Column: The vicious hit that changed football

By RANDALL BALMER

Oct. 20 marks the 70th anniversary of one of the ugliest chapters in the desegregation of college football.In many ways football was ahead of other team sports in North America in racial integration. At the professional level, Charles W. Follis became...

Forum, Aug. 27: Metastatic prostate cancer can be tamed

Metastatic prostate cancer can be tamedTouched as I was by staff writer Anna Merriman’s story of Paul Wildasin’s life as a father, theologian, environmentalist and Woodstock community member, I was pained to learn that he died of metastatic prostate...

Column: Inside the Mormon money machine

By RANDALL BALMER

James Huntsman wants his money back. We’re not talking here about a refund for a defective car battery or food processor. We’re talking about millions of dollars that Huntsman claims to have donated to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints...

Column: Assault on public education shifts to the states

By RANDALL BALMER

For those of us who care passionately about public schools, the departure of Betsy DeVos as secretary of education comes as a relief. Unfortunately, due to the Supreme Court’s misguided Espinoza v. Montana decision, defenders of public education...

Column: The lessons of the pulling boat

By WILLEM LANGE

Foghorn? Right here! Give it a toot; make sure it’s working. Thank you. Bilge pump? Port side of centerboard trunk. Is it working? I don’t know. Two plastic buckets? Right here! Fill one of ’em to check if the bilge pump’s working. Good. Charts?And so...

Jim Kenyon: Controversial alumnus, donor puts a black mark on Dartmouth College

By JIM KENYON

When I saw a construction crew toiling away this summer on the facade of the Black Family Visual Arts Center in Hanover, my spirits soared.Could Dartmouth actually be removing the Black name from one of its leading downtown buildings?No such luck.On...

Column: Why Belleau Wood matters

By MADELEINE JOHNSON

On Nov. 11, 2018, President Donald Trump was scheduled to observe the centenary of World War I’s armistice in the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery and Memorial, where the dead of the Battle of Belleau Wood are buried. At the time, I and a dozen other...

Column: High school hallways may be a danger zone

By PAUL KEANE

Every year for 25 years I spent 189 days inside a school building. That’s 4,725 days, according to my calculator. So I’m familiar with the territory. That’s why I’m concerned about bringing students back to school when the COVID-19 shutdowns finally...

Column: Those liberal Southern Baptists

By RANDALL BALMER

The Southern Baptist Convention has gone liberal. That’s the message of a new, insurgent group of right-wing Baptists called the Conservative Baptist Network of Southern Baptists. This group of pastors in the Southern Baptist Convention announced the...

Editorial: Walmart strains police resources

Walmart’s blue-light special is no bargain for either shoppers or taxpayers. Unlike Kmart’s iconic old promotion, the Walmart blue-light special, which is being rolled out in the Upper Valley and across the country by the end of this month, does not...

Column: Revival or rerun? Return of the televangelists

By RANDALL BALMER

In case you hadn’t noticed, the televangelists are back. They may be less obvious than before, because they have taken advantage of a fractured media landscape. Whereas during their earlier heyday, the 1980s, they competed in a less crowded field and...

Column: Remember the true meaning of Memorial Day

By MEAGHAN MOBBS

If you’ve lost someone to war or conflict, every day is a kind of Memorial Day. For the rest of us, once a year we are called upon to actively honor the sacrifice of our uniformed men and women who’ve died in service to our nation.People have a...

Column: Is anyone truly a native of anywhere?

By MICKI COLBECK

Last month I wrote a piece for the Valley News called “Snow labors; or, becoming a Vermonter.” Not surprisingly, a few emails arrived attempting to educate me about who can be called a Vermonter. All good-natured, they were written by people who had...

Editorial: The lingering damage of an old criminal record

Before he became a country music superstar, singer and songwriter Chris Stapleton was in a bluegrass band called The SteelDrivers. Several songs on their first two albums involved young men interacting, not happily, with the criminal justice system....

Column: The Men Killed on a Single, Bloody Day in Vietnam, and the Haunting Wall That Memorializes Them

Joel Achenbach

John H. Anderson Jr. had just turned 20 years old when he arrived in Vietnam on the last day of April in 1968. Like so many of the 500,000 Americans who served in Vietnam in 1968, he’d been drafted.The young soldier, who lived in Wellsville,...

Column: The Rise of Fascism in 1930s America

Seva Gunitsky

The violent white nationalist rally in Virginia has reawakened simmering fears of American fascism. But the roots of these feelings — and the militant organizations that promoted them — did not begin with the election of President Trump. The last time...

Column: American Patriotism: It Really Is Pretty Special

Mark Lilienthal

Admit it: You’re pretty jazzed to be in America at this time of year. Strawberries from farms around the Upper Valley are red all the way through. White daisies are as ubiquitous as daylight. Blue swimming pools in Hanover, Bethel and Woodstock are...

Column: Are Flowers Better Than Bullets?

Paul Keane

Who cares — who even realizes — that a Russian poet died at age 83 last week? We are much more caught up in Russian hacking than Russian poetry. Yevgeny Yevtushenko wrote a poem about a girl I saw at breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day in 1969 and...

Column: Drinking Age and Drinking Culture Are Relaxed in Chile

Katrina Wheelan

I am 18 years old, but when I order wine in South America, the waiter asks only one question: “Red or white?” If I bought alcohol in the United States, it would be a criminal offense. In America I can legally vote, buy a gun, serve in the Army, and...

Willem Lange: After Cancer Finding, Holding on to Hope

Willem Lange

MontpelierA few years ago, when I signed up with a new personal care provider in central Vermont, she asked, “What are your goals for your health care in the coming years?” She didn’t say it, but I knew what she meant, which was “in the few short...