Jeff Potter
Context is everything
Owing to a production error, the print edition of last week's Commons omitted the byline and author information for "We can break the car's cultural grip," a piece written by Rebecca Jones of Brattleboro.
Jones is a physician practicing in Brattleboro and a member of 350 Brattleboro, a local volunteer group dedicated to climate justice.
Digging out
Power will be out for days for some after a Nor'easter slams Windham County with wet, heavy snow - snapping trees, downing utility lines, closing roads, and slowing life to a crawl
Hours after the snow stopped falling, Windham County continued to dig out from a late-winter nor'easter that dumped 3 feet of snow - or more - in many spots in higher elevations. The storm knocked out power, telephone, cable, and internet for thousands. In the process, residents found themselves...
Sacred cloth
After a devastating shooting in a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Mark Ebenhoch set into motion a mission: to get Section 93, a hugely symbolic and storied rainbow flag, on the ground for a grieving and terrified LGBTQ community
When Mark Ebenhoch heard the news of a mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Colorado Springs, Colorado, he knew what he had to do. The retired Marine and part-time Brattleboro area resident began working the phones and social media from his winter home in Key West, Florida, connecting...
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Freedom of the press — and responsibilities
I can speak only for myself, but I bet other newspaper editors - and particularly editors of editorial pages and op-ed sections like this one - share my perspective that our political landscape is forcing us to question and re-evaluate how we cover political races and what we choose to present in these pages under the guise of opinion and commentary. My current conundrum: To what extent do readers have the right, and to what extent do I have an...
No, it most definitely wasn’t Maggie
Of all the aspects of editing a newspaper, one of the most challenging - and rewarding - is coming up with appropriate art for the Voices section. If I do my job right, I'll find illustrations or photos that will draw readers into a piece, that will be editorially appropriate and compatible with the writing, and that, in short, will enhance everyone's perceptions and experience. When I was preparing to publish Rev. Lise Sparrow's outstanding paean to teachers - and...
Human trafficking: It’s here in Brattleboro, too
Pore over the meticulously detailed court filings of the recent law enforcement action against the Rainbow Therapeutic Spa, and several things will jump out at you. For starters, it becomes obvious that a sting like this one is part of a larger law-enforcement effort - a fact that Detective Lieutenant Michael Studin of the Vermont State Police readily confirmed to The Commons on Aug. 15. “Vermont is just one stop amongst many in the country, and Brattleboro is just one...
A mural with meaning
Sitting at tables under a large tent that provides cover from a strong sun on this summer Saturday, a group of young artists excitedly but quietly work with markers, paint, and other art supplies. Several teens paint on three sturdy wood panels where the stark outlines of large, plain swaths of warm, bright colors have just begun coming into focus. Under the creative guidance of Juniper Creative Arts, a Black- and Dominican-based family arts collective based in Brandon, the young...
American dream
Editor's note: Thanks to the Ethiopian Community Development Council, the nonprofit organization responsible for administering the Afghan refugee resettlement program, we present a series of Voices contributions about the herculean efforts to bring 100 people from across the world to shelter and safety. We had hoped to present these three contributions closer to World Refugee Day on June 20, but - well, sometimes the news has a way of thwarting a newspaper's actual advance planning. Instead, we are deliberately presenting...