Voices

VY advisory panel fails to fulfill its potential


The writer is a member of the board of directors of Citizens Awareness Network.


EASTHAMPTON, MASS.-Vermont Yankee Nuclear Power Station (VYNPS, or VY) is coming down as you read this. It may surprise you to hear from this long-time antinuclear activist that there is much to be grateful for with VY's decommissioning.

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Evans-Frantz: a lifetime commitment to betterment of community

BRATTLEBORO-I am personally asking every Brattleboro voter I know to step forward and support Isaac Evans-Frantz for a one-year seat on the Brattleboro Selectboard. Isaac is a wonderfully committed individual who thinks globally and acts locally. As director of Action Corps, a nonpartisan advocacy organization that grew out of...

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I’m fighting back. Will you?

This is our town now. These are the stories we hear now. How long before the businesses here leave, too, and don’t come back?

Cindi Krug works downtown at her family's store, Twice Upon a Time. "I wrote this a while ago but was nervous to [say] it aloud... now I think it's time," she writes. "I speak for myself and no one else." BRATTLEBORO-I write this with a very heavy heart. In...

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It is much easier to criticize than to offer workable solutions

WILMINGTON-That Richard Evers cites his being of Jewish and German descent makes him able to judge a complex situation is difficult to understand. If anyone cares to hear another point of view from people close to the problem they should look up Goldie Ghamari of Iranian Muslim background and member of the Ontario Provincial government in Canada and also Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef. We are not experts so we can't comment on Evers' criticism...

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A critical part of our mental health solution

Stacy W. Kramer is chief executive officer of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont. Visit bbbsvt.org to join as a donor or volunteer. BRATTLEBORO-Amid an increasing mental health crisis, communities across the nation, including our own here in the Green Mountain state, are searching for sustainable, effective solutions. As the CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Vermont, I've witnessed firsthand the transformative power of mentoring. The evidence is clear: Mentoring not only changes lives, it can also be a...

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Protesting Eleos software is blatant antisemitism

CAVENDISH-The recent writers of letters opposing using Eleos technology for mental health care seemingly do not understand what this software does. It uses augmented intelligence to assist mental health professionals. There are many mundane tasks that all medical professionals have to do which take up a lot of time that could otherwise be spent in direct care with clients. For instance, clinicians can spend up to 50% of their day charting and submitting claims to insurance. Using Eleos can cut...

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Israel's critics have it backwards

LEYDEN, MASS.-F. Miess of Southern Vermont for Palestine advocates for a boycott of an Israel-produced software product. Apparently, it is in vogue now to cancel anyone, or anything, Jewish or Israeli. Recently, even the Jewish musician, Matisyahu, who sings about peace, had three U.S. concerts cancelled. If Mr. Miess truly wants to boycott Israel he will also need to stop using his cell phone, forego many lifesaving technologies, and refrain from any produce grown with drip irrigation. Mr. Miess has...

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Competing emergencies drive an untenable tax increase

WEST BRATTLEBORO-We look to the Brattleboro Selectboard for leadership, not for them to get bogged down in the weeds. Ironically, it is because of their leadership efforts - in using emergency powers to hire nine new Police Department personnel to address community safety issues - that they ended up bumping up against another emergency: the astronomical rise in property taxes that Vermont property owners are experiencing. The Selectboard knows that the 22% increase in municipal taxes originally arrived at in...

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