Bert Picard is an activist, having retired as a Teamster truck driver who has organized with various unions and a workers' center over the decades.
GUILFORD-So the coup has happened.
GUILFORD-It never ceases to amaze: even the many who think of themselves as "left" or "progressive" think nothing of shopping all the time at Amazon. Oh, it's so convenient! Yes, but - while we spout off about human rights and such and rant against Trump and his oligarchs who...
GUILFORD-I congratulate The Commons on presenting two views on the Acceptable Community Conduct Ordinance in a clear, well-argued format. These kinds of debates are vital to our community, and The Commons serves us well. That is why I was surprised that you printed the letter "Concerns over software amount...
GUILFORD-This last election proves once again that the Democratic Party is like Lucy with the football - and we are Charlie Brown. The Kamala Harris we saw in the first week of her campaign, who seemed like a real human being, a breath of fresh air after all the darkness and rage and fear coming from Trump, was quickly put back under wraps by the party handlers and sages. She had to appeal to white wealthy Republicans, of course, not...
GUILFORD-Today, it is Gaza that burns. And tomorrow? The story of civilization is full of sieges, atrocities, massacres... European colonialism, the African slave trade... the genocide of the original inhabitants of the Americas... the Holocaust... today, the atrocity in Gaza is the face of colonial civilization. And it is today that a new generation faces the barbarism presenting itself as civilization and shouts, No! Stop! Not in our name! A new generation of rebels is born. Yet the war machine...
These are difficult days for the rule of democracy, openness, fairness, and just plain decency. Every day it seems the bar is lowered with no end in sight. This can make us feel powerless, at least at effecting positive change at the world or national level. Yet we have the important power in our hands to safeguard our values close to home, in our local communities, and that is where we can start. I truly hope we in Newfane will...
Congratulations on your reporting on antifa and white supremacy in southern Vermont. I appreciate the difficulty of reporting from sources that must remain anonymous. You courageously did not let that stop you, and you brought our community very important information. And you handled the delicate matter of the doxxed white supremacist well. It would have been easier, I am sure, to just not deal with this, but you chose to inform us of all you knew and to tell us...
If we as white Americans - presumed, I suppose, to be “well intentioned” toward our sisters and brothers of color -want to understand Trumpism, may I suggest we have but to read James Baldwin, who already in the 1960s and '70s had Trump's number? In truth, he foretold Trump's coming. Because Trump is America, writ large. No, we are not “better than that.” I dare to say, as a white man and as one who has read Baldwin, that Trumpism...