In the Dummerston revote blocking Vernon's exit from the Union, I voted no in one weird election that made many feel conflicted. First off, Vernon was forced to choose between forfeiting all its assets to the district or lose school choice.
That is a lousy deal, but Vernon was obliged to fold its hand and break away from the Act 46 Study Committee. Every time a woman left me, I never had a vote, so I was determined to make my voice heard in the matter.
In voting my own interests as a Dummerston resident, I decided that allowing Vernon to depart was not going to help the Dummerston school. The dilemma facing Dummerston voters was whether to vote the way we would want Vernon to vote if the situation was reversed, or cast a vote that might help save Dummerston's local control of their school.
What a conundrum! Both Vernon's vote to leave the Union and Dummerston's vote to make them stay was a vote against Act 46. The majority in both towns share the same intent: keep local control of their school.
Tom Buchanan's view that the water protectors at Standing Rock are engaged in a “foolish absurdity” like dogs “barking up the wrong tree” both misses the spiritual force at the center of the indigenous movement and dehumanizes the actors. The assertion that tribal resistance timed out during the permitting...