Editorial

Why are we still surprised by political hypocrisy?

“In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defence of the indefensible. Thus political language has to consist largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness … the great enemy of clear language is insincerity. Where there is a gap between one’s real and one’s...

Town Meeting déjà vu

It’s Town Meeting season! Again!
This week kicked off round two of the 2022 Town Meeting season. Thanks to the ongoing pandemic, the Vermont Legislature passed a bill earlier this year that, as in 2021, that allowed municipalities and school districts across the state to postpone their...

All change is local: Earth Day every day

Friday, April 22, is Earth Day. This is the 52nd iteration of the day, which was christened in 1970. It is billed as the birth of the modern environmental movement and was at the beginning seen as a way to raise awareness of the negative impacts of pollution mankind has imposed on the Earth....

From pandemic to endemic

Based on available data of transmission, severity, reinfection, diagnostics, therapeutics and impacts of vaccines, the group reinforced that the BA.2 sub-lineage should continue to be considered a variant of concern and that it should remain classified as Omicron. The group emphasized that BA.2...

Democracy is alive and well in Wilmington, VT

A week ago we reported on the successful petition for a reconsideration vote on Wilmington’s Town Meeting approval of retail cannabis sales. For those who missed it, voters approved the broad concept of cannabis retail sales by an Australian ballot vote in March. That vote had 173 in favor and 85...

Did we trick you? April Fools’ Day around the world

Friday is the first of April, also known as April Fools’ Day. As regular readers of The Deerfield Valley News know, it’s also the time for us to publish the annual “Deerfield Valley Snooze” edition. We hope you have as much fun with the finished product as we do putting it together. It’s an...

An ode to mud season

“Poor March. It is the homeliest month of the year. Most of it is mud, every imaginable form of mud, and what isn’t mud in March is ugly late-season snow falling onto the ground in filthy muddy heaps that look like piles of dirty laundry.” Author and blogger Vivian Swift may have hit on the...

Sunshine through the clouds

The late British prime minister, Winston Churchill, once wrote “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.”
Churchill, as much as any politician and leader of the 20th century, knew the ramifications of not paying attention to history. His own personal story included...

A time when we can no longer predict the weather

Anyone who was in the valley or around southern Vermont this past Monday evening experienced a taste of the extreme weather that much of the country has been dealing with this winter. The wind howled for a number of hours on Monday, blowing down branches and full trees, knocking out power in many...

The public deserves answers regarding racism in schools

“Community members need to challenge their school boards to do better.”
-Curtis Reed, head of the Vermont Partnership for Fairness & Diversity, made that statement to a reporter in a January 20 article about racial bullying and harassment at Twin Valley Middle High School. In doing so...