By Guy Page

This news story, if you can call it that, has nothing to do with Vermont. Except that anything Elon Musk says and does on X is interesting to many Chronicle readers, especially when the tech/media mogul starts talking about religion. And it seems that he is talking up Christianity, according to a Wall Street Journal story.

In a July 24 tweet on X, the social media platform he owns, Musk tweeted: “Christianity has become toothless…Unless there is more bravery to stand up for what is fair and right, Christianity will perish.”

When a friend made a ‘huh, what’s up?’ comment, Musk responded: “I believe in the principles of Christianity like love thy neighbor as thyself (have empathy for all) and turn the other cheek (end the cycle of retribution).” 

Not exactly a ringing, theological, ‘Here I Stand, I Can Do No Other’ Luther-esque utterance. But on the other hand, by his own example he’s saying he’s fine with making provocative statements about faith on X. 

Again, not exactly an anti-Sign of the Apocalypse. Maybe just a sign that his rather significant part of the media world has pulled back from the brink of mass cancellation.

WDEV covers Democratic National Convention – Sen. Peter Welch attended the tumultuous 1968 Chicago convention as protester. 

That’s just one of the interesting facts emerging from the on-site coverage provided by WDEV, the only Vermont media outlet to send a reporter this year to both the Republican and Democratic national conventions. As a result, reporter/station owner Myers Mermel was the only press in attendance when the Vermont delegation met this morning to hear Sen. Peter Welch and other members of Congress.

Mermel recounted on air this morning that Welch told the assembled Vermonters that he was at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, where cops and hordes of anti-war protesters tangled outside. Chicago was not unknown to the Massachusetts native, who was a community organizer with a Kennedy-family related foundation in the Windy City in the late 1960’s. 

Welch, born in Springfield MA in 1947, was a rising senior at Holy Cross College that summer. He graduated with a history degree in 1969. He earned his law degree at Cal – Berkeley in 1973.

At the time, the Democrats were seen as ‘the war party,’ having had a Dem commander-in-chief for virtually the entire U.S. direct military involvement in the War in Vietnam. Welch and thousands of other active participants of the anti-war movement targeted the convention with demonstrations, some of which saw violence from both protesters and police. 

Another interesting fact: a self-described progressive member of the Vermont delegation told Mermel she was “jazzed” at the selection of Tim Walz as VP, as were many other progressives. He was ‘their’ pick, she said.

Reporter gets involved in skinny-dipper story – A first-person account by John Freitag, Stafford correspondent for the White River Valley Herald , begins thusly:

“Your Strafford correspondent, who is very involved in many community activities, has to be careful when writing news stories where he is a subject. Sometimes, I just skip what might be considered news because of my involvement in the story.

A good example came up last week in regards to the Lions Club Pond, which as a club member I have volunteered to manage for over 20 years. I purposely did not write the story, but as the Valley News decided to run an article, thought it might be worthwhile to put something in The Herald as well.

On Sunday, Aug. 4, two women were swimming at the pond. A middle-aged white male with longish hair who had a car with South Carolina plates, and as it turns out, does not have a local address, who was at the pond decided to take his clothes off. It made the women very uncomfortable.

Freitag continues that this is the second time this guy has done this. Now – little known fact! – skinny dipping isn’t illegal in Vermont. However, private property owners may ban swimming in the nude on their own property – which the Lions Club has done. 

The guy was trespassed by the Club President. Freitag posted the notice on the town listserv and the town Facebook and offered to be a contact with both the community and the trespasser. He adds that “Stafford Constable Ed Eastman has stepped up his patrols of the pond.” Freitag concludes:

It all makes for a tricky situation for this correspondent, whose tendency these days while reporting the news, is to try to do it in a way that focuses on the positive, highlights potential solutions, and looks for humor in our White River Valley way of life.

Speaking of finding humor, I asked Dennis Cronan, who delivers mail out of the South Strafford Post Office, if he still goes skinny dipping, knowing it was not uncommon in the past to strip down and enjoy a refreshing jump in a pond, especially after haying. Of course, you used some common sense about where and when you did it. Dennis said he no longer skinny dips and thinks that if anything, there should be an age limit after which skinny dipping should be against the law. Given what I and others my age look like these days, I would agree.