Short fiction by Ron Merkin While walking on stage, John reminded himself not to tell the audience any of his stupid jokes. Then, as he stood in front of 4,000 people, in reply to one judge’s “Are you nervous?” – the most frequently asked question before America’s Got...
Twenty-two of 24 respondents (91.7%) voted no on the summer Counterpoint poll: “If you threaten emergency department staff while in a mental health crisis, should you be arrested for a crime?” The question related to legislation introduced in Montpelier in January...
According to the national advocacy group Lives in the Balance, Vermont’s public schools use restraint and/or seclusion upon 587 children each year. Kids with disabilities comprise the vast majority of cases. Recently, Lives in the Balance released a free documentary,...
Watching the General Assembly’s last-minute scramble in June to figure out how not to kick 2,000 homeless Vermonters out of the motels sheltering them, I thought about all the time that legislators had spent during the winter and spring deliberating over bills that...
Vermont Folklife’s research for In our voices, in our communities, a timely traveling exhibition of portraiture and storytelling with a focus on homelessness, began more than two years ago. When it finally debuted in Burlington this spring, one day after the passage...
