THERE IS NO CODE INTENDED IN ANYTHING I WRITE ON THIS PAGE.
The library in town doesn't open until later today.
April 18, 2011 8:37 a.m.
--I think that what I wrote last year about the Duke case casts reasonable doubt on whether Crystal Mangum lied about having been raped by Duke lacrosse players. If her life was bad before that case, her life was indescribably worse after the case was closed and the men were acquitted. I don’t think that she should be held responsible for all of her actions since the Duke case was closed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ 9:31 a.m.
--Although the Times Argus and the Burlington Free Press are both owned by Gannett, which is a large, out-of-state news service that owns small-town newspapers in a lot of different states, I have noticed that the newspapers in Vermont tend to be several steps behind other large, out -of -state newspapers in terms of social and political evolution. That’s not always the case on every issue, but it is a general trend.
I doubt that I would have had as rough a time as I have had if I hadn’t been in Vermont when larger forces outside of Vermont starting picking on me. For a couple of decades, the Vermont state government has been trying to figure out how to keep college-educated people in their 20’s and 30’s from fleeing the state in droves. Everything it has tried has either not passed or failed.
I am not someone who dismisses people who are 20 or more years older than I am as having nothing to offer the world. It’s been several years that I have been capable of enjoying conversations with people that age and upwards; I tend to have a lot in common with people who are much older than I am in terms of overall life perspective.
However, gender seems to be a big divider for people in that age group, more so than it is for people in my age group.
There has been one news story after another over the past 20 years about how Vermont is getting “greyer and greyer.” At one point a few years ago I was talking to someone who worked at the Community College of Vermont and she said that there were people who were wondering if there would be enough young people in Vermont to take care of everyone who was going to need to be in a nursing home soon.
Now that Champlain College has become a four-year school and undergone a dramatic expansion, now that UVM has done major renovations on its campus, and now that community colleges have become much more relevant in the lives of people graduating from high school who cut their education costs by getting their Associate’s Degree before they go on to finish at 4-year schools, the population demographics may change over the next 10 years. I would not say that those demographics are changing full force as of yet.
As behind the times as Burlington might be, there’s still a joke about Burlington that’s been around for a while.
“Burlington’s a nice place, and it’s so close to Vermont.”
I have been enjoying the fact that the Vermont town I’ve been in since I left the Vermont State Hospital has a lot more rural area immediately accessible to me than the Burlington area did. However, as is usually the case, there is an inverse proportion between the amount of beautiful, rural landscape and the progressive tendencies of the population.
When I walked in to the Department of Labor this morning, I saw that the large poster on the board entitled “DISCRIMINATION IS AGAINST THE LAW” has been partially obscured by a packet of papers, the first of which says “It’s A New Day: We are making changes in how we provide services.” That packet of papers has been tacked up right over the part of the poster that says “LAW.” Looking at it directly, the anti-discrimination notice from the federal government’s Civil Rights Center reads:
DISCRIMINATI
AGAINST THE
Copyright L. Kochman April 18, 2011 @ 10:38 a.m.
The library in town doesn't open until later today.
April 18, 2011 8:37 a.m.
--I think that what I wrote last year about the Duke case casts reasonable doubt on whether Crystal Mangum lied about having been raped by Duke lacrosse players. If her life was bad before that case, her life was indescribably worse after the case was closed and the men were acquitted. I don’t think that she should be held responsible for all of her actions since the Duke case was closed.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
@ 9:31 a.m.
--Although the Times Argus and the Burlington Free Press are both owned by Gannett, which is a large, out-of-state news service that owns small-town newspapers in a lot of different states, I have noticed that the newspapers in Vermont tend to be several steps behind other large, out -of -state newspapers in terms of social and political evolution. That’s not always the case on every issue, but it is a general trend.
I doubt that I would have had as rough a time as I have had if I hadn’t been in Vermont when larger forces outside of Vermont starting picking on me. For a couple of decades, the Vermont state government has been trying to figure out how to keep college-educated people in their 20’s and 30’s from fleeing the state in droves. Everything it has tried has either not passed or failed.
I am not someone who dismisses people who are 20 or more years older than I am as having nothing to offer the world. It’s been several years that I have been capable of enjoying conversations with people that age and upwards; I tend to have a lot in common with people who are much older than I am in terms of overall life perspective.
However, gender seems to be a big divider for people in that age group, more so than it is for people in my age group.
There has been one news story after another over the past 20 years about how Vermont is getting “greyer and greyer.” At one point a few years ago I was talking to someone who worked at the Community College of Vermont and she said that there were people who were wondering if there would be enough young people in Vermont to take care of everyone who was going to need to be in a nursing home soon.
Now that Champlain College has become a four-year school and undergone a dramatic expansion, now that UVM has done major renovations on its campus, and now that community colleges have become much more relevant in the lives of people graduating from high school who cut their education costs by getting their Associate’s Degree before they go on to finish at 4-year schools, the population demographics may change over the next 10 years. I would not say that those demographics are changing full force as of yet.
As behind the times as Burlington might be, there’s still a joke about Burlington that’s been around for a while.
“Burlington’s a nice place, and it’s so close to Vermont.”
I have been enjoying the fact that the Vermont town I’ve been in since I left the Vermont State Hospital has a lot more rural area immediately accessible to me than the Burlington area did. However, as is usually the case, there is an inverse proportion between the amount of beautiful, rural landscape and the progressive tendencies of the population.
When I walked in to the Department of Labor this morning, I saw that the large poster on the board entitled “DISCRIMINATION IS AGAINST THE LAW” has been partially obscured by a packet of papers, the first of which says “It’s A New Day: We are making changes in how we provide services.” That packet of papers has been tacked up right over the part of the poster that says “LAW.” Looking at it directly, the anti-discrimination notice from the federal government’s Civil Rights Center reads:
DISCRIMINATI
AGAINST THE
Copyright L. Kochman April 18, 2011 @ 10:38 a.m.