Stephen Minkin
What the people in Honduras are trying to escape
Traveling in the searing sun and suffering from blistering feet, sickness, dehydration, and fatigue, the refugees coming from Honduras on the so-called Caravan are not the “real bad people” Trump describes. Rather, they are the victims of successive U.S. administrations that put power in the hands of really bad people.
The term “Banana Republic” first referred to Honduras, where the United States sent the Marines at least six times in the last century simply to keep resources and cheap labor in the hands of a handful of oligarchs and giant U.S. agribusinesses.
Ownership of efficient killing machines should be a myth, not a right
Can anyone tell me why people need semi-automatic assault weapons, except to kill others and create mayhem? Can anyone tell me why the Second Amendment, which few people realize was historically connected to the right of settlers to kill Native Americans and take their lands, has anything to do...
Drug dealing in apartments creates environment of stress
I have been told by people residing at the Windham & Windsor Housing Trust apartments over the Brattleboro Food Co-op that they feel victimized by the rampant drug dealing in the building. Some of the complaints include urination in the hallways, the smell of smoking, and a broken security...
More
Helping Bangladesh battle an epidemic of rickets
More than half a million children in Bangladesh are suffering from a crippling form of malnutrition linked to a man-made environmental disaster. In severe cases, their legs buckle at the knees or bow out because mineral-deficient soft bones cannot support their growing bodies when they stand up and walk. If uncorrected, children with rickets will be harmed for life. Rickets is most commonly associated with vitamin D deficiencies mostly caused by insufficient sunlight exposure. But scientific studies in sunny Bangladesh...
An $85 billion bribe for new arms treaty
Recently, more than 100 concerned Vermont citizens co-signed a letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders, asking him to lead the Senate in cutting $85 billion that the Obama administration promised to spend, over the next 10 years, on “modernizing” our thermonuclear weapons arsenal. The $85 billion was a bribe the President agreed to pay in exchange for Republican votes required to pass the New START treaty with Russia. The letter to Sanders noted that “we support the treaty's verification provisions. We...
What will the new board bring to Brattleboro?
Town Manager Barbara Sondag estimated that the town paid $5,000 in dealing with the repercussions of the special article calling for the indictment of Bush and Cheney. While not a trivial sum, the real cost of the elections to the town could be far greater. Three new Selectboard members have joined Dick DeGray, a most conservative member on past boards. Can we expect them to move the board beyond the narrow range of predicable positions DeGray stood for in the...