Phayvanh Luekhamhan
When foliage is the only color we’ll see
I keep coming back to the question I frequently hear asked: "Why is Vermont so white?"
It's often accompanied by head scratching or a shoulder shrug, as if the phenomenon of our whiteness is inherent as part of our DNA - a natural law - and not something that can be reasonably explained. Vermont has historically been among the top three U.S. states with the highest percentage of white residents. The 2022 Census lists us at 93.8% white.
First Christmas
A young Lao girl can’t remember her first holidays in a new land, but the real gift endures
How does one forget 30 years of time? It happened to me in 2009, when I realized that my family had been in the U.S. for 30 years as of that previous Thanksgiving. I have no recollection of our arrival in America, which city we landed in, how long...
First Christmas
She came to Brattleboro from Laos as a young girl and can’t remember her first holidays in a new land. But the real gift endures more than 30 years later
How does one forget 30 years of time? It happened to me. During a conversation a few years ago, I realized that my family had been in the U.S. for more than 30 years now. I have no recollection of our arrival in America, which city we landed in,
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A time to reflect about what’s essential
I often hear derision for people who follow the pack - I've been one of them. I've had my snarky, self-inflating moments, calling folks “lemmings”, or worse, “sheeple.” Not to their faces, mind you. I now admit that it's cowardly behavior, lacking any respect for the individual decisions that make up the mass phenomenon of herd mentality. Using the words “lemmings,” “sheeple,” “pack,” and “herd” reduces people to animals and mitigates any shame I might feel for the name calling.
Violence and nonviolence
I got rid of TV for a reason: so as to rid myself of the mesmerizing yet seductive footage of 9/11 and other such tragedies, and especially those of war and disaster. Maybe I wanted to be in a cocoon, safely protected from the depravity of the real, outside world. Since leaving the plugged-in world, I found more time to meditate, to write, and dream. But now I'm on Facebook and having 1,000 or more “friends” (I prefer to think...
First Christmas
How does one forget 30 years of time? It happened to me. During a recent conversation, I realized that my family had been in the U.S. for 30 years now, as of last Thanksgiving. I have no recollection of our arrival in America, which city we landed in, how long we waited in lines, or who met us at the airport. How strange it must have felt for my parents, scanning the metal and concrete buildings for something familiar: a...