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SHIFT HAPPENS: Meet VFN’s Jared Cadwell of Fayston

NOTE: “Valley Futures Network is a grassroots citizen network working to make the Mad River Valley watershed a more sustainable 21st century community. We hold public meetings every second Friday of the month from 7:45 to 9:00 am – locations vary. Find out how to get involved at www.valleyfutures.net.

Q. How long have you lived in the Valley?

 A. I moved to the Valley in 1979 to take a job as teacher/dorm parent at GMVS, then known as Mad River Ski Academy and located in Moretown.  I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have been able to carve out a professional career in the Valley as a teacher, coach and education program administrator and equally as important, raise a family here. So, as of 2008, I’ve lived in the Valley for thirty years.

Q. What do you most love about the Valley?

 A. I grew up on the “other side” of the Green Mountains, on a dairy farm in the small village of Pittsford, located between the towns of Rutland and Brandon.  I didn’t know the Mad River Valley existed; how’s that for small world perspective?  In my youth, my world evolved around my uncle’s farm, school, local ski areas in the winter and ball fields in the summer.  So, it’s been endlessly fascinating and enjoyable to get to know the history of the people and the geography of the Mad River Valley.  For example, I took a hike up Slide Brook Road the other day and discovered house cellar/barn foundation holes

and rock walls for a farmstead that existed there 100 years ago.   And, as a Fayston Selectboard member, I get a history lesson almost every meeting from our Board Chair, Bob Vasseur, about some interesting aspect of Valley life past and present. Here, I experience the continuity of a rich and rugged past to the interesting challenges of the present day. ”

Q. How did you get involved in the Valley Futures Network?

A. I was a participant in the Valley Vision Community Meeting back in 2005 and experienced both the pitfalls and potential of “one time event” gatherings.   Members of the Mad River Planning District Steering Committee, the Chamber of Commerce, and several community citizens in conjunction with the Center for Whole Communities decided to develop a different approach to engaging Valley citizens in community projects and collaboration – outside of the existing institutional bodies and organizations.

Q. What do you see as the Valley’s biggest challenges as a community looking ahead over the next several years?

 A. Replacing the Valley floor’s woefully inadequate water and sewer infrastructure.  I realize this is a tough challenge but its one that I’m sure we have the capacity and resourcefulness to resolve.

Q. You’ve been instrumental in starting up the “Valley Habitat” working group. How has your experience with this group been for you?

 A. I’ve been impressed with the habitat inventory and planning work that local planning commissions, conservation/natural resource committees have done with the support of various state agencies and not-for-profit groups.  Our habitat working group has been able to provide a forum for the four towns of the Mad River Watershed to coordinate  habitat research, citizen outreach and engagement.  Under the auspices of the Mad River Valley Planning District we are engaged with the Vermont Agency of Forest and Parks, Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont Audubon, Northern Forest Alliance to provide a series of public information and discussion forums that have and will continue to move the Mad River Valley Watershed towns toward a more coordinated, informed and cohesive set of habitat values and priorities that will lead to enhanced natural resource protection and appreciation.  See our updates on the VFN website.

Q. For anyone interested in the Valley Futures Network, do you have any advice?

A. First of all, this a “come one, come all” community network.  It’s intent is to enhance and build upon current community efforts as well as inspire new, worthy community endeavors.  So, do what you can, when you can – see the VFN website for updates on current and future initiatives!

 

Keeping the Good Pennies

I heard a news story the other day that they were about to replace the Lincoln Memorial pennies with something new.  (Hey, wait a minute, didn’t they just do that?)  I remember clearly Kenny in my first grade class bringing in a roll of the new pennies and passing them out to everyone in class.  Kenny’s father owned the Flying “A” gas station with the red Pegasus logo at the new shopping center near the railroad tracks and he was the first in town to get the new currency. 

 

That was the gas station where I did my first fill-up and waited in line during gas rationing in the 1970s.  And that was the station where my father and younger sister adopted a scrawny yellow Labrador mix that we eventually called Teeny.  My dad grumbled about the new dog but eventually ended up bragging about the dog’s nose and retrieving ability.   Many of my friends had part-time work at that station and it was a big part of our community.

 

The nearby train tracks led to the big city.  I remember riding the double-decker train cars on our annual shopping pilgrimages to the City of Paris in December.  I think I even have a dog-eared photo of me on Santa’s lap at a time before personal computers, polyesters, and ATMs.   

 

OK, I know the anchor of this tale happened 50 years ago, but I have a point.

 

Part of my point is that Flying “A” was gobbled up by Mobil and then eaten again in the Exxon-Mobil merger—no room in that mix for community, dogs, or part-time employment for neighborhood kids.  Gone also are the City of Paris and the railroad tracks where trains sailed freely into the City.  They were torn up to put in an expressway that is constantly bumper-to-bumper.  This latter action was a monumental piece of poor judgment.

 

I and others lost much when we allowed all of this happen.  So the rest of my point is that maybe instead of charging forward with a new penny or merger or project that we do a better job of considering all the consequences.  We are at a point where the Planet, our economy, and social fabric can no longer absorb our whimsical and ill-formulated decisions.  We have also finally reached a point where we understand that all growth is not always best, bigger is not always better, and ignorance does not always lead to bliss.  Perhaps the economic turmoil, global warming, peak oil, and loss of community are forcing us to grow up and be responsible.  Perhaps in our maturity we will now have the fortitude and moral compass that will allow us to keep the good pennies we need and abandon the bad pennies regardless of how shiny they may be.  We can only hope.

 

Just some musings….Bob

Valley Moves Minutes from 1/8/09

Valley Moves Meeting Minutes   January 8, 2009, Wait House, 6pm
Present:  Sue Frechette, Stan Ward, Liz Weller, Bobbi Rood, James Foreman, Erin Russell Story, Dave Cain, Joshua Schwartz, Laura Brines, Brian Fleischer
Agenda:
Working Group Reports:
*  Shared Transportation: James Foreman and Erin Russell Story, Co-Chairs
The State “Go VT” organization has had a staffing shake up, their website will not be up & running until March ’09 (many months later than expected);  James is developing a website, Madriverforum.com, which he hopes to introduce at the “Hopeful Inauguration” celebration for feedback.  One of the features of this forum will be that folks can post info re. carpooling or vanpooling  possibilities…
James will submit an article about the new website, etc. to the VR in February.

*   Valley Walk and Roll Festival- Dave Cain, Chair
The Festival will be May 11-15, which coincides with the National Bike to Work Week; The State “Way to Go” week, which encourages businesses to support alternative transportation ideas will be, May 5-8.  Dave has been in touch with Steve Gladzuck, of “Way to Go”, and some joint PR will take place.
The Festival will be the same as last year’s, with some new ideas under consideration:
•    A Bike Clinic-  folks would learn how to maintain their bikes by working on the fleet of Mad Bikes (helping the Mad Bikes get serviced while learning new skills)
•    A bike swap (similar to the Ski & Skate Sale)
•    A Women’s Bike Clinic, sponsored by Sugarbush
•    A raffle for a new bike  (fundraiser for the Mad Bikes)
•    2-3 hour bike education courses
•    Other?
Next meeting of the Valley Walk & Roll Festival Working Group:  Feb. 2, 7:30 a.m. at the Three Mtn. Café.  All are welcome!

*  Mad Bikes of Waitsfield- a Town of Waitsfield Committee:  Bobbi Rood, Laura Brines, Liz Weller, Kari Dolan, Peter Lazorchak, Sue Frechette and Troy Kingsbury
The fleet of bikes and all the new bike racks are being stored in James Foreman’s barn;  Laura will write a report for the Waitsfield Town Report;  Hopefully some of the bikes will be worked on by Steve Skilton’s shop class at Harwood Union High School over the winter (Troy will contact Steve);  $2000 grant was received to support this project by the Mad River Valley Rec District.

2.  Valley Moves structure
Working Group Chair functions:  Each working group of Valley Moves has a Chair or Co-Chair.  The Chair(s) will keep in touch via email, and call meetings when needed.  Info regarding these meetings will be posted on the VFN website, via email to the list, and on the new Madriverforum.com
If anyone has a new idea for transportation related project, either share it at the monthly VFN meetings, the quarterly Valley Moves meetings, or communicate via email to create a new working group.

Set 2009 quarterly meeting dates for Valley Moves:
Acting Chairs will: publicize the meeting, create an agenda, take minutes,
bring snacks ☺, etc.
April 9:  Dave, acting Chair
July 9:  Erin, acting Chair
October 8:  Bobbi, acting Chair

VFN Monthly meeting attendance:  we decided not to structure this, 1 or more Valley Moves members will try to attend monthly.

3.  Other ideas:
*  Wind Powered  Electric Cars /Batteries – Dave Sellers:  Bobbi described Dave’s exciting       idea!
•     Brian Fleischer told us about a petition to get businesses in the Ag District (Am. Flatbread, for ex.) to have more flexible zoning possibilities.
•    MRPA survey-  Laura encouraged everyone to do the survey.  The MRPA is in the midst of Strategic Planning.
•    Central VT Rec Trail Group:  Joshua talked about this new initiative, they are working on developing a Central VT Trail Website, similar to Localmotion’s (Burl.)  Hopefully the MRPA will collaborate with this initiative.

Please Take the Community Wood Use Survey!

This survey will help improve understanding of fuel wood use in the Mad River Valley and provide information useful toward achieving the goal of energy independence.

Please click on this link to open a .pdf of the survey. Print it, fill it out and then send it in to the address included on the survey. Thanks. (And please pass it on!)

MRV Wood Use Survey

MRV Residents to Benefit from Energy Efficiency Program

The Mad River Valley has been selected to host a home energy savings program by Efficiency Vermont. The Vermont Community Energy Mobilization (VCEM) Pilot Project is a community-based volunteer program to help residents improve energy efficiency and save money in their homes.

The goals of the VCEM program are to recruit and train volunteers to conduct free home energy efficiency site visits in order to help home owners identify needed efficiency improvements. Efficiency Vermont will cover the costs of volunteer training and energy saving products for direct installation in the homes of program participants. Locally, the project is being spearheaded by the Valley Futures Network (VFN) energy group, the Carbon Shredders and the Mad River Valley Planning District.

“In Vermont, and particularly here in the Valley, we take care of each other, especially when times are difficult. This is the time when these kinds of actions are needed the most,” said Dennis Derryberry, chair of the VFN energy group. “This is a great opportunity to learn some skills, give back to your friends and neighbors, and cut energy use and carbon emissions in the Valley while helping others to save on their energy bills. That’s a great combination.”

A preliminary meeting to organize volunteer efforts will be held in conjunction with the VFN energy group meeting on Wednesday, January 21 starting at 6:00 PM at the Wait House in Waitsfield. Anyone interested in volunteering to help move this project forward is welcome to attend this meeting. For more information about the Jan. 21 VFN meeting please call Dennis Derryberry at 496.7662.

Local organizers hope to have 50 or more trained volunteers to conduct the home site visits. The number of trained volunteers will directly impact the number of homes that can be visited and energy saving measures implemented. Volunteer training will likely occur between early and mid- February, and attendance at that training session will be required to conduct volunteer home energy assessments. The date and location of the volunteer training session will be announced next week.

Mad River Valley residents interested in having a free energy efficiency assessment performed on their home should call Dennis Derryberry at 496.7662 or Dan Story or Erin Russell-Story at 496.2767. Efforts will be made to accommodate as many requests as program funding and volunteer resources will allow. However, the number of homes that can be visited will be somewhat limited, so preference will be given to homes showing the greatest need for energy efficiency improvements and residents demonstrating the most financial need.  All site visits and assessments are projected to be complete by mid-April.

Participate in the Mad River Path Survey!

The Mad River Path Association invites you to participate in a brief survey that will help us with our strategic planning. We value your input in the process. As a thank you we will enter your name in a drawing for a free membership. Survey input is anonymous, but there is a place at the end of the survey to enter the raffle.

Completion of the survey takes only a few minutes Please click on the link to the Constant Contact survey site and the guided survey will open. Keep clicking on continue to proceed. If you prefer not to answer on-line, please call Bobbi Rood to complete the survey over the phone weekday evenings before 9 or the weekend before January 15 at 496-4198.

Thanks for your participation!

FILM REVIEW: Branded New World – “Consuming Kids” Goes Inside the Twisted World of 21st Century Children’s Marketing

In honor of Waitsfield Elementary School’s Scholastic-Free book fair going on over this next week, in which parents and teachers bypass the corporate commercial marketers to deliver books of their own selection to our school for affordable purchase by students and families, let’s cut to the chase.

The 21st century United States is now home to 52 million kids under the age of twelve.

Folks who work with these kids – parents, teachers and health care professionals – are deeply concerned about ever-increasing rates of bipolar disorder, depression, type II diabetes, hypertension, and obesity. All recent trends brought on, in part, by our kids’ unhealthy “media diet.”

But for Big Media advertisers, these kids represent the most profitable demographic in marketing history, as they spend or influence the spending of (can you say “nag factor?”) 40 billion dollars a year.

The bottom line – marketers targeting kids now spend an annual $17 billion to try and reach our little ones.

What the heck is going on?

This is the question explored in an important new film by the Media Education Foundation called “Consuming Kids.” The film is a provocative look inside the deeply twisted world of corporate commercial children’s marketing, and features a wide-ranging cast of parents, scholars, educators, authors, and citizen activists, all of whom have spent years defending kids from the voyeuristic predations of corporate marketers.

“Voyeuristic predations?” Certainly, you exaggerate.

Nope. In the film, Boston University Born to Buy author/scholar Juliet Schor (a parent of two) details how marketers routinely conduct focus groups with little kids splashing around in showers and bathtubs. Why? To make close and careful observations about how kids interact with products as banal as bath soap, so these marketers can better enhance the marketing power of their emerging wares.

Now that’s creepy. Yet it happens routinely in the world of children’s marketing.

Consider the following few examples:

• “American Idol,” with its seamless merging of product placement (Coke, anyone?) and entertainment, is one of the country’s most watched show for kids between the ages of 2 and 11.

• Marketers routinely conduct MRIs on children – tracking their neurophysiological responses to various ad messages to better refine and sharpen the persuasive power of these messages.

• Contrary to what you might think, “Seventeen” magazine – with its relentless “hair, clothes, make-up = life” message, is not read by teenagers. Instead, the magazine (and dozens just like it) is read by “tweens” – girls between the ages of 8-12.

• In 2006, fast food restaurants in the United States sold more than 1.2 billion children’s meals with toys to children under 12.

• What about Baby Einstein? The film suggests that this $20 million for-profit “educational” enterprise is nothing more than a scam – as there is absolutely no research proving the effectiveness of the device.

When did this relentless marketing assault begin? The film rightly notes that, while advertising to kids has been with us for decades, the commercial “carpet bombing” of our young people began in earnest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, sanctioned by a Congress that “defanged” the Federal Trade Commission (the FTC is the federal agency charged with regulating advertising to kids) and the deregulatory environment ushered in by the Reagan administration.

The numbers tell part of the story. During the early 1980s, marketers spent $100 million a year to reach kids. Today, the numbers are astronomical, contributing to a kids culture that emphasizes, according to one observer, “self indulgence, instant gratification, obsessive materialism, and a “this is about me in these things now” attitude.

Our brave new world of immersive media technologies – the Internet, mobile phones (5 million American kids between 5 and 12 years of age have ‘em), text messaging, mp3 players and the like – offer unprecedented opportunities for marketers to access the hearts, minds and wallets of kids like never before. Anyone who has ever seen a Webkinz at work knows how marketers use a $15 stuffed animal to drive kids online (visit the web site and enter your secret code, so you can meet ad shop with other owners!) where corporate marketers can gather personal information to continue their marketing game.

The bottom line? “We have become a nation that places a lower priority on teaching our children how to thrive socially, intellectually, even spiritually,” Juliet Schor concludes, than it does on training them how to consume.”

Indeed.

What can we do about all of this? Cradle-to-grave media education in our classrooms and communities is a good place to start, and is making inroads in schools and communities around the country. Organizing community campaigns to regulate marketing in our schools and other public spaces is another useful strategy. And educating parents is vital, as well. Ultimately, as parents, teachers, and citizens, it is our collective job to take a stand against the corporate predations of media marketers – for the health of our children, our families, our communities, and our culture.

Rob Williams is a Waitsfield School Board member who is deeply grateful to all the parents, teachers and administrators who make the independent book fair happen every year.

Over the Hills: Songwriter Lucy Kaplansky Comes to the Mad River Valley

Lucy in Vermont...

“A truly gifted performer, full of enchanting songs,” gushes The New Yorker.

“The troubadour of modern city folk,” exclaims The Boston Globe.

“As warm and tasty as cinnamon tea, as hopeful as daybreak,” proclaims Rolling Stone.

The performer in question is New York City singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky, one of the most nuanced and gifted folk musicians of our generation. And Valley residents will have an opportunity to share the love when Lucy comes to Mad River this Saturday as part of the Valley Players Showcase acoustic series capably assembled by Bruce Jones and his trusty team.

I’ve been listening to Lucy for years, first noticing her unique musical mojo when she provided back-up vocals for well-known songwriters like the Big Apple-based Suzanne Vega, Boston’s Shawn Colvin (back in the day), and Jersey Boy John Gorka. Kaplansky’s voice has a mesmerizing crystalline quality to it – not quite as “hide, wide, and lonesome” as, say, Allison Krauss, but equally arresting, and she uses it to full dynamic effect in all of the projects in which she is involved.

And fortunately for all of us, Lucy embarked on her own solo career several years ago, crafting songs that are at once intimate and personal, but also in a powerful and understated way that speaks to the universal human experience. When you hear Lucy perform, you are reminded, as Marcel Proust was with that little gateau, of your own moments, your own “a ha’s,” your own transcendental experiences, even the small ones.

And this, perhaps, is Lucy’s greatest genius. She can turn a seemingly mundane or clichéd moment – “hey, look, the moon” – into magic through the power of song. She has this knack for immediately “placing” the listener in another world with laser-like precision and great compassion, as she does in the first verse of the first track of her new CD, entitled “Manhattan Moon:”

You say you want to see the moon
Outside of our living room
Over the Manhattan sky
Like we saw last night

And then she connects that moment with the larger universality of the human experience, with the chorus, like so:

I used to travel in a straight line
Now I’m walking on a road that winds
You take my hand we take our time
Oh, we take our time…

A simple and very effective songwriting formula, and Lucy uses it to maximum effect.

She is also smart enough to surround herself with some remarkable musicians – veterans of the songwriting world: the masterful Duke Levine on the high strings (electric guitar, mandola), Ben Wittman on percussion, and standout vocalists like Jonatha Brooke and Richard Shindell on harmony vocals.

Lucy has another nifty talent, as well – she is a fine (and daring) interpreter of other people’s music. Case in point: on an earlier album, she throws down the most remarkable version of an old Police tune from “Ghost in the Machine” called “Secret Journey.” I laughed at her hubris when I first heard her– after all, what is a singer/songwriter from the Big Apple thinking, recording a Police song? – but by the end of the tune, I was hooked.

On her new CD, she pays homage to June Carter Cash (rendering her own sexy version of “Ring of Fire”), Bryan Ferry (Roxy Music’s cult classic “More Than This”), and the under-appreciated but wonderful wordsmith Loudon Wainright III (“Swimming Song”). On this last one, she does what she does best, taking a funny song, and making it both funny and poignant.

As a complete musical package – singer, songwriter, straight-ahead musician, and gifted storyteller – Lucy is awfully hard to beat. I’ve seen her half a dozen times over the years, and I’ll probably go hear her again this Saturday night, to be reminded of music’s power to captivate, heal, and inspire.

Hope to see you there.

BOOK REVIEW: Eugene Jarecki’s AMERICAN WAY OF WAR

Waitsfield resident and filmmaker/author Eugene Jarecki will be signing copies of his new book on Friday night at the Big Picture, and Saturday at Sugarbush Ski Resort.

Booking the Empire: “Why We Fight” Filmmaker Makes His Case In Print

What happens when an award-winning documentary film producer turns to a print monograph to make his case?

If you are Eugene Jarecki, the answer (to borrow a baseball metaphor) is: you hit a solid triple, with an eye towards home plate.

Jarecki’s new book – The American Way of War: Guided Missiles, Misguided Men and a Republic in Peril (Simon and Schuster, 2008; 324 pages) – is a provocative and personal exploration of the same crucial themes he explored in his Sundance Film Festival 2005 Grand Jury Prize-winning documentary “Why We Fight.” Ignore Jarecki’s “confession” to being “first and foremost a filmmaker” on page 1, rather than a “policy scholar, a soldier” or an “insider to the workings of America’s military establishment.”

Pay his humility no mind. Jarecki possesses a keen eye for detail, an ability to listen closely to his subject’s personal and professional motivations (and the often-felt tension between the two), and a knack for speaking synechdocally – that is, using individuals and moments to illustrate larger systemic and historical truths, and the reader is the better for it.

The book begins, as his film does, with President Dwight David Eisenhower’s 1961 “Farewell Address,” in which the prescient Ike warns Americans to guard against the dangers of the “military-industrial complex,” that potent and profit-seeking combination of special interests that might spell the death of the U.S. republic. Jarecki then takes us on a historical and global tour of the United States, from its early 20th century emergence as a global imperial force to the present moment, with some remarkable stops along the way, from interviews with air force pilots and West Point cadets to conversations with those in the highest levels of government, including Richard Perle and Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who proclaims the United States to be “the greatest force for good in the world today.”

How McCain measures this goodness is, of course, a matter for readers to ponder, given the economic and political realities of our current moment, and Jarecki’s book, while wisely steering clear of an attempt to exhaustively chronicle America’s empire-building abroad, explores the historical tension between America’s desire to remain a neutral, even isolationist player on the world stage, and its desire to build an Empire. Eisenhower, for whom Jarecki has deep admiration (as have I, even more so after reading Jarecki’s book) remains the central figure here, walking a remarkable line between competing pulls on his loyalty as a military man, a policymaker, and a compassionate human being in a tough position of leadership.

Not surprisingly, as Eisenhower himself warned, the war-making and profit-taking interests have dominated this debate during the past sixty years, and Jarecki takes pains to explain the nuances that undergird the building of the most powerful (and expensive) Empire in world history. His final chapter – “Shock and Awe at Home” – is a referendum on the past eight years of King George’s administration. For anyone who is unfamiliar with or has forgotten how the USA PATRIOT Act, or John Yoo’s new and novel legal theory of “the unitary executive,” or the John Warner and Military Commissions Acts, or the FISA nonsense, or dozens of other presidential abuses of power have reshaped the federal government’s very essence over the past eight years, a close reading of this chapter alone is worth the price of the book. And I am not comforted by the conclusion most observers make here – that, once Mr. Bush exits office stage right, somehow everything will “return to normal.” Sunset clauses somehow provide little comfort here.

Speaking critically, as a U.S. historian and secessionist/ decentralist, my arguments with Jarecki’s book are not insignificant. I find troubling his refusal to touch the mountain of evidence – the scholarly and well-researched work of David Ray Griffin or Michael Ruppert, for example – that suggests that the 9/11 attacks served as a “false flag” operation engineered by elements within the U.S. government to advance a “new Pearl Harbor.” This is an odd omission, since this phrase is one he uses repeatedly in the book, quoting the Project For A New American Century’s statement calling for a new “defensive” posture – one that essential advocates a policy of “full spectrum dominance” in which the U.S. militarizes the entire globe and outer space. (Orwell would be nodding knowingly right now.)

Jarecki’s otherwise spot on “iron triangle” analysis – in which he masterfully considers the intricate interconnections among the U.S. military, profit (and war) seeking global corporations, and both the legislative and executive branches – largely leaves out the vital role of U.S. media and “news” outlets as propaganda arms for war-making (General Electric manufactures weapons systems for the Pentagon AND owns NBC, which hypes war 24/7. This is not a coincidence).

And, perhaps most importantly, Jarecki chooses to downplay the tremendous amount of money U.S.-based multinational corporations (and the politicians who front for and work with them – Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and the current occupant of the White House, He Who Must Not Be Named) have made supporting what former Bush I insider-turned whistleblower Catherine Austin Fitts calls “the tapeworm economy.”

The country of Iraq is a perfect example here. Let’s connect the dots: the U.S. military-industrial-media-energy-complex makes money bombing and destroying Iraq (Ka-ching!), “rebuilding” Iraq, often badly and/or corruptedly (Ka-ching!, Part 2), while privatizing all of its assets (Ka-ching! Part 3). Oil, black gold, is the bloody tip of the spear point here, as 1 million Iraqis have died since the U.S. 2003 invasion, 2 million more have been displaced, and the U.S. taxpayers have been left footing what Nobel Prize winning economist Joseph Stieglitz has estimated to be a $3 trillion dollar war (“on terror, that “will not end in our lifetimes,” according to Mr. Cheney.)

If I sound outraged, I am – and, while I deeply appreciate Jarecki’s willingness to listen to all sides, I found myself wishing he’d take off the gloves, at times. But I am also willing to own my own sense of outrage, and laud Jarecki for his vital contribution to this important and unfolding conversation about the future of the United States under the regime that is the “military-industrial complex.” In turning to typography, filmmaker Jarecki has produced what many will see as a minor tour de force, an important book at a pivotal moment in the history of the United States republic-turned-empire.

Valley Futures Network: Meet Kate Plummer of Moretown

Q. How long have you lived in the Valley?

A. 5 1/2 years in Moretown.

Q. What do you most love about the Valley?

A. The river, the farms, and the great elementary school here in Moretown!

Q. How did you get involved in the Valley Futures Network?

A. I am interested in local currency projects, and joined the Onion River Exchange (ORE) timebank which is based in Montpelier last spring. But, I wanted to see if there was a way to make that sort of thing happen in the valley. I just happened to see a VFN ad in the Valley Reporter, checked out the website, and, lo and behold!–there was a Local Currency workgroup! I was really excited, emailed the contact person, and within a week had attended my first meeting as well as the June VFN retreat at Knoll Farm.

Q. What do you see as the Valley’s biggest challenges as a community looking ahead over the next several years?

A. I think that the biggest challenge will be whether we allow the changes that are happening right now, in the country and in the world, to separate us or to unite us. I believe that the only way to be a successful community into the future is by strengthening our connections to each other, across individual differences like financial status or how we choose to recreate or have fun.

Q. For anyone interested in the Valley Futures Network, do you have any advice?

A. Don’t think you have to know everybody, or anybody for that matter! Just come to a VFN meeting and start sharing your hopes and ideas and energy. I didn’t know anybody in the group at first, but they’ve been friendly and welcoming and respectful, which is great.

Note: We invite any Valley resident of good will to visit our web site at www.valleyfutures.net, sign on to support our vision statement, and join our working groups and list serves online. Please direct your questions and ideas to VFN facilitator Rob Williams at rob.williams@madriver.com or call 802.279.3364, or contact any of the working group chairs for more information.