The following is quoted from an e-mail to the All_Aboard list by L.H. [nawdry@gmail.com]

Susan Pantell, a research associate with the Light Rail Now Project, has just completed an analysis of worldwide terrorist incidents in transportation spanning the past 40 years (1967-2007). Here's a quick breakdown of the percentage of total incidents by mode (rounded to 1 decimal):

Private Motor Vehicles 73.7%
Buses and Stations/Stops 9.5%
Aircraft and Air Facilities 8.6%
Rail Transit Trains 3.6%
Intercity Rail Trains 3.0%
Boats, Ships, and Maritime 0.9%
Other Transport Vehicles or Facilities 0.6%
   more »

Across the river in New Hampshire a Wal-Mart supercenter is going in. On iBrattleboro, someone linked their local currency campaign to concern that Wal-Mart was going to sap away the business from the two existing supermarkets in town (which I presume it will).

Two issues here - the local currency, which sounds good to me - and Wal-Mart vs. Hanniford's and Price Chopper. It's that latter that I want to address.

I can't cry too much for Hanniford's or Price Chopper loosing business to Wal-Mart. They are all big corporations.

Do you know anything about Price Chopper and Hanniford's? I thought not.   more »

[Published in the Windham County Commons February 1, 2008] Once upon a time, in 1830, after the second great awakening, 80 percent of Vermonters were regular churchgoers. “The most churchgoing people in the protestant world,” according to a state historical society paper written by Randolph Roth. And those who weren’t worshippers found themselves on the outside of society and many joined the westward migration.

Vermont’s beautiful emblematic community churches are a product of this age, before the automobile, before the rise of dairy farming, even before the railroad.

Now, according to the American Religious Survey, just 24 percent of Vermonters are church regulars — the lowest in the nation. Nationally, the rate is 42 percent. But the state's many churches have endured, marking human communities which also endure, despite the challenge of shifting demographic trends.

I was the pastor of one of these churches.

When I arrived at Vernon Union Church in 2001, I found a lovely classic white church, well kept, but quite empty. Only 15 to 25 regulars graced the sanctuary, built for 100. Some expressed concern that they were a dying church. Could I help?

It’s unexpected, being a Quaker and a pastor. But I’d been to seminary and when Sept. 11 happened, I decided to stop wondering what I was supposed to do and get up and contribute. Those were my skills and I could see that we needed community and healing and the institution ordained for that purpose is the church.

So I called Pam Lucas, the associate minister of the United Church of Christ, and asked how I could be useful. I’d discovered I liked the UCC — liberal, Christian, welcoming, and often at the center of small town Vermont. I liked that, unlike Quakers who have always held themselves a bit apart, the UCC is a mainstream church.

It turned out that days before, the Vernon church had called her in a panic, seeking a pastor. She figured this timing wasn’t a coincidence and suggested I call them. “Well,” said Steve Moore after my first sermon, “you didn’t embarrass yourself — do you want to come back?”

And so I began my sojourn.   more »