Date: Saturday, 10 April 2010
Time: 5:00 – 9:00 PM
Location: Ripton Community House
Route 125, Ripton, Vermont
Bayley-Hazen Boys

Dear John Ryan,

I read with interest your letter in Seven Days last week in response to my letter about their so-called media issue. (I printed your letter out below in its entirety.)

Even though you and I have never actually met, we do seem to share much in common.

We're both good-looking fellas.

Rob Williams.

Editor's Note: We profiled our favorite Vermont-based social network - Michael Wood Lewis' Front Porch Forum out of Burlington in a recent issue of Vermont Commons - looks like they just got a big plug in Yankee magazine by Ripton writer Bill McKibben. Check it out.

Editor's Note: Much of what passes for "news" in our mainstream corporate commercial "news" culture is, in fact, very sophisticated propaganda: the one-sided dissemination of a particular point of view at the expense of diverse and wide-ranging perspectives. Sherwood Ross' article highlights some disturbing trends - the Empire maintains itself, in large part, through the perpetuation of the same stories over and over. Our job is to "cut through the clutter" with new, fresh, and compelling ideas and points of view.

Maybe it is something in the water (or oil?), but American imperial pop culture suddenly seems to have taken over by some strange apocalyptic vision. Novels like M.T. Anderson’s Feed and James Howard Kunstler’s World Made By Hand; television shows like CBS’ “Jericho,” ABC’s “Lost,” and Fox’s “24;” and recent films like The Road, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the deeply bleak but strangely compelling writer Cormac McCarthy all construct stories of a civilization teetering on the brink, or already engulfed in flames.

More than 160 Vermonters threw down $50 per ticket Monday night to join hometown heroine Grace Potter at the Big Picture Theater in a musical benefit for the people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti. The Eames Brothers warmed up the lively audience with an hour of upbeat roots-y blues, accompanied by Nocturnals drummer Matt (a.k.a. Cado) Burr, before Grace took the stage at 9:30 in a rare solo (and I use the term loosely) performance for the standing-room-only crowd.

Maybe it is something in the water (or oil?), but American imperial pop culture suddenly seems to have taken over by some strange apocalyptic vision. Novels like M.T. Anderson’s Feed and James Howard Kunstler’s World Made By Hand; television shows like CBS’ “Jericho,” ABC’s “Lost,” and Fox’s “24;” and recent films like The Road, based on the Pulitzer Prize winning novel by the deeply bleak but strangely compelling writer Cormac McCarthy all construct stories of a civilization teetering on the brink, or already engulfed in flames.

Editor's Note: We got a few calls and emails from Randolph area readers frustrated with THE RUTLAND HERALD's February 4th editorial in which they essentially refused to cover discussions of Vermont independence in their newspaper, citing that they have "better things to think about." Here's one response.

David Atkinson
2062 Riford Brook Road
Braintree, Vermont 05060

Letters to the Editor/The Herald
Randolph, Vermont 05060

Dear M.D.

“There is nothing so strong or safe in an emergency of life as the simple truth.” – Charles Dickens

The Corporate News Media: Not in the Business of News