PUTNEY-On Sunday, March 23, in a demonstration of openness and solidarity, over 300 people filled the Latchis Theatre to watch the Academy Award–winning movie No Other Land, the first of four movies of the Palestine Film Series.
The movie portrays a Palestinian family and community in the West Bank, enduring and resisting Israel's systematic destruction of their homes and schools, and the seizure of their lands. The film depicts just a few incidents of the devastating violence inflicted on Palestinian villagers by the hundreds of thousands of armed, Israeli "settlers," who occupy over 150 illegal "settlements."
The day after the Latchis screening, a group of such masked "settlers" viciously attacked Hamdan Ballal, the co-director of this movie. They beat him. He sustained injuries to his head and stomach, and he was left bleeding.
Soldiers swarmed the ambulance, and then seized and abducted Ballal. Yuval Abraham, the Israeli co-director of the movie, reported that Ballal was "handcuffed all night and beaten in a military base."...
Rep. Balint, how will we hold onto our humanity? Even Sen. Durbin of Illinois recognizes that a ceasefire is what President Biden must demand. Will any of us be able to look ourselves in the mirror, knowing that "evil will prevail if good people say nothing"? Failing to call...
I encourage Putney voters to cast their ballots for Aileen Chute for Selectboard. I volunteered with Aileen at the Putney Central School's After School Forest Program (which she now directs), and saw firsthand her dedication to our community's kids and families. She is thoughtful, patient, and solutions-based. But she...
I want to give a giant shout out to the Putney road crew! All of us who travel the gravel roads know that this has been one of the toughest mud seasons in the last 10 years. We've seen even high-clearance, four-wheel-drive vehicles get completely stuck in the mud just a couple of hundred yards up the road. But our incredibly dedicated road crew gave it their everything, all over town - even coming out on a Sunday to dump...
Having worked for 10 years as a medical social worker at the Brattleboro Memorial Hospital (BMH) Comprehensive Care Clinic, I was devastated to learn that BMH has recently paid the federal and state Medicare and Medicaid programs $1.65 million to settle a federal lawsuit against the hospital for filing false billing claims. I first need to note that my hard-working colleagues at the Comprehensive Care Clinic and in the oncology department are incredibly knowledgeable, and experienced. They are some of...
The governor's solemn pledge “to protect our most vulnerable citizens” convinced many Vermonters that Phil Scott had our backs. We Vermonters care deeply about our neighbors, and these words connected with people all across the state. But when the governor turned the tables on his own pledge and took aim at the very services that support our most vulnerable - as well as many other Vermonters - folks sat up and took notice. In just the past few weeks, Scott...
There are lots of reasons to take a drive to Brattleboro on an oddly warm and beautiful November day. The town is a charismatic throwback to another time: people know one another, speak to one another, and seem to always be willing to talk to a stranger and brighten one another's day. I think it is special because so many people there practice little acts of love. Plus there are great thrift stores for my wife Maria to browse, and...