Opinion

Column: Vermont needs to address its entire education system

By RICK DUSTIN-EICHLER

Vermonters love to talk about the weather. Regardless of the social situation, conversations rarely start without some reference to past, current or future conditions. As the old Mark Twain saying goes, “if you don’t like the weather in New England,...

Column: AI is transformative, but doctors are paramount

By NARAIN BATRA

A few years ago, I was on a return flight from New Delhi to Paris and New York, when the chief flight attendant suddenly broke up the humming silence and asked passengers to ring the call bell if anyone was a doctor. One physician, a tall and handsome...

Forum for April 20, 2024: Sununu backs Trump

So much for SununuAs a centrist independent, I give Gov. Sununu mostly high marks for his governorship, particularly his leadership during the pandemic. I didn’t agree with everything he did, but he generally governed moderately, stopping many...

Column: Week of the Young Child refers to all children

By LAILA ABDO VOLLE

In Lebanon, this month we have celebrated the Week of the Young Child, which concludes with schoolwide events this week. I am a mother of three daughters, a 5-year-old and twin 2-year-olds, yet I find it impossible to embrace Lebanon’s Week of the...

Forum for April 18, 2024: Banners for veterans

Banners remind us of veterans’ serviceFirst of all, I’m not a letter writer, nor am I a citizen of Hartford. I would just like to say I was very saddened by the feelings expressed against banners honoring veterans. My dad served in the Pacific Theater...

Apply to join the Valley News Reader Advisory Board

The Valley News is creating a Reader Advisory Board in an effort to connect dedicated readers and community-minded individuals with our newsroom to talk about our coverage of the Upper Valley.If you’re active in the community, have an interest in...

A Yankee Notebook: An inevitable and terminal move

By WILLEM LANGE

Living three and a half hours apart, as we do, my dear friend Bea and I get to see each other about every two weeks or so, on average. This is almost without doubt an ideal arrangement, as our lifestyles are quite different, and neither of us could...

Forum for April 16, 2024: Scott’s Education secretary

Scott’s Education secretary choice is a mistakeI am shocked and dismayed at Gov. Scott’s appointment of Zoie Saunders as Vermont’s secretary of education. Everything I have read about her mostly non-existent public school experience reminds me of...

Editorial: Accounting can now begin in Claremont police case

A couple of weeks ago in this space, we lauded the New Hampshire Supreme Court for ruling that the disciplinary records of former Claremont police officer Jonathan Stone, dating from the early 2000s, were subject to disclosure under the state’s...

A Solitary Walker: We are owed nothing, but spring comes anyway

By MICKI COLBECK

The dogs and I walk out along the West Branch of the Ompompanoosuc every morning through hayfields and riparian forests. A few days ago, I felt like yelling, “Wake up, wake up,” at every living thing. It looked like the snow might really be gone....

Column: The relationship between taxes and civilization

By WAYNE GERSEN

As April 15 approaches, many of us are preparing to pay our taxes. On some level, all voters realize that taxes help underwrite government services they value, that they are “the price we pay for a civilized society.” However, unlike our monthly...

Forum for April 13, 2024: Biden and the environment

Promises kept on the environmentJoe Biden campaigned on the most ambitious climate action platform ever. He’s kept his promise, investing in clean energy infrastructure, fighting for environmental justice and tackling the urgent threat of climate...

Forum for April 12, 2024: Vermont taxes

Vermont is doomedAs we suffer here in Vermont trying to figure out if we need to stand or squat to pee, our Legislature is doing everything in their power to drive the working class out of Vermont. The increased fees on everything we use, vehicle...

Forum for April 11: Don’t forget Hamas

Don’t forget HamasIf you’re a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If you’re a newspaper or radio reporter, or poster on social media, responsibility for the crisis in Gaza looks like it rests squarely on Israel’s shoulders. Hamas gets a free pass....

A Yankee Notebook: People look up and see what they want to see

By WILLEM LANGE

The sky has always been a source of wonder for us earthbound folks. For some of us who are, shall we say, more earthbound, it’s a source of portents, omens, and myths. What we call thunderstorms and explain as electrically charged clouds used to be...

Editorial: Gambling tarnishes America’s sporting life

Hey, Major League Baseball, does the name Pete Rose ring a bell? Remember him, “Charlie Hustle”? One of the game’s greatest players, whom you banned for life in 1989 because he bet on baseball games?We ask because you have on your hands another...

Forum for April 6, 2024: Holocaust remembrance

Between faith and evilJoseph Polak was a Jewish toddler living in the Netherlands when, in 1943, he and his mother were transported to the Bergen-Belsen death camp. Incredibly, unlike 99% of the Jewish children whom the Nazis deported to the death...

Book excerpt: ‘Politics and Literature at the Dawn of World War II’

Editor’s note: In the interest of bringing more Upper Valley authors to the attention of readers, the Perspectives page is publishing excerpts from recent books. The first of these is from the first chapter of James Heffernan’s “Politics and...

By the Way: A white nationalist’s many mistruths

By RANDALL BALMER

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council, a Religious Right organization, has a history of involvement with the Ku Klux Klan in his home state of Louisiana. In 1996, while running the unsuccessful U.S. Senate campaign of his friend and...