The issue of Marlboro College's future has elicited considerable discussion, which is all to the good. Indeed, this has been the College's hope as it seeks the best possible future for its students, its faculty and staff, its property, and the continued support of its alumni.
Such discussion and the acknowledgment of the loss and grief that many of us, understandably, feel are both necessary and totally understandable. And our hearts go out to all of our neighbors who are experiencing this sense of loss as we are.
What is far less good - and, indeed, disparages us all -is when that grief is channeled into anger, leading to personal attacks on individuals, and particularly on College President Kevin Quigley.
These incidents are particularly unfortunate given that the actions of Quigley and his administration have been such a far cry from those of so many other colleges in similar straits that, by contrast, failed to engage with their students and faculty, failed to treat them with dignity, and left no enduring legacy when they closed their doors.
Compassionate Brattleboro endorses, in the interest of compassion, Brattleboro Common Sense's efforts to articulate the Brattleboro area community's longing for, and commitment to, a world that is healthy, fair, and caring for all.
In 1995, Teresa Savel met Pulliyah, an energetic 8-year-old orphan boy staying at a boarding-school hostel in the Indian state of Telangana. Pulliyah was sharing the 16-foot-by-16-foot cement-floor room with 50 other boys in grades 1 through 10. This school and hostel had been founded and administered by Father...