‘What Makes Vermont Special’
We just want to thank you for writing about country stores [“If We Don’t Have It, You Don’t Need It,” March 12]. In February, we went to the Wayside Country Store in West Arlington, which you featured. We had not been there before, but we had a wonderful conversation with Nancy Tschorn, and I asked the group of old coffee drinkers around the table if they were the “government in exile.” They laughed.
We have been to many of these stores around the state, and I think they are part of what makes Vermont special. I would encourage all your readers to support them whenever possible.
Thanks for all your good work.
Robert Fuller and Alyson Parker
Lincoln
COVID-19 Was ‘The Twilight Zone’
The pandemic was more than simply “blurry” [“Viral Stories: The Vermont Historical Society Unveils Its COVID-19 Oral History Project With a New Book Edited by Garrett Graff” and From the Publisher: “Five Years … and Counting,” March 12]. It was an episode of “The Twilight Zone,” a pile of contradictions flirting with mass insanity.
Disinfecting my groceries in those first weeks because someone on TV recommended it. Then losing my job — four months into “15 days to slow the spread.” A café refusing my cash because it could be infected but keeping their tip jar. Following colored arrows on floors — because science — only to read Dr. Anthony Fauci’s statement, years later, that they just made up that six-foot stuff.
Picking up a mask at the hospital, then reading on the box, “Not intended to provide protection against biological pathogenic airborne particulates.” Wearing a mask to enter a restaurant only to remove it at the table. Seeing so many people masked all alone in their cars.
Watching the rollout of myriad vaccine “incentives,” from free junk food to million-dollar lotteries to (for some) getting fired if you decline. Hearing Vermont’s health commissioner proclaim our nation-leading vaccination rate and “wall of immunity” “even if it’s a variant” — and then reading, six months later, about record cases from the next variant. Hearing experts and pundits push vaccination to stop the spread, only for them to eventually say, with straight faces, that the vaccines actually weren’t designed for that.
The world tumbled into its “new normal” orbit, an ordeal dotted with paradoxes amid the suffering. It kicked off a decade that only grows more surreal. If another shock like COVID-19 comes along, let us hope the center will hold.
Jeff Euber
Essex Junction
Puzzle Pieces
[Re Feedback: “Thoroughly Puzzled,” March 12]: As a longtime devotee and enjoyer of your weekly crossword puzzles, I read with amusement the letter from Gregory Hennemuth expressing his difficulty in finishing your puzzles. I almost always finish them, but it would not be so without the help of ISSA RAE, EERO Saarinen, ANI DiFranco, MEL OTT, Bobby ORR and the entire ALOU family.
Michael Quaid
Williston
Focus on Burlington, Not Gaza
[Re “War of Words: A Campaign-Trail Spat Over Israel and Gaza Could Complicate City Council Business in Burlington,” March 12]: I’m incensed. With all the problems we face in this city, are we really having a “war” over a war? Does anyone see the irony?
What does this have to do with city governance? How does this help anybody? It may be admirable to stand up and fight for what one believes, but the City of Burlington is not the ring for this fight. We have big problems to deal with. How sad to allow our passionate feelings about complex, heartbreaking conflicts elsewhere to bring out the worst in us or in our supporters. Dirty fighting is dirty fighting, no matter how just (we believe) the cause.
Oh, the grievances, the righteousness. How about we oppose war and injustice by trying to be the best humans we can be, inspiring others to do the same instead of mirroring global dysfunction? It does appear councilors are trying to come to the table and put differences and hurt feelings aside to work together on important problems here in Burlington. We can only hope.
Now, more than ever, feels like the time to use our energies for the common good, feel good about who we are as individuals and about how we treat one another, and do what needs to be done (quickly, please) to restore our beloved city.
Let’s focus on getting our own house in order. Let’s “be the change.” Please?
Lisa Bridge
Burlington
About ‘Antisemitism’
[“War of Words: A Campaign-Trail Spat Over Israel and Gaza Could Complicate City Council Business in Burlington,” March 12] misses a main point of the Shalom Alliance’s accusatory letter. The letter was strategic.
The U.S-funded genocide — the practice and intent to eradicate the population of Gaza — is thoroughly documented by the International Court of Justice and Amnesty International. How do you defend the indefensible? Change the topic to alleged antisemitism.
The “apartheid-free community” pledge ballot item denounced by the Shalom Alliance and blocked by Burlington Democrats roots the genocide in Israel’s apartheid regime, occupation and colonization of Palestine. Israel’s Zionist project has always been about removal of the indigenous population to make a Jewish majority, a Jewish supremacist state. Gaza’s population mostly comes from families evicted by Israel in 1948. Apartheid, or now genocide, maintains Jewish supremacy when 50 percent of the population in the territory controlled and claimed by Israel is non-Jewish.
If supporting Israel — including the ethnic cleansing creating it and the apartheid regime maintaining it — is the goal, then you can understand the Shalom Alliance’s strategy to discredit “apartheid-free community” by charging antisemitism. Change the topic to defend the indefensible.
Falsely equating antisemitism with protest of Israeli apartheid and genocide grossly exaggerates the antisemitism where it is most consistently confronted. This hides the very dangerous rise of antisemitism on the far right — which supports Israel. Elon Musk stood next to President Donald Trump to give a Nazi salute.
U.S. support for Israeli apartheid and genocide boomerangs back to reinforce white nationalism at home. This needs to be the story.
Paul Fleckenstein
Burlington
Keffiyeh Is a Political Statement
On a recent visit to Burlington, I stumbled on Seven Days and the well-written article by Courtney Lamdin, “War of Words” [March 12].
As a Jewish woman, former longtime synagogue president and retired print journalist, I felt compelled to write. What happened on October 7, 2023, in Israel was a dastardly and cowardly act by Hamas that terrorized and brutalized Israel. What followed has been a brutalization of Gaza in retaliation and an attempt to save hostages. There are no winners, and a discussion and argument of the history and politics of the area would take up more space than is available here.
Israel continues to be a country where homes contain “safe” rooms and bomb shelters dot the countryside. And in Gaza a new generation that hates Israel and Jews has been created. Jews worldwide mourn and fear for the future.
Unless the councilwoman in question routinely wears a keffiyeh, wearing it on October 7 to a city council meeting is a political statement where none should be and a slap in the face to Jewish people. Surely an Israeli-Palestinian debate is beyond the charge and scope of business of a city council.
Joyce Kirsner Peck
Torrington, CT
Don’t Fall for TIF
[Re “Dollars for Developers: Housing Builders Want Assistance to Pay for Infrastructure Such as Streets. Will It Happen?” March 5]: Tax increment financing has been sold dishonestly to Burlington voters again and again as “free money.” We’ll get millions for streets, sewers, lighting, water lines and upgrades — we’re told — and this won’t cost us a penny or raise our taxes a bit.
This is not true. TIF borrowing siphons millions from TIF districts over decades — millions that otherwise would be available for city services and statewide funding of schools. TIF even vacuums up funds that would seem destined for the public coffers, such as those that materialize when a previously tax-exempt property like the former YMCA comes onto the tax rolls.
Yet the TIF pitch continues. These are public improvements, we’re told — not a subsidy for private development — even though private development always requires provision for streets, water, wastewater and electricity and has inevitable impacts on schools, police, fire departments and parks.
Expanding TIF to address the housing crisis is directly at odds with funding schools — another crisis that needs attention.
If housing developers want more subsidies — and of course they do if they can get them — they need to open their books so the public can see what “pencils out.”
And if public funds are justified even for market-rate housing (Could it even be called market-rate housing then?), these funds must be secured not by raiding the education fund or compromising city services but through income tax or other means.
Crises demand thoughtful solutions. Too often they are leveraged to serve special interests rather than the public interest.
Michael Long
Burlington
Looking for a Handout
The summary of [“From Florida, With Love: A Homeless Couple Came to Vermont for Services. They Found a Home,” March 5] reads: “Ana Winn and Tony Pickard, a homeless couple, moved to Burlington for the state’s social services.” Doesn’t that just say it all!
Brooke Hadwen
Burlington
Homeless People From Out of State?
[Re “Scott Vetoes Budget Adjustment Bill Over Motel Spending,” March 14, online]: Despite the endless media clamor over the plight of the homeless in Vermont, the demographics of that group are one of the best-kept secrets in the state. I refer to the number of out-of-state “immigrants” relying on Vermont taxpayer dollars.
The latest publicly available government numbers come from a nearly 40-year-old report, “Homelessness in Vermont,” published by the Vermont Department of Human Services in March 1986: “The study found that … 38 percent were out-of-staters.” Requests for updates have been ignored, especially by the office of the former lieutenant governor.
Transparency? These are your tax dollars.
The media appears equally culpable of willful ignorance, but leaks have emerged:
• In a “Brave Little State” episode on Vermont Public, a benefits program specialist with the Department for Children and Families stated publicly that “In the beginning of the pandemic, there was a lot coming from out of state.”
• One resident enrolled in the motel voucher program stated on WCAX-TV: “What really irritates me is that in the four years that I have been living here, we have seen so many people come in from out of state just for the free programs, and they get housed before we do.”
• In a March 5 story in Seven Days, “From Florida, With Love,” a Florida couple had admittedly “done … research and knew that Vermont provided comparatively generous food stamp benefits.”
While Vermonters should and do support Vermonters, given the lack of transparency and scrutiny, how can anyone allow tax dollars to support such a mysterious, indiscriminate capricious system?
Auditor, anyone?
Robert Wood
Holland
‘Smaller, Meaner’ Without USAID
[Re “Vermont Aid Workers Reel in Wake of Rapid USAID Cuts,” February 12, online]: My sister, a proud Vermonter and U.S. Foreign Service officer, has spent her career working for USAID, improving lives worldwide on behalf of the American people. The sudden dismantling of this agency isn’t just a tragedy for global humanitarian efforts, it’s a betrayal of the values we hold dear in Vermont.
USAID has fed the hungry, vaccinated children, provided medicine to the sick and supported fragile economies — all for less than 1 percent of our federal budget. These aren’t actual numbers; they’re lives saved, communities stabilized and goodwill built.
The loss of USAID also hits home. Vermont organizations such as Project Harmony in Norwich, Resonance and Tetra Tech in Burlington, the Cure Blindness Project in Waterbury, and World Learning in Brattleboro have all worked with USAID, bringing over $182 million into our state’s economy. Cutting USAID doesn’t just hurt people abroad, it damages Vermont jobs, businesses and research programs.
More than that, it damages who we are. Vermonters believe in helping our neighbors, whether across the fence or across the world. USAID embodied that spirit. Without it, we become smaller, meaner and less recognizable as the country we’ve always aspired to be.
We need to speak out. Call your representatives. Demand that USAID be restored. Because when we abandon those in need, we abandon the very best of ourselves.
Stephanie Hillman
South Burlington
What Gov Can Do
[Re “Lying Low,” March 12]: Gov. Phil Scott said he wants to lie low in dealing with President Donald Trump. He doesn’t want to hold town meetings. He thinks more anxiety would be created if he doesn’t have any answers for the concerns of Vermonters.
During COVID-19, he created a presence and assured us that he understood our fears. And then came the vaccine. That was leadership. He adapted and responded to the crisis.
We need him to adapt again. Lying low is not going to do it for this crisis.
Neither is attacking Trump. Unlike David and Goliath, it won’t work out like it did for David.
There are some actions the governor can take that aren’t either/or:
• Initiate a coalition of like-minded governors. Former lieutenant governor David Zuckerman suggested that a coalition with similar-minded Republican governors could result in collective action to mitigate devastating funding cuts to their states. It could sway some of the Republicans in Congress to protect their states instead of feeding them to Elon Musk.
• A listening tour. There is fear, anxiety and helplessness. Vermonters need to be heard. This will help reduce their angst, not feed it.
• Create an alternative narrative/a Trump vaccine. The MAGA logo was created first by Ronald Reagan, not by Trump. Get media geniuses and political leaders together to create the MAGA antidote. There is no message, no voice, no alternative narrative to MAGA? Create one.
Our governor needs to act and adapt. “Define or be defined.”
Joe Patrissi
South Burlington
Don’t Say ‘Crazy’
I was disheartened to read a recent article [“Lying Low,” March 12] in which Howard Dean was quoted as saying that Gov. Phil Scott should focus on governing the state rather than “take a bite out of a crazy guy who happens to be president.” While I appreciate the diligence in accurately reporting Dean’s words, I am concerned that the article did not address the oppression inherent in his statement.
Calling someone “crazy” perpetuates harmful stereotypes and contributes to what advocates term “sanism” — the systematic oppression and stigmatization of individuals with mental health issues. Words like “crazy” reduce a person to an insult rooted in prejudice against those who may experience mental illness. This is just as derogatory and harmful as using the N-word. Language shapes perceptions, and uncritically publishing such remarks without critique normalizes them.
Reporting a newsworthy quote is indeed part of good journalism. However, journalism does not exist in a vacuum. When a prominent figure uses harmful language, it is equally important to provide context, analysis or a clear acknowledgment that such language can be detrimental. By failing to comment on or disavow Dean’s word choice, the article condoned the stigma he perpetuated.
I hope future reporting will continue to deliver accurate information while also recognizing its power to shape public discourse. Our community deserves reporting that is both accurate and respectful of every individual’s humanity.
Wilda L. White
Waterbury Center
White is the founder of MadFreedom, an advocacy organization dedicated to challenging discrimination and oppression based on perceived or actual mental states.
Related Stories
This article appears in Mar 26 – Apr 1, 2025.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!