Letters to the Editor (5/8/24) 

Success Story

Thank you for the in-depth article about Shaina Taub ["Born for Broadway: Waitsfield's Shaina Taub Arrives in a Big Way, Starring in Her Own Musical, Suffs," April 17]. Hooray, another Vermonter makes it to Broadway!

This was a much better review of her accomplishments than was provided by the New York Times, really digging into how much work she has put into becoming a theater star.

When I moved to Vermont nearly 17 years ago, my first optometrist was her father, who told me that his daughter really loved being onstage. I'll say!

Harry Goldhagen

East Fairfield

Pittsburgh or Bust

[Re "'We're Leaving'" and From the Deputy Publisher "Winooski, My Town?" May 1]: It's amazing that Winooski is now so high-end. I guess our threats and fears about the F-35s destroying property values did not pan out.

My heart is heavy for Vermont being outpriced for locals. It's really why many need to move. I now live in Pittsburgh, where $150,000 houses are really nice and $1,300 apartment rentals are abundant. The best part is being surrounded by diverse, working-class folks who are happy and love their teams. I was looking for the 1992 version of Winooski, and I found it.

Jodi Harrington

Pittsburgh, PA

Legislature Is 'Losing Touch'

I have grown uneasy over the past few years with the feeling that the veto-proof majority of our legislature was losing touch with how our Vermont citizens actually live and try to make a living. It shows when its legislation turns into laws, regulations, taxes and fees.

With recent news, I conclude that the gap is complete. I have read and heard members of our legislature talking of Vermont's duty to be a model and "lead by example" on climate change ["A Debate About the Cost Is Dogging a Renewable Energy Bill," March 22, online]. This mindset is totally divorced from Vermont's reality. We are a very small state with one of the smallest populations.

The duty of our legislature is to the citizens and the well-being of our state. Yes, we should do our part toward climate change mitigation. But we must have some sense of reality and practicality of what our small state can actually do and how much effect it will have overall. Let us have some modesty here and much less grandiosity. Weatherizing homes, encouraging heat pumps and solar panels, installing electric charging stations — we can do much in those areas within our fiscal means over a period of time.

"Fair share" is a term bandied about these days. This is our state's "fair share" of climate change mitigation.

Harold Somerset

Brandon

Ask a Librarian

After 20 hours of searching by local business owners and employees, neighbors and friends, and the work of BTV Bike Recovery, it was two librarians at Fletcher Free Library who finally recovered my stolen e-bike from the perpetrator, using exactly the "verbal judo" you describe in ["Reading the Room: Aggressive Behavior, Increased Drug Use at Burlington's Downtown Library Prompt Calls for Help," May 1].

Thank you for covering the unsung work of all the staff at Fletcher Free, a gem of a library to rival any I've had the pleasure to be a patron of. How they are able to offer the excellent collection, wide-ranging programs, and warm and professional service they do when I have personally witnessed the intensity of what they deal with on a daily basis, I will never know. But we cannot continue to ask baristas, librarians and shop clerks to have the level of social work skills needed to keep their places of work safe and productive. I don't know what the answer is, but I do know that Burlington is full of people trying to move the ship in the right direction, with love, justice and sheer grit.

Thank you, staff of Fletcher Free, for all you do.

Valerie Wood-Lewis

Burlington

Protect the Library

[Re "Reading the Room: Aggressive Behavior, Increased Drug Use at Burlington's Downtown Library Prompt Calls for Help," May 1]: Of all our institutions, none holds a candle to the library — a place where we can go to find the peace to read, research or catch up on the news. A place where we can actually take a book out, take a book home. A place where we can go to ask a librarian for help — help to find out about a particular subject. For free.

The library is a pillar of our democracy, our republic.

Please keep this great tradition alive. Let other public groups and public spaces provide daytime rest and rehab for the indigent, for drug addicts, for those who would devour this precious place, who chase away those seeking the library for what it was created for.

Winifred McCarthy

Burlington

Red Flags

Thank you for the article on Zoie Saunders, our new interim education secretary ["Top of the Class? Gov. Scott's Pick for Education Secretary, Zoie Saunders, Faces Questions About Her Qualifications," April 10]. I have been dismayed by Gov. Phil Scott's decision and also disappointed that he took so long to appoint someone. I can't believe that Vermont doesn't have some excellent candidates who know a little something about our classrooms, counties and record of excellence in addressing student needs.

When so many in the field of education question this choice, several red flags go up. The reputation of the Florida school system remains tainted with Gov. Ron DeSantis' attacks on curricula and book banning! This position needs a qualified and experienced person.

Ruth Furman

Jericho

Ed System Is Broken

[Re "Top of the Class? Gov. Scott's Pick for Education Secretary, Zoie Saunders, Faces Questions About Her Qualifications," April 10]: The objections to Zoie Saunders' appointment seem to be mostly that she has not previously been a teacher, principal or superintendent. Do we really want to repeat the past? In Vermont, we have a very broken public school funding system. It needs to be fixed now. We can't keep doing what we have always done and expect to get different results.

Gov. Phil Scott is doing more to fix this funding problem than the legislature, which is only meeting with school officials and school employees. We need different perspectives to fix this unsustainable funding system.

Judy Thomas

Williston

Unfair Review

I was looking forward to reading Jim Schley's review of Adrie Kusserow's recent book The Trauma Mantras: A Memoir in Prose Poems. I have been deeply moved by the beauty, courage, intelligence and insight that fills each page of this sensory-rich, boldly honest and often challenging book. Hundreds of times I had to pause, quiet myself and simply let the words land. I am someone who loves the craft of writing and geeks out on grammar, and my critique of a writer's skill or lack of skill often keeps me in my head. But from the first chapter, this book landed fully on my heart. It was a book I savored, choosing to digest it one chapter at a time over many weeks, taking Adrie's imagery, metaphors and multiple hard truths with me on my daily walks in the woods.

So I was sadly disappointed by ["Over the Borderlines," April 24], Schley's review of Adrie's book. While he has a terrific editing and writing pedigree, I am afraid he completely misread a beautiful, unique and important piece of work due to a lack of ... imagination? Open-heartedness? Time? I'm not sure.

Because there's not enough space here to counter his litany of complaints, I will focus on one that I find most egregious — his claim that this book lives up to the epithet of "me-moir" with the author's numerous "self-conscious interventions." Adrie courageously reveals aspects of herself with a rare humility I've not often encountered in memoirs or in life.

Annie O'Shaughnessy

Underhill

Small-School Spirit

[Re "The Deepest Cut: Rising Costs and Property Tax Hikes Again Threaten the Survival of Small Schools," March 27]: Vermont doesn't have too many schools; we have too few children to fill them. Addressing the real problems — affordable housing and affordable childcare — will encourage young Vermonters to stay and have children, and will bring in young families.

Tax reduction from closing small schools is not proven. When Addison Central School was closed in 2018 in the Addison Northwest School District, increases in the costs of health care, wages, goods and transportation continued, as did tax increases.

To permit large-town voters in a school district to close a small-town school against that town's wishes is suppression of a minority and overrides the right of small-town voters to make decisions about their own town ["Town of Roxbury Sues Over Budget Vote That Could Close Its School," April 18; "Court Rejects Roxbury's Request to Block School Budget Vote," April 24].

Closing a small town's school and busing its children to a larger school will not necessarily improve education. The addition of more students increases class sizes and workloads for the educators and service providers in the larger school and can exacerbate behavioral problems brought on by too many students per classroom.

Small towns attract people as good places to live and to raise and educate children. People in small towns experience cultural deprivation when their small-town school is closed against their wishes. Small towns are central to Vermont's economy, society and identity. If we want small towns to disappear, closing their little schools is a way to begin, and it may well result in the disintegration of Vermont's culture.

Millard Cox

Ripton

Cox, now retired, worked as a special educator in the Addison Central Supervisory Union.

Working, Working

Thanks for ["Employees of a Certain Age: More Vermont Seniors Are Working, Due to Financial Need or Choice. They May Help Plug the Labor Gap," April 17]. So many Vermont seniors are still working, not because they want to but because our brutal age of Reaganomics and our low-wage society have forced them to keep working.

Since retirement pensions were destroyed in favor of the scam of 401ks, and few people below the level of management are thought worthy enough for either of these things, many seniors have neither and just have to keep working as if there were no retirement at all. While some are working by choice, many more are still working because they have to. As one senior worker I know said, "I will still be serving lunch at my funeral."

I am one of them. At 68, I still have to work full time. Social Security is my pension. It covers the $4,000 I have to pay for Medicare each year, and that's about it. I'll have to keep working full time until they shovel me under.

The thing to remember is that if America were a decent country and not a Victorian workhouse like it is now, seniors could retire in comfort. We deserve this after working all our lives. But America is not a decent country that gives a damn for its people.

Walter Carpenter

Montpelier

Voters Are Saying 'No'

[Re "Taxing Work: House Ways and Means Chair Emilie Kornheiser Sees Raising Revenue as Part of Her Mission," April 24]: Early in my professional career, I worked within the Boston mayor's office under a Democratic leadership team I admired. This administration approached spending decisions the way a family on a budget makes decisions around the kitchen table. Such discussion might include replacing the old family car versus taking a trip to Disney or fixing the leaky roof over getting a new aboveground pool. When considering how to embark on new initiatives, they realized it may be necessary to freeze or reduce spending in existing programs or departments. Priorities were discussed; this team was smart and compassionate in recognizing there is a dependence upon taxes, which are elastic. When times are good, taxes increase; and when times are not good, they decrease.

Times are not good for Vermonters today. The fact that voters are refusing school budget increases in droves reinforces this, and it is making national news. I do not see this necessarily related to education spending so much as it relates to general tax fatigue. Voters in Vermont are seizing one of the few opportunities where they can directly affect the spending decision and, in doing so, sending a clear message of "no" directly to Montpelier legislators. Montpelier needs to listen to this message voters are sending.

We are looking for our legislators to sit at that proverbial kitchen table and make the tough decisions on spending priorities and cost containment. Montpelier, please do not disappoint your constituents, lest they seize the next best opportunity to be heard come the November polls.

John Zimmer

Westmore