House Speaker Paul Ryan has unveiled his plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act . One early headline from the New York Times sums it up this way: “Republican Health Proposal Would Direct Money from Poor to Rich.” A dramatic example, as reported by Business Insider , concludes that under the new plan the 400 wealthiest households in America get a tax cut of seven million dollars per household per year.

Like everyone who travels Route 30 to and from Brattleboro, I’ve been watching construction of the new I-91 bridge over the West River for years. The project began in the fall of 2013, when interstate traffic moved onto the southbound bridge and PCL Civil Constructors began dismantling the old northbound span, girder by girder.

When my daughter and I visited the Jewish cemetery in Gross Gerau, Germany, where my father’s family is buried, we were shown where to look for my grandfather’s stone by the German cemetery keeper. He proudly told us that most of the gravestones had been repaired by his Christian community - an act of redemption.

Many young people are, by nature’s design, rash and impulsive and in loco parentis educators must often deal with the fallout from their students’ lack of experience. Real-life consequences and good mentoring, mature them over time or they become infantilized adults.

My grandparents arrived in America, refugees of a genocide perpetrated by an Islamic government against its Christian citizens.

Canada’s in our DNA, literally. Canadians, blue collar and white, have always been drawn south to the United States by economic opportunity. Between 1840 and 1930, nearly one million French Canadians migrated to New England’s mill towns; and knowledge workers like physicians, engineers and entertainers, drifted south thereafter.

The President of Middlebury College, Laurie Patton, is disappointed, and for good reason.

One response to the current political climate is that the number of people involved in political organizing and working for social justice throughout the state has increased substantially.

One recent, wet morning, I shuffled into the meeting room. The coat rack held a cross-section of Vermont outerwear—fancier dress coats, parkas smeared with that gray muck we all get from bumping into our cars, and a good number of gritty Carhartt jackets.

I’ve been calling my representatives in DC - and other people’s too. I’ve urged, begged, scolded and thanked. I actually prefer writing, but I’ve been assured by ex-senate-staffers that calls work because they must be tallied. They say emails and petitions can be ignored, while snail mail is slow because it must be tested for toxins and explosives.