Bathroom Problem

[Re True 802: “Shrine On: The Beatification of Seven Days’ Office Restroom,” September 3]: As another “lapsed Catholic” who is also very left-leaning and passionately believes in equity and belonging, I am dumbfounded by Pamela Polston’s casual mocking of an entire religious tradition held sacred by millions worldwide, especially by a journalist and place of supposed journalism. How would this go over if your bathroom were filled with Jewish or Muslim artifacts and artwork? A giant Star of David? And it’s amusing to you that an HR consultant calls this “an HR nightmare”? I guess there’s no concern that anyone with views different from your own might like to work at Seven Days or has any chance of being hired.

A community that likes to see itself as inclusive and progressive does itself no honor when it gleefully mocks something that is sacred to so many, including Christianity. Yes, Catholic and other religious institutions and humans have done horrific things in the world in the name of religion. Equally, they sustain people in times of misery. None of the religious traditions asks us to tear down others. People and leaders do that. And you, apparently.

You make yourselves part of the problem and part of what feeds the polarization that exists in our society today. You’re handing people on the right a “gift.”

“See? We’re cool if we make fun of what people hold sacred, as long as it’s only Christians.” How can I take seriously any effort at journalism from you or others who think this is OK? Beyond the pale.

Catholic Approach

As a liberal thinker, I just loved how you stick it to those Catholics and their hilarious faith: “Shrine on: The Beatification of Seven Days’ Office Restroom [True 802, September 3]!

Thought you might need some more headlines for the kooky and kitschy décor found in your other Seven Days office restrooms! It’s all in fun, right? I’m sure that no one could take offense at these headlines and the good-natured fun had by displaying objects of their faith in a room where you shit!

• “HOW KEMOSABE!: Painting the Seven Days Office Restroom Red” 

• “Oy Vey! You Call This a Restroom?: Taking a Semitic Break in the Seven Days Office Restroom”

• “Finding Your Inner Piece: The Buddha Lives in the Seven Days Office Restroom”

• “All Employees Must Wash Their Left Hand!: Sharia in the Seven Days Office Restroom”

• “What’s Up With the Little Red Dot? Shiva the Destroyer of Worlds Inhabits the Seven Days Office Restroom”

• “Jesus Moves Me in Mysterious Ways: Born Again in the Seven Days Office Restroom”

Understanding that your collection of kitsch is curated on a continuous basis, to whom can we contribute eagle feathers, Stars of David, prayer rugs, menorahs, prayer flags, murti, communion chalices, etc. for your ironic amusement and future articles? 

Seriously, folks, sometimes the room you have to read is bigger than your own. 

‘Mockery Is Mean’

It was in poor taste for Seven Days to brag about turning your bathroom into a bald expression of anti-Catholic animosity [True 802: “Shrine On: The Beatification of Seven Days’ Office Restroom,” September 3]. I was nodding along as I read the catalog of its contents until I got to the description of a Last Rites box, adorned with a snarky note.

Say what you will (if you must) about popular piety and its often over-the-top interpretations of religious dogma, but I’d hope that people at Seven Days would pause to consider how this bathroom would feel to a visitor who has a family member in hospice where last rites are imminent.

To me, this is punching down. It is not a reasoned (let alone trenchant) critique of organized religion. No. It is jeering at how everyday people seek solace and meaning in life’s worst moments. Particularly in a region that was home to late and truly great Sister Janice Ryan, I would ask Seven Days leadership to consider how religious people seek to be the hands and feet of Jesus in our world and to change it with constant acts of charity and kindness. You have a beef with their beliefs?

Mockery is mean.

Tower Power

[Re “Tower Above Lake Willoughby Approved,” September 22, online]: We need the towers, desperately. Just paint them green and put a big red light on top. If they can put those silly towers up that they try to make look like trees, they could paint these towers green. Good luck!

The Real Net Zero

There is an error in “Regulators Seek Rare Audit of Burlington Electric Department” [September 1]. You state that BED general manager Darren Springer “has been pushing to achieve net-zero impact — in which greenhouse gases emitted equal the amount removed from the atmosphere.” That is the most commonly understood definition of net zero and basically the definition you will find if you google “net zero,” but it is definitely not what BED is pushing to achieve.

BED adopted a similar-sounding but very different goal. BED’s website does not refer to net zero but rather “net-zero energy.” BED states that its “goal is to eliminate fossil fuel usage in heating and ground transportation.” While admirable, this is not the same thing as offsetting greenhouse gases emitted to the atmosphere with greenhouse gases removed from the atmosphere. If our planet could achieve net zero, global warming would stop, albeit with delay. If our planet could achieve net-zero energy, global warming would only be slowed.

One could argue that BED obfuscated the two so that it could continue to operate the McNeil Generating Station, with its documented high greenhouse gas emissions and low efficiency, while still claiming to be taking the high road environmentally.

The whole mess that is now BED is something we should have expected when former Burlington mayor Miro Weinberger hired a lawyer friend with no technical expertise or industry experience to run our electric utility.

Enough, Already

Gov. Phil Scott has agreed to help Burlington as it continues to struggle with growing safety issues [“Scott Vows to Help Burlington Amid Public Safety ‘Crisis,’” September 11, online]. I hope he will use his influence to keep the overdose-prevention site out of the downtown area. Scott has an opportunity to stop this “magnet” that is sure to draw still more drug dealers and violence to Burlington [“Location Unknown: Burlington Has the Money to Open an Overdose-Prevention Center. Now Comes the Hard Part: Where to Put It,” September 24].

The citizens of Burlington are suffering from an increasing degree of compassion burnout. We can’t take much more!

Webb Wise

I grew up on Shelburne Farms and, though not a Webb, was so blessed to be able to live there as a “free-range” child of the late ’60s and early ’70s. It did much to inform my creative work today. We were very close with the Webb family, and I have many happy memories of a truly magical childhood spent in the fields, forests and buildings of the farm while it was still a private holding. Being just a teenager at the time of the start of the farm’s transition, however, I had little understanding of the financial jeopardy the farm was facing, nor of the enormous responsibility Alec and Marshall and all their siblings were about to take on in order to save it.

I have just finished reading the wonderful cover story by Melissa Pasanen [“A New Heyday,” September 17] and wanted to congratulate her and Seven Days for a most excellent piece of writing! I can’t wait to share it far and wide. You really captured the struggles and triumphs that the family has grappled with in making the monumental decision to embrace a vision of sustainability and education for the organization, the property and the historic renovations needed to fulfill those first steps of the process.

Thank you so much for this very moving article and for taking the reader down the long and complicated path this family has had to create and manage in order for the farm to lift itself up from the ashes of the burnt-out Gilded Age past into the present organization that embodies a more holistic and sustainable ethos that can help redirect the values and practices of social responsibility into a truly golden future for generations to come.

You did a masterful and inspiring job of weaving so many strands together into a delightful and inspiring read. Bravissimo!

Another View of GMT

In direct contrast with my lived experience, the cover story [“Out of Service?” July 16] makes bus riders out to be a desperate, pitiable bunch and characterizes the bus as an unsafe last resort.

For example, the author claims that “today’s bus passengers typically lack other ways to get around.” He cites an 8-year-old survey indicating that 75 percent of riders did not own a car but doesn’t address whether that is any different today than in the year he refers to as Green Mountain Transit’s “peak”: 2012. He subsequently notes that many riders are under 18, over 60, disabled, university students and/or university staff — however, none of these demographic markers precludes someone from having access to a car.

Next, despite the incredible diversity of GMT riders, the author only profiled riders who fit a narrative of dependency, solely interviewing senior citizens and addicts.

Finally, the author claims that ridership “has been sagging for more than a decade,” but a closer look at the numbers shows that ridership was actually stable for years — 2.65 to 2.75 million annual riders — until the pandemic. Since a post-COVID-19 crash, GMT has posted substantial increases each year and has nearly completely rebounded to pre-pandemic ridership numbers.

I can’t help but feel the author missed the mark here. While GMT’s historical management and planning decisions are certainly relevant, the much more newsworthy story is that the Vermont Agency of Transportation and the state legislature are withholding the funding required to support public transit in Chittenden County, causing service reductions and hampering progress toward climate goals.

In Defense of Free Speech

[Re “Jimmy Kimmel Returns to the Airwaves — but Not in Vermont,” September 23, online]: The ramifications of the recent actions against late-night hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel go beyond canceling critics of the current administration and threats to the First Amendment and the overreach of the Federal Communications Commission. This has great potential to affect the upcoming midterm elections by laying the groundwork to silence the campaigns of the opposition to the Republican-led government.

This is effectively maintaining power by stealing the election.

Nexstar Media Group’s explanation and timeline of action is not logical, even in the quick communications we have today. It takes time for consumer feedback to affect decisions. Chair Brendan Carr’s admission of coercion is on record. The remarks of alleged offense are on record — as well as the business dealings.

The silencing of the political commentary of Colbert and Kimmel demonstrates how easily even an “independent” agency and corporations can be controlled, despite law and regulation designed to prevent this.

Once the fourth estate voices are silenced, the only perspective Vermonters and U.S. residents will have will be the government-approved one. History repeatedly shows the consequences that such silencing has on those who are governed.

Free speech is the foundation of a free society.

Free speech is the enemy of authoritarianism.

A free society cannot exist under authoritarianism.

Done With ABC

Very disappointed that the Vermont ABC affiliate, WVNY, caved to Temper Tantrum Trump [“Jimmy Kimmel Returns to the Airwaves — but Not in Vermont,” September 23, online]. Will not watch anything on ABC again. Disney package, etc. canceled.

Old News

I never watch Jimmy Kimmel, but I wanted to see him when he returned to TV [“Jimmy Kimmel Returns to the Airwaves — but Not in Vermont,” September 23, online]. I was upset I could not see him in Vermont because of the stance of the affiliate stations. One needs a complete viewing — not later clips.

In the 1950s, newscasters gave the news. Then editorial comments followed. They were not mixed together, and discussion did not include bickering and shouting.

This article appears in Oct 1-7 2025.

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