Nicholas Boke
On generosity and welcoming
Nicholas Boke is a freelance writer and international educational consultant.
It all happened in less than a week
Donald Trump has reversed America’s longstanding commitment and suspended foreign aid programs to help impoverished people around the world try to improve their lives
Nicholas Boke is a freelance writer and international educational consultant. CHESTER-It took less than a week to do so much damage. Less than a week for me to receive André's email with the subject line "Le pire est arrivé" - the worst has arrived. Less than a week to,
The food festival that wasn't really about food
'I'd spent the first three of the day's eight hours and heard nothing but politics. I'd heard nothing about "new ideas to grow your farm or food business." I left.'
Nicholas Boke is a freelance writer and international educational consultant. CHESTER-It all started when a community-action organization emailed concerns in advance of the Liberty Food Fest, which took place at the Bellows Falls Opera House in mid-December. Several of the speakers had reputations as anti-vaxxers and adherents of conspiracy...
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We can’t look each other in the eye
Nicholas Boke is a freelance writer and international educational consultant who lives in Chester. CHESTER-I stood at the polls in Chester on Election Day, as I've stood at polls in various locations over the years, and as a Springfield friend has done. I've always enjoyed greeting the people who come out to vote, who come to take part in the most basic of American democratic processes. Republican, Democrat, or independent, first-time voter or veteran of decades of elections, we always...
Chase can handle complexity of the issues facing region, state
CHESTER-I first saw Heather Chase in action when she was a member of the Chester Selectboard, on a night when they were dealing with a very complicated issue. I was immediately impressed by the depth and breadth of her thinking, her ability to understand a variety of points of view, and her interest in doing what was best for the community. Since she has served as my state representative, I have continued to be pleased with her interest in considering...
The system worked
I hadn't realized how frightened I'd been about the debt-ceiling situation until I found myself sleeping well the night after the House approved the deal struck between President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. I wasn't sure the Senate would pass it, but this was a good sign. In the broadest sense, the really good sign was that the United States wouldn't default on its obligations and, thus, that the world's economic and political underpinnings would not - at...
We need zoning for the Vermont that we are
All that state Rep. Seth Bongartz (D-Manchester) and his colleagues are doing is facing the fact that lovely Vermont just isn’t what it thinks it is anymore. The bill they’re proposing to enable housing development by banning single-family zoning and allowing duplexes and even three-and-four-unit homes in some municipalities just makes sense. A couple of decades ago I began to understand what Vermont had become. Driving from our Weathersfield house to a friend’s place a few miles down the Center...
Dire predictions for Article 22
I figured that if somebody was handing out glossy anti-Article 22 fliers at the Chester Town Office on primary election day, there'd be lots of somebodies handing out glossy anti-Article 22 fliers at other voting stations. I was right. The overstated hypotheticals provided in that flier are just the tack that Vermont pro-lifers had told us a few months ago that they were going to use to oppose the reproductive rights amendment to the state constitution. The amendment (“Proposal 5”)