Safe Haven

The following is a piece I wrote after the passing of my high school art teacher, Gary Blomgren, as it appeared in the Commons, December 5, 2012

Voices / Viewpoint

Safe haven

A former student remembers Gary Blomgren and his classroom, a place of creativity and trust

Originally published in The Commons issue #181 (Wednesday, December 5, 2012).
http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site05/story.php?articleno=6591&page=2#.UMUDYndVmHw

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“It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.”
—Albert Einstein

If you were lucky, you had at least one teacher who opened your eyes, pulled you out of your shell, or saw something in you that no one, perhaps not even yourself, had recognized.I was fortunate enough to have five. Any of these teachers would tell you that I was far from the best student and, while I didn’t always have academic success, each one of them channeled my energy, fostered my creativity, and turned me in directions I might otherwise never had considered.

These teachers gave me confidence in my ideas, and they gave me the tools to use my abilities effectively.

Much more than advisers and mentors, they became colleagues and friends.
* * *
The passing of Gary Blomgren has given me pause for reflection and has conjured a number of stories I’d forgotten. There are no doubt hundreds — and, more likely, thousands — of his students with stories similar to the one I’m about to tell, but this one is mine.

I met Gary during my freshman year at Brattleboro Union High School. I was one of many promising young artists that he recruited to work on what was at the time a radical project: paint walls in the hallway. I had done plenty of unsanctioned artwork on school walls before, so I appreciated the idea of being let loose with a paintbrush. We replicated the works of the masters — from ancient hieroglyphics through the Renaissance and classical eras right up to contemporary pop art — creating a timeline of the history of art that remained on the walls for years after we were gone.

Through this project, Gary and I developed a relationship that would transform and transcend the classroom.

He saw that I worked best alone and provided me with the space to work in solitude and ability to come and go freely. I worked independently, while he played more of an adviser role.
When I stayed late to work on a project, he would leave me with his keys to lock up his room and open it in the morning before he arrived.

When I skipped a class in high school, which was quite often, everyone knew where to find me. I would either be in a practice room in the music department or in the auditorium working on the latest theater project.

Or, more often than not, I’d be in a discreet corner of Gary Blomgren’s art classroom, which had became a safe haven and refuge for a small band of social outcasts, oddball artists, and otherwise unconventional kids.

We congregated for lunch and at random times throughout the day, sometimes to escape the judgments of our peers and the pressures of daily school life or just to be in a place where we knew we could express ourselves openly.

It was a place where long-lasting friendships were created. Whether you were an artist, whether you had any classes with him, his room was open and inviting.
* * *
During my sophomore year first semester studio art class, I found myself stuck, unable to come up with a suitable project.

Gary’s answer was sending me to the auditorium to assist Terry Sylvester in painting the set for the musical production of Gypsy. Large canvases of plywood and muslin and seemingly limitless paint were at my disposal. And best of all, my work would be showcased to the public during the performances.

I continued to work on every theater project that BUHS produced, working on set design, lighting design, rigging, and all other aspects of stagecraft.
And so began a love affair that has led to more than 20 years involvement in community and regional theater.

Well after I was gone from BUHS, I would return to visit Gary often, sometimes to seek advice on a project or sometimes just to see the progress of the walls and check in with him. He was always gracious and welcoming when he saw his former students.

I returned after the walls had been painted over and his department had moved. He expressed regret that we didn’t get a chance for an artist reunion but also excitement about his new facilities as he eagerly led me on a personal tour.

When I would work on theater sets at the Dummerston Grange, I would often stroll over to his house (usually just in time for lunch or dinner). Our friendship continued in this manner for years.
* * *
Gary did what many teachers dream of doing: He inspired his students.

Whether you were a serious artist or a student simply trying to receive an art credit, it was difficult not to be excited and motivated when you were in his classroom.

He made it a point to get to know his students and saw that they got the direction they needed.

He was an effective teacher, but also a compassionate listener and confidant.

Those who had Gary Blomgren as a teacher know this very well. To those who won’t have the chance, I can only hope that you meet the teacher who can move you and turn education into an exciting and creative journey, rather than a dull compulsory bog.

Vermont Independence: Chapter 1 A Pre-Vermont History

The following is the first chapter of my culminating study on Vermont Independence. It covers the geological formation of the Vermont landscape through the boarder disputes that predated the American Revolution ending which the Westminster Massacre in 1775. Because the program I attended focused on original content, much of my writing on the Green Mountain boys is omitted as it was covered by studies in earlier semesters. 

Chapter 1

A Pre-Vermont History

In June of 1770, Ethan Allen rode to Albany, New York, to represent John Carpenter, an evicted settler from Bennington in the so-called New Hampshire grants, the disputed land that lay north of the Massachusetts Colony west of the Connecticut River across the Green Mountains to Lake Champlain. Through, poor cartography, unclear charters, as well as opportunism and outright land snatching, the territory that was to become Vermont was parceled with conflicting deeds issued by both New Hampshire and New YorkJohn Tabor Kempe, the former attorney general of the colony of New York, represented fellow attorney and real estate operator John Duane. Duane had considerable interest in the grants and had what were called “writs of ejectment” issued to New Hampshire deed holders. The Albany courts sided with the New York deed holders based on a 1764 ruling of the Orders in Council. The following day Kempe and Duane caught up with Allen at Stephen Fay's Catamount Inn in Bennington to offer him a substantial plot of prime real estate under New York patent if he were to drop the grant's cause. When he refused, Kempe threatened, “Be advised, the people of the grants would do well to make the best terms with the rightful New York land lords.” Allen replied with words that have echoed through Vermont's history and have become its rallying cry “The gods of the hills are not the gods of the valleys” (Jellison 38). Allen's intent was to let these “Yorkers” know that the people of the grants were not to easily bought. Having worked hard to build and obtain what little they were able, they were not quick to relinquish it. This was a direct threat as Ethan Allen continued by saying “If you accompany me to the hills of Bennington, the sense will be made clear.” From there they could see that a group of armed settlers, later known as the “Bennington Mob” and the predecessor to the Green Mountain Boys, was assembling in the streets of Bennington, ready to defend the western front. With these statements Ethan Allen showed a not-so subtle disregard for popular and standard religious sentiment by implying that there may be more than one almighty God with a capital “G,” effectively

denouncing the monotheistic notions held by most Puritan people of colonial New England. Allen was known for his disregard for popular and contemporary religious views having himself been evicted by special town meeting from Northampton, Massachusetts, for such “insolence.”

By invoking the “gods of the hills” he implied that the geography and physical landscape of the Green Mountains are at the core of the people's resolve, that the hills shape and carve people's character. The terrain is a little bit harder to traverse and the soil even harder to work. The winters are a bit more severe and last longer than in the lowlands. Survival was a daily concern for early settlers of the grants. These are among the core reasons Vermonters are diligent and durable.

The gods that formed and raised the Green Mountains to a maximum height of over 12,000 feet did so through a series of major tectonic events. The first, over a billion years ago, the Greenville Orogeny, was a collision of the North American and Eurasian plates creating the Adirondack Mountains and the bedrock on which the Green Mountains would rest. When the plates receded 575 million years ago, the Iapetus Ocean opened up and covered what would be Vermont. Evidence of this ancient ocean can be found on Isle le Motte in Lake Champlain, which is among the world's oldest coral reefs and has fossils dating to this period. As the plates receded, taking several million years, the seam between the plates ruptured causing volcanic activity that created a massive chain of islands called the Taconic Island Arc which divided the ocean. Soon after in geological terms (50 million years), the Taconic Island Arc collided and fused with the North American Continent and pushed the Green Mountains to heights the East Coast hasn't seen since. With this event the gods had something special in store for the land that was to become Vermont. When the Taconic plate collided with early Green Mountains the heat and pressure turned shale into slate and limestone into marble. This is evidenced by the large veins of slate from Fair Haven, Vermont, that continue through New York and Pennsylvania as well as Vermont’s famed “Marble Valley”.

The force of the collision between the Taconic Island Arc and the proto-North American plate was so great that the eastern edge of the Taconic Islands snapped from the oceanic crust. As the proto-North American plate continued to move eastward the ocean's plate began to subduct, and volcanic activity began once again, this time creating a series of granite domes in Vermont and New Hampshire. About 400 million years ago a small continent in the east called “Avalon,” thought to be part of the African plate collided with the proto-North American plate, which began the massive mountain-building cycle known as the Acadian Orogeny. After the Acadian Orogeny the plates continued to subduct and tighten to form the well-known supercontinent of Pangaea. During the Allegheny Orogeny, the Appalachian Mountains from Alabama to Pennsylvania were formed. The instability of Pangaea caused major rifting and eventually the massive continent began to break apart, and over a period of 180 million years the plates drifted into their present place (Sherman et al. 3). After the gods of the hills were done building their massive peaks it was time for the ice to do its part. No fewer than four glacial periods have occurred since the last mountain-building cycle. These mile-thick sheets of ice repeatedly scraped, gouged, and blunted the landscape and ground the once giant mountains down to the relatively small peaks they are today. As these glaciers began to melt, rivers formed under the sheets of ice and deposited boulders and fragments. These fragments can still be seen in the many stone walls lining dirt roads. Hikers may happen upon these walls in new forests, the Around 13,000 years ago glacial-melting created Lake Vermont where present-day Lake Champlain is. The glacier to the north dammed water draining into the lake and caused it to swell over 700 feet higher than the present lake. It engulfed all of Lake George and the northern Hudson Valley. The lake also entirely covered the Otter Creek region up to Rutland, and the Missisquoi region as far as Memphremagog. It also extend deep into the river valleys of the Winooski to Montpelier and the through the Waterbury reservoir to Stowe, and the Lamoille as far as Hyde Park (Klyza 38).

When the glacier began to melt, Lake Vermont drained out through the St Lawrence River and left a body of water that was lower than the present lake. When the glacier melted completely the ocean levels rose while the plate, crushed by glacial ice, was hundreds of feet lower than at present and the Atlantic reached Champlain through the St. Lawrence gulf mixing saltwater and creating what would become known as the Champlain Sea. Although not as big as Lake Vermont, the Champlain Sea left its own distinct marks. Relics of the Champlain Sea are found in several places throughout the Champlain Valley in countless fossils, most notably that of a whale, found while laying a railroad bed near Charlotte in 1848.

Over time the plate recovered, rose above sea level, These events of tectonics, glacial drifts, and receding seas have shaped Vermont into its six distinct physiographic regions. The Green Mountains run north to south for the length of the state and split into three separate ranges. They include hundreds of peaks up to the tallest at the north peak of Mount Mansfield at 4,392 feet. The Taconic Mountains in the southwest of the state are a source of limestone and slate and provide a seemingly impregnable barrier between the Green Mountains and the Hudson Valley. The Valley of Vermont is nestled between the Taconic and Green Mountains, and apart from being a great source of limestone and marble, it also supports many plants that are not commonly found in New England. The Champlain Valley gives Vermont its only real fertile plain as well as a variety of New England fish. The Piedmonts are just what they translate into, foothills. This region covers most of the eastern side of the state as part of the Connecticut River watershed. The last region is the Northeast Highlands, 600 square miles of primarily spruce and some of the foothills of the White Mountains

The gods stayed quiet in the region for a while after the glacier retreated, tending only to the flow of rivers and the return of life. The glacier had washed clean the surface of the mountains awaiting the bacteria and angiosperms that would inhabit them and start life anew. Elk, caribou, mammoth, and mastodons used to roam these hills, but as the temperatures rose and the waters receded they moved on. When the waters dropped to nearly their current depths the forest diversified, bringing in the type of landscape we see today.

Vermont has four primary watersheds. The Connecticut River runs nearly the entire length of the state along its eastern border with New Hampshire. The river originates from lakes in northern New Hampshire but swells as it carries the drainage from the eastern slopes of the Green Mountains and the foothills in New Hampshire, divides Massachusetts and Connecticut, and empties into the Long Island Sound. The Champlain Valley receives most of the drainage from the western slopes of the Green Mountains and the eastern Adirondacks, and drains northward through the Richelieu River and into the St. Lawrence River. In the southwest Taconic Mountains, the waters of the Battenkill and the Willomac Rivers drain into the Hudson River and make their way to the Atlantic through New York's Lower Bay. The fourth, and sometimes forgotten, watershed carries a few small rivers north through Lake Mempremagog into the St. Francis River and to the St. Lawrence River. These rivers and lakes would not only determine the flow of people and commerce in and out of the region, they would inevitably shape the future of Vermont in its relationships with neighboring states and Canada.

By the time of colonial exploration Vermont was inhabited by the Eastern Algonquin Indians, primarily Abenaki, who used the Green Mountains as a hunting ground, and took fish from Lake Champlain. A number of other tribes, including Mahican, some of the southern Algonquian tribes of Massachusetts, and the Iroquois tribes of upstate New York, knew these hills and used them for hunting, fishing, and as a crossing route from the St. Lawrence River to the Atlantic Ocean, with very few permanent native settlements, mostly in the Champlain Valley.

Early Paleoindians likely arrived in Vermont about 11,000 years ago after the last glacier receded. Paleoindian sites are consistent with the eastern reaches of the Champlain Sea, suggesting that they were present on the banks of the sea around 6,900 years ago. Evidence of villages in Vermont can be found as far back as the Woodland The Abenaki's woodland ancestors were pre-agrarian, hunting and gathering tribes. Agriculture didn't appear in Vermont until 1100-1400 C.E. Owing to Vermont's late spring, the Abenaki had limited agricultural produce. The advent of the bow made the Native Americans heavily reliant on hunting. In the winter they would gather in large villages and live off of prepared food, while men went hunting on snowshoe.

By the time Samuel de Champlain arrived in 1609, few native boundaries were clear, but the lake that now bears his name was a natural boundary between the Iroquois and Abenaki people when sixteenth-century European explorers arrived (Klyza 31). European exploration altered native life considerably. The natives traded furs for manufactured cloth from Europe. When the furs became scarce the natives were convinced to sell land in order to continue receiving the goods to which they had grown accustomed. The Europeans also brought disease, which nearly eradicated the native population in New England, killing them by the thousands. Apart from the depletion of the fur trade and new diseases, Europeans brought with them a new kind of warfare, far more devastating than the tribal warfare the natives were accustomed to. European trade turned into European military alliance and the natives became entangled in a thousand year old grudge match that migrated across the Atlantic Ocean and was now being played out on the North American Continent.

During the early period of American exploration the Spanish covered most of the Caribbean, Central American and the Gulf Coast, while the English were penetrating the Atlantic coast from Virginia to Maine. The French, in pursuit of the Northwest Passage to India, were in control the St. Lawrence Seaway allowing them access further inland by In 1535 Jean Cartier had explored the St. Lawrence as far up-river as Hochelaga, present-day Montreal, but Samuel de Champlain was the first to explore Vermont's coast. The Dutch would reach Vermont by way of the Hudson River, while the English

explored both the Hudson and Connecticut rivers to reach Vermont.

The French built forts along Lake Champlain in efforts to control the fur trade with the Abenaki. In 1666 the French built Fort Ste. Anne on Isle le Motte, the first white settlement in Vermont. Although the French worked their way through the lake with forts at Chimney Point and Fort Carillon (Ticonderoga), they did not aggressively attempt to settle Lake Champlain. The first permanent settlement of colonists in Vermont was Fort Dummer, built in 1724 along the Connecticut River near present-day Brattleboro. It was one of four forts the Massachusetts Bay Company had been given royal charter to build along the Connecticut River. The others were Hinsdale on the eastern bank across from Dummer, Fort Hill, over looking the Great Meadow in present-day Putney, Vermont, and Fort No. 4 in Charlestown, New Hampshire, at which were stationed Phineas Stevens and Robert

Rogers during the French and Indian Wars, and later General John Stark, the hero of the Battle of Bennington.

An important point to remember is that Vermont was never in the plans for the American Colonies. It wasn't granted as an individual region by any nobility. There was only a lake, a mountain range, and a river that may have belonged to New York, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, or even Canada. Land disputes in New England arose from simple boundary errors that were neatly exploited. The first lands chartered in present-day Vermont were issued by Massachusetts in 1713. These towns lay just north of Massachusetts' current northern border, on the west bank of the Connecticut River. The “equivalent lands” were granted to Connecticut as compensate for land lost on a boarder dispute near Agwam.

In 1741 Benning Wentworth became royal governor of New Hampshire at the time that new boundary lines were established in surrounding colonies. A 1664 grant placed the Connecticut River as the eastern border of New York. This disputed earlier charters that placed the border at a line twenty miles east and parallel to the Hudson River, roughly where it is today. Massachusetts and Connecticut had contested the Connecticut River line, but it was not resolved until around 1725 when Massachusetts and Connecticut were given the twenty-mile line as their western border, and the lines on the maps began to look similar to today (Meeks 53). In 1740 the northern boundary of Massachusetts was determined to be “a similar curve line pursuing the course of the Merrimack River at three miles distance on the north side thereof, beginning at the Atlantic Ocean and ending at a point due north of a

place called Pentucket Falls, and by a straight line drawn from thence due west 'till it meets with his Majesty’s other governments” (Meeks 50). This put Massachusetts' northern border seven miles lower than their Fort Dummer. At this Massachusetts gave control of the fort over to New Hampshire. This was enough to give Wentworth an argument that the land west of the Connecticut River to “his Majesty’s other Governments” twenty miles from the Hudson would fall under the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. It is assumed that Wentworth had intended on granting land west of the Connecticut River immediately upon ascending to his position as governor but the outbreak of King George’s War in 1744 delayed granting and settlement in the Green Mountain Wilderness. In November 1749, Benning Wentworth wrote to New York Governor Tryon stating his intentions of selling New Hampshire Grants in the Green Mountains claiming a royal commission.

I have it in command from his Majesty to make Grants of the unimproved Lands within my Government, to such of the inhabitants and others, as shall apply for grants for the same [. . .] The [French & Indian]War hitherto has prevented me from making so great a progress as [. . .] it will be necessary for me to be informed how far North of Albany the Government of New York extends [. . .] and how many miles to the east of the Hudson river to the northward of the Massachusetts line, that I might govern myself accordingly. (qtd. in Graffanino et al. 20, hereafter

referred to as Vermont Voices)

Wentworth had chartered the first town in honor of himself long before the letter was composed. Bennington is located between the northwest corner of Massachusetts and the southern tip of Lake Champlain. It seems that Benning wasn't merely crossing the line a bit but outright reaching to his furthest extent, the twenty-mile line, in order to grab as For the next five years grants were given and settlements began to grow. Many of the grantees secured their grants at no money down with the understanding that they were to build mills and pay off the deed. Others paid for their grants in installments of pelts and furs, all of it payable to Benning Wentworth himself. In 1754 during the onset of the French and Indian Wars, granting ceased. Vermont was primarily used as a military crossing. In 1761 after the war had stopped, New Hampshire resumed granting and New York began surveying land it thought to be its own.

In 1764 it was ruled that the Connecticut River would be the border between New York and New Hampshire. However, this ruling gave no decision on the validity of New Hampshire Grant holders who had already settled and were living in the grants. New York began to issue writs of ejectment to overlaying lands in the Grants. By the time conflict started Wentworth became quite wealthy and had no intention of taking responsibility for his settlements in the grants. By 1766, after granting over 100 questionable grants, Benning Wentworth resigned his post as governor but was replaced by his nephew John Wentworth. During the rest of the decade conflicts arose on the grants, mainly due to surveyors drawing lines on land already inhabited by settlers. A number of those settlers were forcibly evicted

from their land. When grievances were presented to England, both provinces were ordered to stop granting, an order both governors chose to ignore. New York immediately established Cumberland County along the Connecticut River and continued granting disputed land, while New Hampshire pressed their grants north toward the Champlain

While many people were removed from their homes, some began to take a stand. James Breckenridge was among the first to resist eviction by the New York authority. In October of 1769 New York surveyors, drawing lines on his farm in Bennington, were driven off with threats. On July 11, 1771, Sheriff Henry Ten Eyck arrived from Albany with about 300 men to serve Breckenridge a writ of ejectment. They were greeted by seven armed men and a couple dozen farmers inside the main house, also armed. After a brief parley, two of his posse were allowed on to the farm to meet with Breckenridge. By the time they reached Breckenridge's house, as many as forty men made their presence known along a nearby ridge overlooking the meeting. After a brief exchange Breckenridge ordered the posse off his land and returned to his house.Ten Eyck reconvened with the rest of the posse and ordered a charge on the house. The charge began but quickly collapsed. Most of the men retreated while twenty men made it to the door and demanded entrance. The sheriff read the writ out loud and

movement began along the ridge. He threatened to batter the door down. At this, the forty men along the ridge took “casual bead along the sites.” The twenty men on the sheriff’s lead retreated and returned to Albany (source). It was at this standoff that the Green Mountain Boys were born. They were a militia free from any continental or royal authority, who, between 1771 and 1775, were

the guardians of the ordinary farmers and homesteaders. Although they would fight along side the United States during the American Revolution, their enemy wasn’t the Crown as much as it was one cell of authority in the royal government of New York. When the settlers in the Grants first looked to the Royal authorities in New Hampshire to come to their aid in the land dispute; “The people [were] heard with patience by British authorities. . . .

The Grants had no legitimate grievance against Great Britain before the Revolution. The governors of New York, the land speculators of New York, were the oppressors, not King George III” (Van DeWater 55). As the first winds of revolution began to blow all over the colonies, Britain became a common enemy. The next four years would see a period of relatively nonviolent rebellion in many parts on the western side of the state. In most cases the armed militia was used to drive off New York surveyors. The punishment for Yorkers disputing land was the application of the “beech seal” in which the accused would have his pants removed and whipped with a switch from a beech tree, and be banished from Vermont. In another case at the Catamount Tavern in Bennington, Dr. Samuel Adams was speaking out against the actions of the Green Mountain Boys. He was tied to a chair and hoisted above the entrance to the tavern for more than two hours. These acts were carried out for purposes of propaganda rather than physical harm.

With few exceptions the eastern side of the state was safe from the oppressive arm of the royal New York government in Albany. Most people along the Connecticut River owned New York land. Of those who bought New Hampshire deeds, many simply forfeited their deeds and repurchased their land under New York patent. This worked for those with just a few acres, but for those with much larger tracts, often acquired on credit, the cost was unmanageable. As rebellious tones grew louder, royal governments acted more harshly toward dissent. In October, 1774, Lieutenant Leonard Spaulding was charged with high treason and jailed for saying that the king had broken his coronation oath by signing the Quebec bill, which deprived the people of the province the right to assemble, the right to a jury trial, and in civil cases replaced British law with French law. Spaulding was later freed from jail by a group of sympathetic local citizens (Hall 202).

The royal authorities of New York in Cumberland County were set to hold a session of court in Westminster on March 13, 1775, to settle unresolved land claims. A warning was sent to Colonel Thomas Chandler in Chester to suspend the court session for fear that an armed posse would cause uneasiness among the people. Chandler assured the group that there would be no arms present and agreed to do no further business than one case, which involved a murder that had to be tried. By the time the court officials, accompanied by and armed posse, arrived at Westminster, a mob of nearly 150 militia men, led by Lieutenant Leonard Spaulding, had assembled to block entrance to the court and prevent any proceedings from going on. After a being refused entrance to the court, the posse retreated to a local pub. After a few hours they returned to the courthouse. The mob occupying the courthouse dwindled as night had fallen. The posse demanded entrance and fired shots above the door. The mob inside returned fire over the heads of the posse. At that the posse unloaded a steady volley of fire into the courthouse instantly killing William French, a nineteen year-old militia member from Brattleboro, and wounding several others, including Daniel Houghton from Dummerston, who would die

Upon realizing that a man had been killed in the melee the posse fled from the scene. They were pursued by the militia and rounded up within the night, brought back to the courthouse (when they were finally let in) to stand trial for the murder of William French. A mock trial was conducted and the offenders were convicted to banishment from Vermont. The death of William French would remain a symbol of New York and British oppression. His grave in the cemetery in Westminster, just across from where the courthouse once stood bears this epitaph:

In memory of William French,

Son of Mr. Nathaniel French,

who was shot at Westminster, March ye 13, 1775,

by the hands of cruel Ministerial Tools of George ye 3rd

in the Court house, at a 11 a'clock at night,

in the 22d year of his age.

Here William French his Body lies,

For Murder, his Blood for Vengenance cries,

King George the Third his Tory Crew,

Tha wich a bawl his head Shot threw,

For Liberty and his Country's Good

Lost his Life, his Dearest blood.

On April 11, at a convention in Westminster, it was voted “that it is the duty of the inhabitants to wholly renounce the resist the administration of the government of New York 'till such a time as the lives and property of these inhabitants may be sucured by it” (Robinson 99). In less than ten days the battle of Lexington began and the American colonies were engaged in war. Vermont would spend the next few years sorting out where its allegiance would lie while there was only a clear enemy and no clear allies.

The Obama Half-Dollar

[Written in the summer of 2009]


I've been holding on to one particular coin for nearly a year now. Nothing rare or particularly exceptional about this coin but it has grown in personal value and I am reluctant to part with it. It is a 1984 Kennedy-face half-dollar. It has no real distinction except that it was a tip I received while tending bar one chilly night early in February of 2008. I should go back just a bit before I continue with this story.
I first became interested in Barack Obama as a serious Candidate for president after hearing his speech at the Democratic Nation Committee meeting in the fall of 2007. He made one remark that made an impression on me. He declared that "I am running in this race because of what Dr. King called 'the fierce urgency of now" His speech covered his remarkable and unlikely story, and his belief that a few voices can build and rise into many and finally into one unified voice.
At the time there were still 10 candidates running. Among those running was Obama's strongest opponent Hillary Clinton, his eventual running mate Joe Biden, and the former Senator from North Carolina and John Kerry's Vice Presidential nominee John Edwards. The others had name recognition and vastly more playing time in Washington, but it was clear that in this campaign washington experience would be a liability. People across the nation were itching for something new and were, for the first time in a while, looking beyond party affiliation, gender barriers and racial divides.
I was undecided. I knew that I wasn't going to vote for a Republican but I wasn't necessarily too keen on the Democrats. I wouldn't call myself a democrat nor any other label with such concrete implications attached to it. If I had to look at all of the parties this country has to offer (and there are more than 2) I would probably align closest with some form of a progressive party. In my four prior presidential elections I had Voted for Bill Clinton in 92, Ralph Nader in 96, Al Gore in 2000 and in 2004 I wrote in Howard Dean feeling that Kerry didn't have the political strength or personal charisma to affect real change in Washington.
It appeared Barack Obama was that instrument of change, the progressive voice that I, along with a multitude hungry for common sense, had been looking for. I became a supporter. For the next few months I would defend my support for Obama to my father and my friends who were Clinton supporters as well as to my good friend Patrick who was an Edwards Supporter. My reasons for not getting behind Hillary Clinton were simple. She was part of a political machine that had already had a go at the White house and though the eight years of Bill flanked between 2 Bush presidencies was like a quick gasp of air while having your head repeatedly dunked in a barrel of water, it was time for something fresh and new. I found it harder to come up with reason not to throw my support behind Edwards. Both he and Obama had similar backgrounds coming from working-class families and overcame considerable odds to put themselves through Law school. Both brought a similar grass-roots approach and anti-poverty message to there campaigns. But again, as good of an orator and as capable a statesman as Edwards was, he lacked the charisma and the dynamic personality to rally the people, to cross race and gender lines and to unite a nation divided. in my mind Obama was our only hope.
By the beginning of January 2008 Joe Biden had dropped out of the race along with Chris Dodd and Dennis Kucinich leaving Edwards to compete against two candidates with more historical significance than he. Edwards was now running a campaign that, if successful, would keep this nation from nominating either the first Woman or the first African-American for president. On January 30, 2008 John Edwards speaking from the ninth district in New Orleans, where he had began his campaign a year earlier, announced that he was dropping out of the race “so that history can blaze its path.”
Later that week I was Tending Bar at Mcneill's Brewery in Brattleboro Vermont. McNeill's is a local gathering place where unlike-minded people can feel free to exchange ideas and opinions without fear of judgement or prejudice. My Edward supporting friend Patrick was, on this day, getting his usual dose of peanuts and porter. He paid for his beverage and snack and laid down a single coin and said “Hold on to this until Obama is elected” It was the aforementioned Kennedy-face half-dollar.
It certainly was not the biggest tip I'd received in my time in the service industry but it had a particular weight that I didn't realize until after holding this coin for several weeks and subsequent months. I began to consider the implications that this coin carried with it. I, of course, thought of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, elected the year that Barack Obama was born. I thought of the Democratic party, once the party of slavery, that had become the beacon of civil rights one-hundred years after Abraham Lincoln removed one of the final stains of the American experiment by abolishing slavery and who maintain a union out of a nation divided and made it possible for a man of color to eventually assume the highest office in this nation.
I thought of the year, 1984. A year that saw the biggest electoral sweep in US history as Ronald Reagan defeated Walter Mondale, Mondale only carrying his home state of Minnesota and Washington DC. I also thought of the totalitarian nightmare that George Orwell wrote about in 1948, a path that our nation was dangerously close to realizing with the direction of the previous administration.
The coin has been with me since it left the bar top and conditionally entered my pocket. It has been part of my daily routine, keys, wallet, phone, Obama coin. Obama has since surpassed and defeated the Clinton political Machine to win the democratic nomination for president and he has defeated the McCain/Palin ticket to win the Presidency.
I held onto the coin as I made my voice heard in a private voting booth on November 4th . And as the polls closed and the results began to come in periodically reached into my pocket to make sure the coin was still there. Before midnight Obama had clinched the election by surpassing the 270 delegate mark. There was a roar of celebration around me that night, much larger than any game-winning home-run or Super Bowl touchdown.
The following day as I went about my usual morning routine there was something different. People were smiling at each other. Strangers were greeting one another and making eye contact. It was a togetherness I had not felt since the days following September 11, 2001 but with a noticeable polarity of emotion. People were coming together in hope rather than fear. A heaviness had been lifted and it seemed that American promise and our status among the nations of the world had been restored.
The coin has remained in my pocket. It hasn't been given up to make the difference to purchase a cup of coffee. It hasn't been broken into smaller coins to make change for parking. it's value has well surpassed the face value of the coin as it was printed in Philadelphia. It has been the most valuable fifty cents I'll never spent.

Vermont Independence: Introduction

The following is the introduction to the culminating study of my undergraduate degree from Union Institute and University. Entitled 'Vermont Independence' the study intended to uncover the roots of Vermont's tenacious spirit. It was written in 2006 and reflects much of the political culture in Vermont at the time (God, I miss Jeffords).

My plan is to overhaul this study. Edit it for content, add chapters on topics not covered, make it current and ready if for publication. But for now I am publishing this here in it's raw form. This was the final draft just before it went to my Advisor and faculty readers.

Introduction

Vermont is said to be one of the most liberal state in the union. Progressive may be the more accurate wording, but regardless of  terms, both of these descriptions fail to capture what is at the core of it all: independence. When the events are looked at, it's the willingness to go it alone when the government fails to meet the needs of its citizens that is the hallmark of the story of Vermont.

    The most glaring example is in Vermont's representatives in Washington, D.C., who act as the collective voice of all Vermonters. Most notable is Vermont's lone congressman Bernie Sanders. Former mayor of Burlington and self-described Democratic-Socialist, Sanders is the longest serving socialist congressman in the history of the United States. It's impressive enough to be elected without the financial backing and political infrastructure that national parties provide, but also to overcome eighty years of red scare propaganda. While serving as mayor of Vermont's largest city, a letter to the editor in a local newspaper read; “I don't know anything about socialism, but Sanders is doing a fine job repaving the streets” (Sanders 64). This is a simple example of how taking care of your constituents can get you much further than political alliance.

    Senator James Jeffords, a longtime republican, served in the state legislature and as attorney general in the sixties. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1974 and represented Vermont until 1988 when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. Early in 2002, Senator Jeffords left the Republican Party and became an Independent, a move that shifted the balance of power in a 50-50 Senate. He had become increasingly distant from his party and was disillusioned with the Republican leadership.

    In his many years as a Republican he often voted across party lines, he voted for the Civil Rights Act of 1991, the Brady Bill, the Family and Medical Leave Act, an end to the ban on gays serving in the military, and was a strong supporter of President Clinton's national health care plan. As an independent he would caucus with the Democrats and chair a number of committees in the Democratic-controlled senate.

    Patrick Leahy, senior Democratic senator, has, throughout his career, stayed true to the core conservative values that has kept Vermont from social, economic and environmental ruin. Leahy is successor to Vermont's most famous politician of the twentieth century, George Aiken, longtime Republican senator and governor who, as a minority Republican governor, opposed Roosevelt's new deal, not on party lines, but on the grounds that it made people rely less on community action and more on the federal government.  Aiken was one of the few senators to oppose military action in Vietnam and when asked what should be done about the situation said, “Let's declare we've won and get out.”

    Although Vermont's representatives may come from different backgrounds and political affiliations, they have usually served the interest of Vermont before the interest of the federal government. One of the points in Republican governor Jim Douglas re-election campaign was Vermont's many law suits with the federal government. One of the strengths of Vermont voters is the ability to look beyond party affiliation and elect the candidate who will best serve. In 1990 Vermont elected a Republican for governor, a Democrat for lieutenant-governor, and a Socialist to Congress.

    When asked whence this spirit of independence came, many people would credit it to the influx of liberals in the latter half of the twentieth century, and if one were going by Joe Sherman's Fast Lane on a Dirt Road this might be the only conclusion one could arrive at, but I see a thread that has linked this spirit since settlement began in Vermont. I searched out many interpretations of this idea but found the historians getting in the way of the facts.  Although in many cases the historian is an able guide through time and space, in this study I wanted to tell the story from my understanding of the events, quoting documentation gathered by historians rather than quoting the historians themselves. I gathered facts, names and dates, to make a timeline of events, and from that, made an attempt to understand the cause-and-effect relationship among these facts. Although the interpretation from some historians lingered in my brain and couldn't be ignored, it is in the synthesis of these ideas that the real learning occurs.

    It has been said that Vermont has more history per capita than any other state. With towns whose charters date back as far as the 1750's, and with most records held by town clerks or local historical societies, so much of the primary documentation is still available to view. This allows historians to gather the facts and synthesize them into a cohesive picture without direct influence of the work of prior historians.

These are some of my notions: Vermont is unique in being the only state that truly created itself. It was never in the plans for the United States; no royal charter was ever issued. Vermont is the bastard child of the American Revolution. After a period of appeal when it was clear that no government would recognize or legitimize the claims of the settlers who cleared and worked the land, an independent state was created from within. New Hampshire had abandoned the settlers and appeals to New York had turned violent.

Autonomy came about out of necessity, and was given validation by a declaration of independence and a constitution. Vermont maintained itself with its own coinage, postal system, and unique system of government that worked on the most grassroots level of town meeting (which still exists strongly today). Vermont took part in international trade and negotiation, and operated as a sovereign nation for fourteen years between 1777 and 1791 without the authority of Great Britain or the United States.

In trying to find answers to how the revolutionary history of Vermont has continued to have a tenacious effect on the politics and the people, I looked to several contemporary histories, and a few that date back as far as the mid nineteenth century. I began trying just to understand the facts of that period in which American independence was achieved and how Vermont got skipped over. I began to see a thread that linked today's independent spirit in Vermont directly to the land disputes in the New Hampshire Grants during the period leading into the American Revolution, out of which rose Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys.

I found that the independent spirit in Vermont is a learned trait, and has been passed down for two centuries. Each generation has witnessed or been a part of Vermont's independent spirit. This statement is supported by former senator and governor of Vermont, George Aiken; “Vermonters for two hundred years have handed down certain attitudes of mind from generation to generation. Some folks called us old fashioned and backward-looking for adhering to the ideals and principles characteristic of the people who settled our state. We value our heritage of ideals” (qtd. in Sherman 607) Since joining the Union, Vermont has maintained its individual identity and has stood up to federal authority when it seemed inconsistent with the laws of the state, nature or the Vermont way of life.

Short of studying the entire history of every state I will support the claim that far from a band of rogue citizens in the United States, the people of Vermont are the conscience and the voice of reason for the entire nation. In a speech delivered at Bennington in 1928, President Calvin Coolidge said, “If the spirit of liberty should vanish from the rest of the union, and our institutions should languish, it all could be restored by the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.”

This supports my notion (or perhaps just a strong personal belief) that if Vermont continues to work from the grassroots and stand up for what is right and not necessarily easy,  it can save the United States and hence the world from self-destruction.

Sunday, Grey Sunday or Our Chinese American Shopping Excurtion.

I was awoken this past Sunday by a text from a friend who needed support in her mission to go shopping. It read “Wake up and & come be American with me. Going to Keene to support the economy of China :-)” I slept through that first text and the subsequent text read “Come onnnn! Don't make me be American alone!!”. I appreciate someone who uses proper capitalization in their texts.

Shopping is nothing new to her but on this particular occasion she was off to what she called “Box-store Hell”. Like many people she tends to shop local and supports small businesses but even the most conscious shopper has to, once in a while compromise their beliefs and their morals in order to satisfy that nephew or niece that wants the latest toy that's been shoved down their pre-consumer throats or maybe just a big box of Crayola crayons. Our rational is that “sometimes you have to live in the gray”.

If black Friday is the day that everyone shops and businesses in effect are in the black, and White Saturday is the day that all the white collar criminal businessmen in their white picket fenced houses and their, most likely, white skin, count their white profits in their white hands , then Grey Sunday is when well-meaning, conscious people compromise their morals and dive into the Box stores and Starbucks en mass.

She picked me up on her way to Keene for what we dubbed our Chinese-American Christmas Excursion. Our slogan: “Be an American, buy Chinese”. I had no shopping I needed to do but I was needed to be there as a sounding board. One that would listen and reaffirm her anti consumerism rants. However, I was in need of underwear and while I could have gone to a local shop and paid three times as much for the same product is was practical for me to give in to the convenience and value that the big box stores offer.

We arrived at our box-store destination and immediately dove into the muck by going to Starbucks and ordering ourselves a mocha. She was feeling particularly festive and got herself the Christmasy peppermint mocha. We determined that there was likely no Peppermint, or mint of any kind for that matter, in the drink. We also determined that this drink (and the entire shopping experience) would be much better if we added some rum to it. To our dismay, and that of our server, Starbucks does not stock rum. But in spite of that it was the perfectly artificially flavored drink to go with our artificial shopping experience.

Her next challenge was to overcome her germophobia and place her hands on the shopping cart that would guide and buffer us through the store packed with holiday shoppers. With Christmas musac blasting through the isles we made our way to the Men's section to get my small task out of the way. Men's sections in stores like these are almost invariably near to the doors. This is so men can go in and do their shopping and get out without getting lost, which they most assuredly would if their clothing were somewhere in the back. We played a quick guessing game as to where my underwear was manufactured. My initial guess was Thailand. I was close. It was Laos. The inevitable and irreverent joke could not be contained. “Little Laotian hands all over my drawers, Some people pay good money for that.” We were lucky that we had only ourselves to offend which is close to impossible.

We continued on and found an array of gifts, the crayons, colored sharpie's and other sundry items. I was struck by a lovely over-sized Batman coloring book and thought of my friend Scotty, who is both literally and figuratively the biggest Batman fan I know. I made the comment that the line art was too nice to ruin by marking them up with crayons. Me shopping partner jumped to a famous line form the film 'Chasing Amy', “Your mother's a tracer!”. I replied with “I'll trace a chalk line around your dead fucking body”. We were so lucky that we had only each other to hear ourselves and if you've never seen 'Chasing Amy' and don't know Scotty, this last paragraph is meaningless to you.

We made it out of our first stop with relative ease and made our way to the next box. Upon entering we were greeted with a painfully overwhelming scent of clove accompanied by terrible jazz remakes of classic Christmas carols. I think it was intend to induce holiday cheer but it only induced a headache. Two headache actually as my shopping partner immediately said “I just want to stab my fucking brain.” We searched for the one item she needed from this store. We couldn't find it immediately but neither of us were willing to interact with anyone else, not even to locate this item. The burn of clove was getting worse and the carols were now driving us from the store like Eddie Van Halen's 'Eruption' drove Manuel Noriega from the Vatican embassy.

Just before our senses collapsed under the weight of their psychological warfare she found her item had we made our way to the crowded check out lines. We assessed the lines based on number of people, the items they had. The last factor, and always the hardest to determine, was the intelligence of the cashier. We don't know what their educational and vocational background. I tend to believe the ones the you would guess are less intelligent would likely have more retail experience. All factors seeming to add up to the same we the less cramped line. We found our selves behind one customer that was struggle with an 18' artificial evergreen garland that was frosted with some sort of white powder that simulated snow. As she contended with the faux decoration the faux snow began to flake off creating a small faux snow storm on and around this customer. as the airborne faux flakes lingered I ask my companion "What do think this shit's made of?" She turn her head and answer in the sweetest matter-of-fact voice "The dreams of Chinese babies."

Soon after getting in line the register next to us opened up and we found ourselves first in line. The Oafish cashier looked to be the simplest of the lot and I found myself feleling confident in his abilities. In a deep polite voice he asked “Did you find everything you needed?” My shopping partner relied “Everything except hand sanitizer”. Then to her extreme pleasure the sweet oafish cashier gave her 50% off her purchase. At this point I would have said "sêntê khuâloq" (except I hadn't looked up "merry Christmas" in Chinese until just now to write this sentence) but I settled for "Merry Christmas".

We do our best to support our local economy. We know the owners and workers of our local stores on a personal level. We have options for quality fair trade coffees in our town. But you can't usually find the right Crayons or the game system that everyone wants, and at times you just need to get socks and underwear without breaking the bank. When you make these purchases we can at the very least pay homage to the Chinese, or Laotian or Bangladese child is counting on our purchase to make what little living they have. And while we'd all love to be able to dictate the terms of our shopping, sometimes you just have to bite the bullet, buy at the box stores, drink your corporate coffee and shut the fuck up!

This Also Brattleboro

[The following piece was written on August 10, 2011 in response to two murders that occurred and the various reactions and attention they received. Written origianlly as a "note" on facebook it was subsequently picked-up by the Brattleboro Commons and ran in the August 24, 2011 issue. http://www.commonsnews.org/site/site04/story.php?articleno=3954&page=1#.Tk6kHu9bQiQ.facebook
I'm posting this here now primarily to boost my blog activity and in an attempt to consolidate my writing into one location on the web.]


A Few Words on Brattleboro:

Brattleboro is my home. I was born at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital on December 21 1973. I've lived here for the great majority of my nearly 38 years. I attended Brattleboro schools, played for its sports teams, been involved in its arts, and have remained an active member of the community. In Brattleboro I've seen unspeakable beauty as well as horrific ugliness. I've experienced every exquisite pleasure, and devastating pain. I've fallen in love and have felt heart break. Here I've reached my highest peaks of achievement and fallen to the lowest depths of my being. I've watched it grow from the rural, working-class town that it was in the early 80's to the lively arts community that it has become. Its proximity to nearby major cities has made it destination for those seeking a slower pace and many from all over have adopted Brattleboro as their home. SIT and world learning have help to spawn a fairly visible international community as well.

Brattleboro is often known for its progressive forward thinking and acceptance (beyond mere tolerance). At any given pub or coffee shop you're likely to see doctors and lawyers chumming it up with construction workers and bartenders in a free exchange of ideas and opinions. Lines of class, gender, age and race become obsolete in this setting.

However there is also within Brattleboro a less publicized, but fairly well-known, culture of poverty, drugs and violence. It was there when Brattleboro was still the rural town I knew as a child. Some elements of my upbringing brought me into these dark places often quietly hidden on small side streets mere blocks from downtown. I've seen some of the worst behavior and acts that one can do to another human being and have known many people who have lost their lives to this environment. This is also Brattleboro. It's part of a greater community. I've seen both sides and at times have had to teeter on the edge between the two.

I'm writing this piece in response to the shooting at the Brattleboro Food Co-op on August 9, just over one week after a drug related shooting near Brattleboro. The murder of Michael Martin took place in the hub of (for lack of a better term) gentrified Brattleboro while the murder of Melissa Barratt took place on a quiet back road outside of town. Both shootings were “execution-style” but for vastly different reasons of which we'll never know all. We know that Barratt's murder was in part drug related and the details of Martin's murder are still being uncovered.

My reaction, the community's reaction, all of our reactions to these events vary greatly. While it is often easy for people to accept (not to be confused with condone) a drug related murder, we have trouble understanding a white-collar or working-class murder. Make no mistake that the shock was felt equally in their respective communities. Both of these people had friends, family and community and the men who performed these heinous acts have robbed us all.

In all of this I'm reminded of the image of the Yin-Yang in its simplest interpretation. The dark encompassing the light and the light encompassing the dark. We have seen in the “light” of Brattleboro a dark element that is not often encountered but surely is there. With that in mind know that within that darkness of poverty and drugs there must be some light. It's a balance that can't be undone.