The graduation speaker at the St. Johnsbury Academy this coming Monday, June 5th will be John Negroponte. Mr. Negroponte’s son is in the graduating class and Headmaster Lovett insists that the former Ambassador was invited because he is “an influential dad.” There have been alleged threats of disciplinary action against any students participating in demonstrative actions against Mr. Negroponte or possessing controversial information about him. There will be a demonstration in front of Colby Hall in St. Johnsbury at 9am on Monday. Please be cautious as there is armed “free speech zone” enforcement and there has been rumor that the Academy will treat public sidewalks as private property.

UPDATE: I uploaded the mp3 from the DNC site. You can listen to it by clicking here. Bottom line? No new ground, but a solid, hard-hitting speech. A bit stiff, but I do think Welch is doing a good job starting to find his inner populist. My expectations are definitely going up, up, up after hearing this, and I’m feeling better about this race than I have in months (and you all know I can be brutally honest if I’m feeling dubious or pessimistic…)

The AP has a few bits, but GMD has more. Nothing groundbreaking, but it’s good stuff and continues to draw a bright shining line of distinction between Welch and the mushy non-opinions of his Republican rival — particularly by squaring him off directly against Bush himself. Again, you should be able to hear it on WDEV or streaming from C-Span at 12:00 (I think). Click on the link for excerpts…

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“It is Time for Accountability, Credibility and Competence in Iraq”

“I have traveled all over the state of Vermont and from farmers to university professors, people are frustrated with the loss of life in Iraq and the way things are going on the ground.”

“We must ensure that 2006 is a year of significant transition to full Iraqi sovereignty. We must establish clear benchmarks for the Iraqis to take care of their own country and defend themselves, so that we can transition our troops out and move to fight a smarter war on terrorism — including doing a better job of securing our ports and our borders.”

“The Republican Rubber Stamp Congress has failed to do its duty when it comes to the oversight of this Administration. Congress has a responsibility to ensure accountability for the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on the Iraq war. Instead of allowing our government to be over-billed by companies like Halliburton, Congress should practice genuine congressional oversight and investigate the way the Bush Administration doles out contracts.”

“Our troops deserve to be treated like the heroes they are and should never face months of waiting for something as critical as health care. Yet, as recently as two weeks ago, the Republican Congress voted against saving veterans from paying $735 million in increased health care costs, and to maintain a tax on military families.”

“At a time when Congress votes for more tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans, votes like these against our veterans are a moral disgrace.”

“Families in Vermont and all over America are frustrated and rightly so. At a time when all the Bush Administration offers us is an open-ended commitment in Iraq, with no real strategy to meet America’s goals, the last thing we need in Washington is another Bush Republican who simply rubber stamps this Administration’s misguided policies on Iraq.”

“It is time for accountability, credibility and competence when it comes to Iraq.  When I get to Washington, I pledge to work for all three as part of a new Congress that offers a new direction for our country.”

I had to share this, with Judy’s permission; an op-ed in the Bennington Banner today, Friday, June 2.

This is the third year in a row here in southern Vermont that we have suffered the ravages of tent caterpillars. These foul creatures eat their way through leaf and limb, wreaking havoc on whatever unsuspecting plant happens to be in the way of their insatiable appetites. They gorge on our apple blossoms, our roses, our maples, and oh, our poor willow was really weeping last summer. At first we merely flicked them off and stepped on them, then when that proved too slow started drowning them in soapy water. My husband devised a contraption that allows him to reach up high and burn the tents, and we’ve since learned about a bacillus spray that kills the caterpillars without affecting other wildlife. After hours of battling them, tree by tree, we’ll think we have things under control – at least until the next hatching.

In the throes of caterpillar combat, as I notice the telltale furry-looking branch or the tree trunk so thickly covered it appears cast in shadow, I recall that during the 2000 presidential campaign in response to a question, then-candidate George W. Bush said his favorite book was “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” by Eric Carle. Never mind the smug anti-intellectualism – this from the fellow who once wanted to be known as the “Education President.” At the time people laughed this off (things were much lighter then, weren’t they?). Yet I can’t help but think of how perfectly the nonstop-feeding larva serves as a metaphor for the Bush presidency.

In the picture book, a staple of the pre-school bookshelf, the caterpillar chews its way through one apple, two pears, three plums, and a host of other foods including chocolate cake, Swiss cheese, a lollipop, and, improbably, salami. In the same way, Bush has decimated the nation’s budget surplus (now a record-breaking deficit), the viability and morale of the military (stretched thin in misguided, mishandled wars), our country’s moral standing in the world (shrugging aside international laws against torture), and our civil rights (through the so-called Patriot Act and unchecked citizen surveillance). The book has the caterpillar building a cocoon and emerging as a beautiful butterfly, a lovely idea indeed. What I imagine speaks to Bush was not the butterfly as symbol of nature’s wonder, but rather the primitive, raw appetite embodied in the voracious bug. This is also the appeal to young children, which is why Carle’s book has become a classic for pre-readers.

In my worst moments – just as I sometimes despair that our trees cannot withstand any more injury – I fear that there’s no stopping Bush and Co. With all the corruption scandals, presidential faux pas, and Three-Stooges-like appointees, this administration has long ago devolved into farce.

Eventually, of course, this will have to end (witness the numerous “1-20-09 Bush’s Last Day” bumper stickers around town). One can only worry about the damage that will be done in the interim – and fight to reclaim the democratic integrity we seem to have lost.

The greedy, plundering regime in Washington is the backdrop to life today. But we still have our own daily challenges. And for me right now it’s fending off that old Axis of Evil: the forest tent, eastern tent and gypsy moth caterpillars. Yesterday my 11-year-old son, Brendan, and I had a harrowing bike ride, as we literally had to duck and weave around Forest Tents dangling from their diaphanous threads. (They float down from upper branches in a kind of belaying fashion, unfurling silken filaments on their descent.) “There’s one on my shirt! On my leg!” he yelled, horrified. Threads were all over our hair, like cobwebs.

We raced back, and Brendan immediately took a shower. I mixed up another half-gallon of bacillus thuringiensis concentrate, and hauled out my spray bottle – to take on the one scourge I could at least do something about on a sunny afternoon.

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Judith D. Schwartz, a member of vermontpeacetrain, is a writer and editor who lives in Bennington.