The Northcountry Chronicle

Whatever Happened to Chance?

by

by Jean Stimmell Today nothing happens by chance: It’s always someone’s fault. Even illness is now seen as personal failure: We blame the victim, saying it is their fault because of what they ate or didn’t eat, the amount they drank, or whether or not they exercised. Absurdly, after the 9/11 terrorist attacks in 2001, the architects of the World Trade Buildings were threatened with lawsuits, alleging the design of their buildings was faulty because the occupants couldn’t get out safely. Legal scholar Jeffrey Rosen noted in the aftermath of that attack, “contemporary Americans, in particular, are not well equipped to deal with arbitrary threats …

Read moreWhatever Happened to Chance?

“The People vs Agent Orange,” the PBS Documentary

by

by Paul Nichols Formidable advances in technology have generated various long-term health problems for US servicemen and women. And likewise, to opposing forces and the general public who reside in the war-torn countries, including the unborn. History provides too many examples: Ionized radiation exposure during nuclear testing in the 1950’s in Nevada and South Pacific Islands caused numerous cancer deaths among witnesses too close to ground zero. Gulf War Syndrome from Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and later wars in Iraq and Afghanistan spawned significant human-made health maladies from factors such as toxic exposure to smoke and fumes from burn pits and contamination from depleted …

Read more“The People vs Agent Orange,” the PBS Documentary

Let’s Create a Bank System That Serves People, Instead of Bankers

by

Corporate ideologues never cease blathering that government programs should be run like a business. Really—what businesses would they choose? Pharmaceutical profiteers? Big Oil? Wall Street money manipulators? High tech billionaires? Airline price gougers? The good news is that the great majority of people aren’t buying this corporatist blather, instead valuing institutions that prioritize the Common Good. Thus, by a 2-to-1 margin, Americans have stunned smug right-wing privatizers by specifically declaring in a recent poll that our U.S. Postal Service should not be “run like a business.” Indeed, an overwhelming majority, including half of Republicans, say mail delivery should be run as a “public service,” even …

Read moreLet’s Create a Bank System That Serves People, Instead of Bankers

Dreaming about Retirement

by

I recently had a vivid dream about getting a call from my professional licensing board telling me they were revoking my license because I was abusing pain medication. I tried to tell them I took no such drugs, that they were prescribed for Coco, my 15-1/2-year-old dog, who is in at-home hospice care. But they hung up on me, throwing me into a tizzy. While I intend to retire the end of next month, I wasn’t ready yet. I ponder what my dream is trying to tell me. Certainly, I will miss seeing my patients, but my practice takes more out of me each year. …

Read moreDreaming about Retirement

We need a clean energy strategy!

by

Clean energy technologies can benefit us – but we need a strategy! by Roger Stephenson, Northeast Regional Advocacy Director, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Rep. Peter Somssich, District 27/ Portsmouth Jerry Seinfeld once said: “No one likes change except a wet baby.” Most of us would just as soon avoid change but, like it or not, the fossil fuels to which we’re accustomed are a dying breed. Science says we must cut emissions pollution in half by 2030. Fortunately, we are in the midst of dramatic technological innovations that allow us to use non-polluting renewable energy efficiently at affordable prices. The three main components of …

Read moreWe need a clean energy strategy!

Change is driven by the young, not us grizzled elders

by

Recently I wrote in this space about how humans are born into this world unfinished, requiring a long childhood to learn the norms and practices of their particular community. For the community to thrive, what we pass on to our children must change in step with societal changes. This unparalleled ability to change, as psychologist Alison Gopnik tells us, “is the most distinctive and unchanging thing about us, allowing us to thrive no matter what challenging circumstances we had to face over our long evolutionary history.”1 But societal change isn’t driven by our grizzled elders but by our children. As sociologists like Tressie Cottom tell …

Read moreChange is driven by the young, not us grizzled elders