And by “completely different,” I mean winter raptors.

This coopers hawk showed up in our yard this weekend:

Note– all these photos are smaller versions.  Clicking on them gets you to the larger versions hosted on my web site.

And it got me thinking: what other really cool, big birds, can we find in winter in Vermont?

A fairly unusual one that showed up throughout New England this year is the Northern Hawk Owl:

Northern Hawk Owls are rarely found in New England, and when they do show up here, they are forced down by scarcity of food in their own area, so when we see one in the region, as with last winter, we tend to see several.  The one I photographed came from Eden, VT, on my third attempt to track one down to photograph (the other, unsuccessful, trips were in Troy, NY, and Center Harbor, NH).

Northern Hawk Owls, like Snowy Owls…

…and short-eared owls…

Are daytime feeders.  One of the reasons most owls are so difficult to photograph is that they, like this barred owl:

tend to hunt at night, making it uncommon to see them in the daytime.  This is why I’ve only managed to photograph a few owls outside of captivity.

Most all of our raptors migrate.  Even though we have red-tailed hawks around throughout the year…

the ones we get in Summer go South for the winter, and are replaced by ones who come down from the North.  

Among non raptors, the winter can bring large woodpeckers, such as this red-bellied woodpecker:

And this pileated woodpecker:

Feel free to post your own bird photos, bird observations, etc, in the comments.  

We’ve had some fairly major arguments here lately and find ourselves collectively on multiple sides of a complex issue that many of us take personally.  

So I just want to be clear about something: I really do love this blog and I love that we can take such strong positions in opposition to one another without forgetting that we have a lot of common causes and, in many cases, common respect.

So this is a Christmas day, not at all about politics, but about whatever is going on in our lives.  After the fold, a little fun stuff.

Maybe it’s just because I’ve been out of touch lately and just so focused on personal stuff that I’ve found it difficult to keep up with the day to day changes in the health care bill and the many permutations it’s experienced, but I don’t care about the battle, except as a means to an end.

I want to be clear: this isn’t aimed at anyone’s specific comments or point of view.  It’s more of a general perspective on the overall tone I’ve read and seen in a lot of different places.  

But here’s the short and simple: I don’t care about the battle here.  I don’t care who wins and who loses.  I don’t care who comes out of this on top or looking best or anything else.  I just care about health care reform and what we can get, what we will get, and how to get the best possible end result.

Franky, I think we’re kind of screwed, at least in the short term.  We’re dealing with an opposing party that has, in no uncertain terms, demonstrated its complete and total unwillingness to be part of any sort of rational debate and discussion.  They want nothing more than to take all of us down and that’s all they’ve got.  It’s their one move, and I give them some small credit for playing it well and with consistency.  

But our problems aren’t with them.  They’re with our own side.  It’s our own weaknesses that make this such a monster.

The legislation I’ve been reading about has good things in it, but it’s got some pretty bitter pills that we’d have to swallow and I’m having real trouble figuring out whether or not it’s worth swallowing.  I am so completely and totally torn on this and I just can’t figure out which side I’m on.  I’m leaning towards supporting passage with the hopes that we can improve upon it in reconciliation.

But I want to say something fairly simple: there are a lot of people who support health care reform who are very angry with one another right now and not treating one another particularly well.  I’m not talking about the politicians.  I think we have an active obligation to challenge Sanders, Leahy, Dean and every other public figure who supports health care reform to do the right thing on this bill, even if we’re not in agreement as to what the right thing is.  We need to let them know that there is pressure from the left and that we’re not pleased and keep that pressure on, even if it’s just to ensure that all this gets addressed in reconciliation with the budget process.  

But I don’t believe for a moment that we’re acting in bad faith.  I don’t believe for a second that people on either side of this specific bill are being disingenuous, duplicitous or acting out of anything but an honest point of severe frustration with what they’re seeing go down.

We all want health care reform.  We want it sooner rather than later.

What we’re disagreeing on is how best to get there.  

We’ve got good reasons for disagreeing.

I have no answers here.  I just want to say– I respect that we can have this fight and I respect our passion for our views, our ideas and our points of view.

I don’t care who wins this.  I just don’t want us all to lose.

Per today’s Rutland Herald:

Entergy Nuclear unveiled a new public relations campaign Thursday as Vermont regulators and the Vermont Legislature will consider the future life of Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

The advertising campaign also comes on the eve of the company’s expected release of its contract offer to Vermont utilities for power from the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant.

And, of course, there’s this.

Williams refused to say how much Entergy Nuclear was spending on the print and television ads, but said the ads would begin running in statewide media this week.

What gems?  What words of wisdom are part of Vermont Yankee’s campaign?

Well, they warn us, without VY, “electric rates could rise” and we could experience “vulnerability to fluctuations in the regional power market.”

Wow.  I had no idea.  With VY, electric rates never rise, and we’re never vulnerable to fluctuations in the regional power market.  It’s very nice of them to tell us this.  Without the money they’ve spent on this ad campaign, I might never know how much I love Vermont Yankee.  I even went to their website and filled out a form, explaining why I support VY.

I wrote that all the good VY does gives me a warm glow inside.

This is great news.

I offer this quote, from Bianca Fernandez, one of the organizers of the shelter:

“There has been a lot of controversy over this, but at the end of the day mostly everyone was supportive,” Fernandez said. “There were not many people who opposed it, but those who did, did so loudly. Now even some of them are supportive and are offering a hand to help.”

So yes, this sort of thing does change the character of the community.  It changes it for the better.

I will also make this announcement here, now that it’s ready to go: I’m organizing a benefit concert in Bellows Falls on February 6th to support this shelter and help give them operational funds to keep them open through the season.  Stone Arts Church in Bellows Falls has already offered space and I have one great musician (Jesse Peters) as a definite, and several other potentials lined up.  If you’re in the vicinity and want to see a great show for a great cause, save the date!

I posted before about the hopes to build a homeless shelter in Bellows Falls.  One voice opposing that shelter is that of Stefan Golec, who has no actual facts, but has a lot of opinions.  Per today’s Rutland Herald:

Bellows Falls Village Trustee Stefan Golec spoke strongly against the shelter, questioning the wisdom of placing it in the downtown business district and whether there was a need for such a large shelter.

“Once you build it, they will come,” said Golec, who said he was representing the entire Board of Trustees.

…and…

…Golec said the shelter would place “an undue burden on services,” provided by the village, “particularly police.”

“The character of the area will be unfairly affected,” he said.

Did Golec present any evidence?  No.  Did he show any data that would support his claims?  No.  But, gee golly, it sure sounds good.  

Could it possibly be that this shelter isn’t there to attract new homeless people to the area but instead to try to help those who are already there to survive the winter?

Seriously: is anyone willing to make the claim that there’s anything about New England which will attract homeless people to the area?  

“Well, it’s colder than you can possibly imagine, but I hear they’ve got a decent shelter up there.  Let’s hop a train!”

Here’s the simple truth of the matter: Bellows Falls has homeless people.  If we don’t find a place for them to stay at night, it places them at undue risk.  A place for them to stay from dusk through dawn is the very least we can do to help them, and I do mean the very least.  The arguments against this shelter are not based on reason or risk analysis.  They’re based on fear and prejudice.

UPDATE some interesting history on Golec after the fold

I got a tip after writing this piece about an old Ruland Herald piece on Golec:

Village trustee Stefan Golec forwarded at least two Internet jokes and messages this month to town officials and community leaders that contain derogatory terms for Muslims and are critical of their culture and religion.

One e-mail he forwarded labeled Muslims as “brutal and uncivilized” and another referred to them as “Towel Heads.” The e-mails were sent to friends, community leaders and this reporter.

But it’s homeless people that will damage the community.

Classy!

When John Lennon died, I wasn’t a huge fan of his.  I was young at the time, and it was before I had realized I was a musician and didn’t really understand much of anything about music.

But I did understand something about people.  Standing at that bus stop, getting ready for school, the older kids who were usually brash, often funny, sometimes obnoxious and generally full of themselves, were really subdued.  

I think that may have actually been the moment when I started to understand something profound and crucial about music: that it’s not just about playing notes and making sounds, but it can have genuine impact and influence on peoples’ lives.   It may have very well been the beginnings of my interest in music as a craft and a model for change.  

I think I could write for hours about this if I let myself.  A friend of mine recently got diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease), which is fatal.  It’s gotten me thinking lately about life, death, and what we leave behind.  Some of you know there have been times in my life that have been really rough.  There are times in there where I suspect that music was the one thing that was keeping me going: just something I could grab on to that I could understand and believe in, even when the rest of the world seemed to be failing me,

But mostly, I just want to say to John Lennon, whom I didn’t get while he was alive, you’ve had a profound and lasting effect on me, but I wish I had learned it a different way.

Per today’s Rutland Herald:

A Washington County sheriff’s deputy on security duty Wednesday accidentally discharged his firearm inside a downtown Barre courthouse.

I’d suggest reading the full story for effect, but I’ll give the summary: Sheriff’s deputy brings personal gun to work.  Decides to take it to work because he’s on a motorcycle and can’t secure it properly.  I’m guessing the rest of the story goes something like this: Sheriff’s deputy, thinking gun is unloaded, decides to play with it in courthouse.  

Hijinks ensue.

Per today’s Rutland Herald:

In what Gov. James Douglas called a “critical step” toward resolving the state’s budget woes, the administration Thursday announced a two-year labor agreement with the state’s workers that will cut union salaries by 3 percent.

In addition to pay cuts, the tentative settlement eliminates pay raises and annual cost-of-living adjustments in a deal that will result in about $2 million in general-fund savings in fiscal year 2011.

Douglas Spokestooge Lunderville, however, made it clear that this isn’t just about state employees:

While pay cuts for state workers represent an important measure on their own merits, Lunderville said the agreement also sends an important message to public-sector employees around the state, particularly school teachers.

“This agreement today does provide a blueprint for school districts and municipalities to follow as they try to find savings and keep taxes low,” Lunderville said. “This is a new standard for public employees, and one we hope folks around the state will look to.”

Because what we really want to be doing right now is demoralizing teachers.

I wonder if Salmon’s employees are still getting those raises.

Note: I wasn’t at this meeting, but I got a first-hand summary from someone who was.  I’m also friends with several of the attendees and am therefore not fully objective:

In today’s Brattleboro Reformer, there’s a piece by Howard Weiss-Tisman:

A public forum that was scheduled to answer questions about a proposed homeless shelter for downtown Bellows Falls brought out a large group of supporters for the project.

About 35 people attended the meeting, which was held at Our Place Drop-In Center.

And while there were some concerns about the funding and location of the shelter, most of those who spoke said they thought the village needed to have a place for people to spend the night during the winter.

A group made up of church and business leaders, social service workers and local residents wants to open the shelter at 33 Canal St. If the plan moves ahead, the shelter will be open from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and will have up to 15 people spending the night.

The main village of Bellows Falls is one stretch of road– it encompasses a movie theater, a sporting goods store, an American Legion post.  On either end there are some gas stations.  There used to be other businesses on that stretch.  Sover.net got bought out and is no longer housed there.  Oona’s, a great location for music venues, burnt down a few years ago.  The hardware store is still there.  There’s a bookstore and a bank.

The proposed location for the shelter is right off of main street, on Canal street, which starts across from the movie theater and goes up along the canal, running opposite from the train station.

This is a very small stretch of land, and there are several homeless people whom you can see out in the area pretty much any day of the week.  Some of these homeless people are veterans who came back damaged enough that they just couldn’t make things work.  Some of them are just ordinary people who either took or got taken on a wrong turn somewhere.

There were a few people at that meeting last night who objected to that shelter, because of fears about what the homeless would do and whether or not they presented a danger.

The thing is, these aren’t people who are in Bellows Falls because of its amazing opportunities and potential for growth.  They’re there because after being ground up and beaten down, it’s just where life spit them out.  They’re in the town already, and winter in Vermont is pretty damned cold.  So we have choices.  We find a way to help them survive the cold and give them a chance to live another year, or we simply say that our fears are more important than that, that it’s worth it to let someone else die because we’re worried about what the nearby shelter might do to our sales revenue.

I’m probably being a little unfair here, so I should be clear: I don’t think anyone who argued against this shelter is a bad person.  I just think they’re blinded by their own fears and prejudices.

But I should also be clear about something: there are a lot of places where good people have room to disagree about something of consequence and that everyone has a good and valid point.  

This is not that case.

This shelter needs to be built.