BRATTLEBORO-I'm lucky. Like many readers, I live in Brattleboro, one of the most open-minded towns in one of the most open-minded counties in one of the most open-minded states in the country.
A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I heard Becca Balint - our sole Vermont U.S. representative and a kick-ass, take-no-prisoners, LGBTQ former schoolteacher - talk about what's actually going on in Washington.
She made it clear that it's as through-the-looking-glass batshit-crazy as we feared. But remarkably, she is undaunted and inspiring.
So, for one of the few times since writing passionate essays against the Vietnam War way back when I was in high school in the '60s, I feel compelled to use at least a few of my words to speak truth to power.
BRATTLEBORO-Hannah Sorila argues that the way to solve many of the town's social problems is to see ourselves as a community instead of a business. At the same time, I can't help but wonder what it would look like if we saw ourselves as a community and a business.
David Blistein, a scriptwriter for documentary films and an author, publishes a Substack newsletter, Fields of Vision, where he is writing "Street Cred," a series of essays that profile the lives and circumstances of his unhoused neighbors in downtown Brattleboro. (Note that he's changed the names he uses here.)
It's very difficult to talk about homeless people without seeming overly idealistic or fatalistic. Or, worse, to seem just clueless. Even the right phrase: homeless, houseless, homeless-by-choice, housing challenged, couch surfing, tent city-ing. To bastardize Leo Tolstoy, "every homeless person is homeless in his, her, and/or their own way." Since I live downtown, I've developed a passing relationship with several people who live downtown - on the street during the day and wherever they can at night. One of them,
At some point when I wasn't looking, the clunky, consonant-riddled word haptic - which has nothing to do with being “happy” - started appearing in system settings for phones and computers. I will share the definition, but clearly, it's a word that only a linguistically passive-aggressive techno-geek could love - the kind of word that people make up when they want to convince people that they are thinking or doing something important (like “pivot,” “leverage,” and “core competency”). Many years...
It was humbling to sit on the Town Common on June 17 and listen to stories of pain and frustration presented by people whose lives have been impacted in negative ways over the years by the Brattleboro Police Department. But it was equally humbling to realize how little I (and perhaps others) know about the people who now work in that department. I've met Chief Mike Fitzgerald once or twice. But I didn't know until recently that he grew up...
I have absolutely no doubt that certain strains of marijuana in certain dosages can successfully treat depression, anxiety, bipolar, and other mood disorders in certain people. As a guy who prides himself on having an open mind, I have no doubt. Nada. Zilch. I measure success by the same standard that we expect from prescription antidepressants: that certain formulations in certain dosages help certain people. Ditto for over-the-counter remedies such as SAM-e, St. John's Wort, 5-HTP, B-vitamins, and amino acids.
If you have a heart attack, you have a heart attack. If you have cancer, you have cancer. If you have diabetes, you have diabetes. These diseases, horrific as they may be, have names. In general, medical professionals know what is going on inside you - and which medicines or procedures might help. Or at least how they work…or why they might not. What we call “depression” has many names. And - despite all the talk of serotonin, norepinephrine, and...