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At Passover, celebrants read the Haggadah, which tells the story of the Jews’ slavery under the Egyptian Pharaoh and their Exodus out of his land. They’re in such a hurry that they don’t even let the bread rise — hence, matzoh.... Read more

Last Thursday, as Pope Benedict XVI addressed a few hundred Catholic educators in Washington, D.C., a Marine Corps recruiter in full dress uniform set up shop outside the St. Michael’s College cafeteria.

For a couple of hours the recruiter, an officer named Will Morgan, shook hands and took down the names of a few interested students, then packed up his pamphlets and headed for the door. “Not bad,” he said on his way out.... Read more

Rob Williams has never liked nation states. In fact, the newspaper he edits, Vermont Commons, has asked Vermonters to consider “peaceably seceding from the United States Empire.”

So when Williams receives his “economic stimulus” check from the federal treasury this spring, he won’t spend it at a corporate chain or, as George W. Bush has suggested, make a mortgage payment.

He will put it toward his new yak farm.... Read more

One summer day about 30 years ago, Janet Hicks was putting up tomato sauce in her kitchen when she heard a knock at the door. Outside stood a man wearing black shoes and an ID badge.

“He said, ‘Are you Janet Hicks?’ “she recalls. “I said, ‘Yes.’ He said he was from the IRS.

“And I said, ‘Oh, I’ve been expecting you for a few years. Come on in.’”... Read more

Scott Ritter is not the man the Department of Defense hoped he would be.... Read more

Not all Vermont’s Girl Scouts are out selling Thin Mints. The 11- and 12-year-olds in troops 820 and 125 — in Williston and Essex Junction, respectively — wanted to know what life would be like for someone hurt by a landmine. Troop leaders Jennifer Mignano and Chandelle Trahan came up with a fitting assignment: Have them make fleece blankets for local emergency shelters with one arm strapped to their sides.... Read more

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We who have come here to Washington have come here
because we feel we have to be winter soldiers now.
We could come back to this country;
we could be quiet;
we could hold our silence;
we could not tell what went on in Vietnam,
but we feel because of what threatens this country,
the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats
but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it,... Read more

Some might say it takes major cojones to file a lawsuit against the United States government on behalf of yourself and several million Cuban-Americans over an entrenched, half-century-old foreign policy — especially if you’re neither Cuban-American nor a bona fide lawyer.

But for Jared Carter, a second-year student at Vermont Law School in South Royalton, all it took was love.... Read more

Music fans born after 1976 — the year Phil Ochs hanged himself in a fit of manic depression — can get acquainted this Friday with the work of a great American songsmith.

Younger members of the Phil Ochs Song Night audience will likely learn that he was not only an excellent exponent of the Woody Guthrie tradition of folkie protest but a prolific lyricist whose songbook includes existential laments and romantic reveries. Ochs’ music has an enduring power that can deeply affect new listeners.... Read more

Few writing workshops could be more poignant, or meaningful, than those held by Iraq Veterans Against the War. The group was founded in July 2004 to protest what its members perceive as a war “based on lies and deception” — nine other reasons for opposition can be found at www.ivaw.org. Now there are more than 800 members in 48 states, including Vermont, from all branches of the military.... Read more