E-Letters
This letter is to inform you that as a Vermont utility customer, I support the halt of “smart meter” installations, the removal of wireless smart meters installed and an immediate restoration of analog utility meters.
The World Health Organization has recently classified radio frequency electromagnetic fields (wireless) as possibly carcinogenic (cancer causing). It is a violation of our rights to force the installation of wireless devices upon utility customers without fair process of public or environmental review, or proof of safety.
I demand an investigation and evidentiary hearings into the safety impacts of wireless smart meters, including over billing, interference, burned out appliances, fires and explosions, and...
Peak Oil, So What?
To The Editor:
I like much of what I read in Vermont Commons, but I don't like needless fear mongering. That is how I see it with the numerous articles about peak oil.
Historically, there have been many resource crises. In the 19th century Englishmen heated their houses with firewood. Then the last big trees were cut and the wood ran out abruptly. They had to switch to coal. In the 20th century coal was deemed too dirty and the English had to switch again. Similarly, changes in climate and water supply have caused innumerable civilizations to ascend and decline. On the whole, financial crises and social upheaval have been beneficial. Without crises mankind might...
Radicalized Christians are being ignored by the mainstream media. They spend their days bombing banks, killing cops or flying planes into government buildings, born out of a hatred for U.S. government policies, so why are they given such little coverage compared to radicalized Muslims?
Radicalized Christians have a much higher success ratio than radicalized Muslims; their bombs actually explode, so why do they get slighted when it comes to front page glory?
Corporate profits have soared since the invention of Muslim terrorists. We all know who runs the country and...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Robert Wagner, Ripton VT robert@senatorwagner.com CENTER FOR VERMONT INDEPENDENCE: RIBBON-CUTTING & SUMMIT Hancock, VT (December 13, 2010) – A diverse group of Independence-minded Vermonters, state-wide political, social and economic organizations, political office candidates and private individuals came together in solidarity and support for Vermont’s sovereignty, independence and constitutional rights, at noon on Sunday for the formal opening of the Center for Vermont Independence (CVI).
Kathleen Byrne, a local business owner, cut the ribbon and gave the...
The media are saying, in the words of Hearst employee Stewart Ledbetter, "Vermont does not have the same backlash against the two-party system as other states." Still, the corporate media paint a false picture to portray the FORTY-ODD independent candidates in Vermont as nonexistent or "fringe." Yet the broadcast media get a tax break from the incumbent Vermont Legislature estimated at $375 million per year (UVM/Gund Institute, Vermont Green Tax and Common Assets Project, based on The Citizen's Guide to the Airwaves by New America Foundation).
The media work with the well-paid managers of nonprofits and other partners like VPR to lock independents out of the debates and public...
Let’s Get Real
Editor, Vermont Commons:
T. Keith Preston shows extraordinary naiveté in his "Secession, Not Aggression" article in the spring 2010 issue of Vermont Commons.
First, he extrapolates secession of Vermont (which is a long shot, to say the least) to secession of so many states that the U.S. federal government collapses. How many “verys” should we put in front of “unlikely” for that scenario?
Second, he expects that in a post-secession world all the characteristics of the old system that he despises will disappear and be replaced with all the characteristics of a new world that he adores. Need I remind him that Vermont is still a highly diverse society with...
‘Bombs Away’ On Affordable Housing
Editor, Vermont Commons:
The U.S. Air Force has selected the Vermont National Air Guard Station at Burlington International Airport as a possible site for its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The primary areas of concern among South Burlington residents are environmental degradation, the loss of affordable residential property, and resident safety.
Although increased environmental degradation from the greater exhaust, noise, and higher HAZMAT load of the F-35 is guaranteed, the foremost concern is about noise. The F-35 is a much more powerful jet than the F-16, and is expected to run two-to-four times louder, at approximately 120 decibels. The...
Editor, Vermont Commons:
What Vermonters can expect with a Swedish-style healthcare system? With recent budget shortfalls and discussion of raising taxes to fill the gap it appears timely to describe what happened in Sweden as taxes climbed. It is known in Sweden as the great “Brain Drain,” and the country may never recover.
As Sweden transformed to a socialist state it was heralded as a glowing example of the success of the socialist paradigm. The quality of life was among the highest in the world and people flocked to Sweden from all over the world.
In the 1980s taxes continued to rise and something...
Editor's Note: We got a few calls and emails from Randolph area readers frustrated with THE RUTLAND HERALD's February 4th editorial in which they essentially refused to cover discussions of Vermont independence in their newspaper, citing that they have "better things to think about." Here's one response.
David Atkinson
2062 Riford Brook Road
Braintree, Vermont 05060
Letters to the Editor/The Herald
Randolph, Vermont 05060
Dear M.D.
How could I not respond to your outrageous editorial of February 4th?
The degree of arrogance is mind boggling and I am not only surprised but impressed that you had the courage to display it.
In your seventh...
Dear editor,
I just want to thank you for a most enjoyable and informative newspaper and website. I started reading the website about two years ago, and then a little while later when I went to visit Vermont with my husband and a friend, I picked up the newspaper while I was there, and have been a subscriber now into my second year. We three LOVE the idea of Vermont seceding from the Union, and decided we want to relocate to Vermont in the, hopefully, not too distant future to be a part of what's going on in and around the state. We love Vermont for many other reasons, too, and believe it to be a perfect fit for us. (My husband is a classical musician, my friend is into the culinary arts, and I am a fine artist, though at...
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