BRATTLEBORO-I must be one of scores, if not hundreds, of readers who were truly shocked to read Linda Hecker's essay about her ordeal of harassment, threats, and the downright cruelty she's endured, particularly since, as she notes, the publication of an accusatory essay in The Commons three years ago. And I sincerely commend The Commons for publishing her tragic account and letting her tell her side of things.
While admittedly I know nothing about her husband, past abuses, and any part she may or may not have played, her account certainly seems credible, and even if it's just mostly true, then she's really been grievously wronged by a lot of people in this "compassionate" town.
I'm quite interested to see the response of other readers who know more than I do about what's happened to her, and whether there's any justification for it.
...
BRATTLEBORO-Recently, a friend and I, each from our own homes, did a half-hour Zoom training to phone bank for Jamal Bowman, the Black Democratic congressman representing lower Westchester county and parts of the Bronx. As many readers know, he's facing a huge challenge in the upcoming Democratic primary there...
Both the ignorance and arrogance of Tim Wessel's cold, completely one-sided, pro-Israeli op-ed are simply breathtaking. Here's one egregious example, particularly of the latter: "I don't believe the [pro-Palestinian] protestors fully understand the politics. I say that many haven't studied the history, and most have been taken in by...
Richard Evers describes himself as "of Jewish heritage but not of faith or belief." On Nov. 26, in The New York Times, the headline for the lead story on the front page reads, "Gaza Civilians, Under Israeli Barrage, Are Being Killed at Historic Pace." The article goes on to state that "Israel's liberal use of very large weapons in dense urban areas, including U.S.-made 2,000-pound bombs that can flatten an apartment tower, is surprising, some experts say. "'It's beyond anything...
There has been such an incredible amount of violence, destruction and, yes, murder (as I write, over 8,500 and counting) in Gaza since the Hamas attack - not to mention over the many previous decades - I think one has to be either numb or willfully blind not to be shocked and cry out "No! Not in our name!" the way over 400 arrested protestors, including members of Jewish Voice for Peace, did at Grand Central Station in New York...
I don't know about you, but I'm feeling overwhelmed by the cascade of bleak news this year from around the world. Incomprehensibly huge forest wildfires in Canada (like the ones in California, or Australia a few years back, remember?). Heat waves, droughts, and floods around the world - including, of course, here in Vermont. The relentlessly destructive war in Ukraine, week after terrible week, that shows no signs of ending. Add to that President Joe Biden's stubbornly low approval ratings...
Thanks to the wonders of interlibrary loan, I'm reading The Place No One Knew, a 1963 Sierra Club book by photographer Eliot Porter, about the incomparable Glen Canyon in Utah just before it was flooded and lost forever, thanks to U.S. Department of the Interior and the thirst of white people in the southwest and California. The book is a series of magnificent photographs opposite memorable quotations. One of these, by famed Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas, particularly struck...
On the March 2 broadcast of NPR's All Things Considered, I heard Linda Thomas-Greenfield, our ambassador to the United Nations (who, by the way, was described as wearing the colors of the Ukrainian flag) say about some anti-Russian resolution she and others were proposing as being part of “a battle for the soul of the world.” Give me a break, please! When the U.N., as it has many times, nearly unanimously passed resolutions condemning, say, U.S. aggression in Iraq or...