Ben Mitchell most recently worked as a corrections educator at the Southern State Correctional Facility in Springfield. He has had a long career as an educational administrator and consultant, and he is publisher of the online magazine Divergents, which celebrates neurodiversity and advocates for those who are neurodivergent. For the story behind this poem, see "I was fired for writing a poem," Viewpoint, Nov. 6.
WESTMINSTER WEST-I remember the first time I saw you - big fella, weird haircut, Medicaid glasses. Lock him up! You could have killed me with one swipe of your left hand, but you were gentle and kind to everyone. If you believe the papers - Bennington Banner - you menaced children with no remorse; "touched her privates" is what they published, but the affidavit only said L and L, not assault. You were drunk and tried to kiss your nieces, you dumb fuck, and they freaked out, but the paper painted you as a monster. Lock him up! They made you go live with your sister in Vernon, and you were not allowed to hang out with your nieces unless that sister was there. But then that sister died. You were left alone in your grief, but your other sister came up from Chicopee, brought her kids to cheer you up, a nice day trip to the beach. Remember the sound of the ocean waves, hot sand, and cool lemonade. But then someone posted a photo on Facebook - wrong sister - Probation and Parole were on you in an instant. Lock him up! They offered you an 11-month minimum for a 10-year bit, and your brother said, "Just take the deal. Eleven months, and you can get on with your life." But you were thrown out of school in...
On Oct. 24, I was fired by the Vermont Department of corrections for having written a poem: Elegy to Gary Partridge. Partridge was a student of mine at Southern States Correctional Facility who died in September from an infection he had had for over a year. I hadn't published...
I live in fear. I'm terrified each time I face the scrutiny of power-possessing individuals from the majority population. I have learned over 50 years as a neurological minority that my best hope of survival depends on my ability to pretend to be something I am not, to hide...
One recent day, I came home from work, worn out and broke as usual. As soon as I entered the house, I could tell something was wrong, a foreboding hung in the spring air. “What's going on?” I chirped with all the forced optimism of a seasoned classroom teacher. “Daddy,” my 8-year-old daughter, Lucy, said, turning toward me with grim determination. “Promise me you won't kill yourself.” (What the … ?) This request took me completely by surprise. “Lucy, don't...
I am the Liberty Union candidate for lieutenant governor of Vermont. My basic platform is to return control of our state resources to the people. The framers of the Constitution were quite careful to build systems - checks and balances - to prevent any individual or small group of oligarchs from gaining too much power. But now the billionaires - less than .001 percent of the population - can pick the winners and losers in our elections. Even the supposedly...
As a perennial left-field candidate, I would like to issue a public statement to Attorney General William Sorrell regarding the Vermont Yankee decision. Obviously, I was disappointed by the Jan. 19 ruling by Judge J. Garvan Murtha on the continued operation of the Vermont Yankee nuclear reactor. I am concerned that the beating Sorrell received last year from the Roberts court - over the state law against pharmaceutical industry using private records to intimidate and bully our doctors - will...
A number of years ago, after having unsuccessfully applied for any and every job in the newspaper (and hanging the rejection letter from the Brattleboro dump right next to my undergraduate diploma), I was offered a position as a client advocate for the Windham County Day Program. I was an independent contractor, working 20 hours a week at $8 per hour, with no benefits, no vacations. My responsibility was to drive around with people who had developmental disabilities and “integrate...