Blaming public schools for the declining quality of their graduates is a lot like firing a high school coach after a few losing seasons. Yes, sometimes it’s the coach’s fault, but more often the problem lies with his players’ deficient skills or insufficient effort.
Building a flourishing democracy requires many tasks of the citizens and residents of the United States. One of the most important elements democracy requires is our attention — not only on the issue of the day at the national level, but also on the challenges we can impact closer to home in…
With less than two years until the 2024 presidential election, the forever campaign amps up, as politicians on the right side of the aisle focus on fooling enough of the people enough of the time into thinking every perceived issue facing the country — including bank failures and train wreck…
Making the most of historic funding for Vermonters requires a clear vision, strategic priorities and pragmatic leadership. Town Meeting week is not only a good time to get involved in local politics, but also check in on what’s going on in state government.
In this month of honoring women, especially on March 8, International Women’s Day, my mind and heart are filled with thoughts of women and girls around the world. Having worked globally, I have witnessed their lives, heard their stories, seen their grief, abuse and abject poverty. I have bee…
Vermont’s new lead paint rules will drive workforce housing rents higher.
Due to Daylight Savings, we lose an hour this weekend. Remember a few years ago when we lost a year to the pandemic. Three years to be precise.
In a recent commentary, John Nassivera asks: “Why bother to be a Christian?” He answers this question by stating “Hebrew and Christian scripture (sic) show us a supreme God who is reaching out to us, is revealing himself (or itself) to us. The revealing is done via the Son who came to Earth …
I’ve recently finished an extended period of time in South America, where my wife and I went this year rather than our usual time in Mexico. For me, the city of Lima, Peru, was the high point. There are various reasons for this, but one of them was our visit to the Larco Museum of pre-Colomb…
‘Careful what you wish for” is a warning I generously impart to others whenever they become enthralled by a yearning to the point they are oblivious to the risks, implications and unintended consequences achievement of their goal might entail. This rule of thumb comes to mind in the woods, n…
Like so many in our rural Vermont communities, we have deep and extended family ties to St. Johnsbury Academy and Burr and Burton Academy. SJA was founded by Erastus, Thaddeus and Joseph Fairbanks in 1842, and members of the Fairbanks family have served on the SJA Board of Trustees ever sinc…
It’s wintertime. In the winter, it snows and gets cold, sometimes even in places where summers are warm. Here in Vermont, the colder side of zero and a couple of feet of snowflakes at a time are nothing new. According to the collective memory of my coffee shop associates and my own experienc…
Next Tuesday, March 7, most towns across Vermont will be asking voters to consider how public departments, including schools, should be best funded — and governed.
Every year, there are international Council of Parties meetings on climate change, where it is simply accepted the fossil fuel companies will not pay for any of the global damages from burning the fossil fuels, despite making hundreds of billions in profits every year. There is no choice. At…
The recently dropped charges against a man who was arrested for refusing to stop speaking at a Montpelier City Council meeting didn’t have anything to do with free speech. The point was whether we support local elected officials in their efforts to maintain order at public meetings. Washingt…
While speculation regarding the Republican Party ranges from an imminent, humiliating implosion to retaking the presidency and both houses of Congress in 2024, one thing appears certain: this ain’t your grandfather’s GOP; or your dad’s for that matter; and quite possibly, not even your older…
I received two responses to my last column, “Why bother to be a Christian,” that really grabbed my attention. One was from an old friend and colleague (whom I’ll call by his initials CC) and the other was from a Times Argus reader who has been an ordained minister, holds his doctorate in rel…
During the past few weeks, we have been co-hosting candidate forums along with public access television centers in Montpelier, Barre and Rutland. The aim has been to get to know the candidates beyond the articles in the newspaper and have a robust conversation about the issues facing the com…
As we approach another, stomach-churning, general election cycle, it feels as though we just broke free of the previous, stomach-churning, election cycle, probably because that’s exactly what we did. In fact, with presidential elections scheduled every four years and midterms in-between, it’…
Two opposing opinion pieces in last weekend’s edition speak volumes about the decision by Vermont State Colleges System to radically remake the nature of our state college libraries. The proposed changes, which involve converting libraries into all-digital information centers, are planned fo…
As we begin a new year with the relief of midterm elections behind us, many Americans are enjoying a sense of comfort about our political future. We saw a blue wave when a red one was predicted and a long overdue increase in diversity among those elected at all levels of governance. We moved…
Twenty-five years ago, two middle-school students climbed an Arkansas hill and shot 13 classmates and two teachers. Newsweek’s cover dubbed them the “schoolyard killers.” Advocates, armed with haunting snapshots of little boys toting lethal weapons, indicted our “guns and hunting culture” as…
Historians didn’t identify the Industrial Revolution for some decades after its genesis. By contrast, the start of the Atomic Age can be dated to the second the first atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. Much of the developed world has recently moved into a new era the general populace will …
‘Now what new mess are you making?” I can just hear the judgy tone in my cat’s voice, as she eyes the big square of cardboard on my dining room table, surrounded by a stack of catalogs, scissors, paint, glitter and an oversized glue stick. (Kitty and I often have conversations, at least in m…
Twenty-seven million Earthlings watched the State of the Union show. Most were Americans. That’s because the rest of the world has enough of its own problems, like wars and earthquakes. However, based on the antics of the Mar-a-Lago administration and the majority status recently acquired by…
Somewhere along the line within the last year or so, I’ve begun watching “X-Files” reruns while Helene is out or otherwise engaged, following the close encounters of FBI Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully as they wade through the vast gulf of unexplained phenomenon that has forever inundated …
I am a book collector.
We are not closing Vermont State University libraries; we are expanding their breadth to meet the needs of our students.
I grew up in a family of five generations of Vermonters. When I was young, I hunted with my father. Later in life, I hunted with a bird dog. I have the deepest respect for those who hunt to feed themselves as opposed to those of us who depend on slaughterhouses, cattle cars and factory farms…
The conservative commentator Guy Page is using his online publication, Vermont Daily Chronicle, to try to stir up some controversy surrounding a state senator’s decision not to join the Senate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance as it begins its week each Tuesday.
A report this week gave an interesting glimpse into who we are as Vermonters.
When I was a kid in junior high, I wanted to be a doctor. By the time I got halfway through high school, I’d discovered I didn’t enjoy dissecting frogs nearly as much as I liked combatively exercising my larynx. Since lawyers, as I understood it, got paid to argue, practicing law became my n…
Vermont’s Department of Environmental Conservation wants input on a potential rule that would regulate where and how wake boats can be used on the state’s waterways. If you’re concerned about water quality and want to keep lakes safe for paddlers, sailors, swimmers and other users, it’s time…
Local officials are eager to partner to build more housing.
Last weekend offered a lesson on how our tidy, little world can profoundly change in a heartbeat, compounding the existential dread that has been our invisible friend for several years. Millions living in the wealthiest of countries consider having a roof over our heads and something to eat …
You do not need to be an academic scholar to know the importance of libraries. We know it from our earliest years of schooling. “Going to the library” means something different to everyone.
In the heat of continuing political madness, many important issues that should continue to be addressed in news cycles have been sidelined or ignored. Among crucial missing topics is the necessary reminder that we are living on a soon-to-be unsalvageable planet.
Working in public service is not for the faint of heart. As someone who has worked in government for the past eight years, I’ve received my fair share of harassment and threats from the public. But the tone has taken a frightening turn in recent years.
As an anxious nation busies itself elsewhere, counting the hours until next Sunday’s Super Bowl 57 between the Kansas City Chiefs and Philadelphia Eagles, my own growing distaste for football in general and the NFL in particular has reached an apex — I’ve stopped watching completely. Among t…
Why is Vermont’s administration back-pedaling on addressing the climate crisis?
In the middle of broad concerns about a climate crisis, can you imagine anyone wanting to deprive Vermonters of what is perhaps the least carbon polluting and most organic food source? Wanting to force dependence on a polluting and often poisoned industrial food supply chain? Denying their n…
Wendell Wear was my high school gym teacher. He was weathered, strong and straightforward. People in town called him Wendy, but I never heard anybody make jokes on account of his name, even though the only other Wendy we knew had flown off with Peter Pan. The story was, Mr. Wear had been a M…
In the middle of our country, the headline question probably doesn’t make much sense or is slightly offensive. But here in the Northeast, and especially in Vermont (the “least religious state in the union”), the question is simple and straightforward. Why bother? We’ve moved beyond superstit…
File this editorial under “Things That Should Not Have To Be Stated. Again.”
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