Hope moves every fight against injustice. This hope is not, as Emily Dickinson would have it, a thing with feathers. It is made of steel, plus some stimulant elixir -- maybe lunacy. The Italian political theorist and activist Antonio Gramsci called it "pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will."... Read more

Pity the poor Floridian, awakened by the sound of his door cracking off the hinges. Freed from restraint by his state's "Castle Doctrine Law" -- SB-436, which allows a person to use deadly force to protect his home, business or occupied vehicle from an intruder -- the homeowner reaches for his .45, blows the stranger away, then inspects the fallen body only to discover its blood is spilling over a police badge.

Pity the poor dead cop, licensed by the Supreme Court's recent ruling in Hudson v. Michigan to kick in said door.... Read more

"The Chaplain is not a law enforcement officer, but a representative of God . . . Believing that God is the answer to man's dilemma, the Chaplain stands ready to bear witness to the forgiving love and redeeming power of God, through Jesus Christ, to all people, especially to those in crisis."

So reads the official Hardwick-Greensboro Police Department Chaplain Training Manual, to be used by the town's new police-sponsored cadre of clergy, the volunteer component of Hardwick's new Police Education and Community Enrichment program. PEACE, for short.... Read more

Mother.

Say the word and emotions rush forth. I'm not just talking about the love and guilt that moved 152 million Mother's Day cards off the shelves last year. As an email from Jane Williamson of Ferrisburgh's Rokeby Museum reminded me, motherhood is more than personal. It's symbolic, religious . . . and political.

"The original call for Mothers Day was as a day of peace," Williamson wrote. Its founder was the suffragist and abolitionist Julia Ward Howe, who broadcast her "Proclamation for Mother's Day" in 1870.... Read more

There may be no fact of life about which Americans complain more than taxes. Now, I'm not thrilled about where my money goes (my total 2005 IRS bill covered about 3.5 seconds of the Iraq war), or about the portion of income that I fork over compared to, say, Dick Cheney. As a self-employed person, I deduct the cost of every paperclip and remotely business-related martini.

I don't want to pay more than my share, in other words. But I'm happy to pay my share.... Read more

It was Memorial Day 2005 when Ross Connelly, co-publisher and editor of The Hardwick Gazette, decided to use his weekly editorial to name the American soldiers killed in Iraq. By that time, 34 months after the U.S. invasion, the American casualty count was 1735.... Read more

The cookies lay uneaten at the Lakeview Union Elementary School on Friday evening, February 3. This was no feel-good gathering.

A third of Greensboro (pop. 770, tripled in summer) was meeting representatives of Northeast Kingdom Human Services, which wants to convert the former Lakeview Inn to a residential treatment facility for eight mentally ill patients moving from the hospital to the world.... Read more

On January 4, Vermont District Court Judge Edward Cashman sentenced Mark Hulett to the minimum: 60 days in jail, probation predicated on compliance with 21 conditions, including participation in community-based treatment. Hulett, 34, had pled guilty to two counts of sexual assault of a friend's daughter when she was 6 to 10 years old.... Read more

The response last week to a fire in my town, Hardwick, exemplified everything that's good about small-town life -- in fact, everything that's good about people in general.... Read more

Back in New York's bad old days, I was mugged in the vestibule of a friend's Lower East Side building.

Two kids, about 13 years old, stepped in behind me. One barred the door. The other covered the intercom with his back. He poked a penknife into my side. "Gimme your money."

"I don't have any money," I replied, trembling. It was true. I pulled my jeans pockets out and offered him a subway token, the only tender I was carrying.... Read more