifers parade [story, A1] deserve our attention and our accolades. They join the ranks of those before them who used civil disobedience as a tactic to fight injustice. Acts of civil disobedience helped African Americans gain basic human rights, it helped people with disabilities gain access to resources and services that had been denied them, it made a significant impact on the...
Having just passed another International Workers' Day on May 1, it's a good time to take stock of the condition of workers in the United States. We find politicians and the ruling class drooling about low unemployment and a booming economy. Who are the true beneficiaries in this economy? Workers' wages have been largely stagnant for decades. The country's (and the world's) wealth has been transferred to a tiny fraction of the population. Large swaths of the United States are...
It's hard to fathom the idea that Christopher Columbus is still honored with a holiday, given what we know about his actions against indigenous populations. After quite a bit of recent scholarship on the subject, we know that Columbus ordered his men to cut the hands from Taino people who did not return with gold for the European invaders. We know that Columbus immediately set out to create a system of enslavement in the Caribbean. We know that within a...
According to Bob DePino, people are best saved from gun violence by adding more people with guns to the general population. By adding more people with guns (and presumably more guns) into Vermont's communities, we will all be able to rest more easily. It is very hard to see the logic in this argument. He seems certain that “killers,” as he refers to them, will avoid heavily armed places and - rather than committing mass murder - will decide, instead,
While it's always nice to have a day off from work, U.S. Labor Day finds our country's workers having very little to celebrate. The United States is a country divided along class lines, with one reality for the rich and a very different reality for everyone else: • More than half of public school students live in low-income households, a number that has increased by 20 percent over the past few decades. • Average CEO pay in the U.S. is...