Shelburne Farms Is a ‘Gift’

Thank you, thank you, thank you to the entire “bunch of crazy hippies” for having the foresight and fortitude to save Shelburne Farms [“A New Heyday: How Shelburne Farms Went From Gilded Age Estate to a Beacon of Sustainability Education,” September 17]. The lofty goal of educating “the public to recognize the wealth in natural, rural resources and to use that wealth for the satisfaction of individual and common human needs,” written in 1972 by a family of twentysomethings, could still be the mission of Shelburne Farms today. Simply amazing. And to share this property with all of us is such a gift.

Teaching Us All

It was with great pleasure that I read the article about the development of Shelburne Farms over the years [“A New Heyday,” September 17]. While serving as the superintendent of Burlington schools from 2005 to 2014, I became very familiar with Shelburne Farms, both as a participant in education trainings it offered and, later, as a collaborator in the development of the Sustainability Academy in Burlington, for which Shelburne Farms was the major leader.

The impact Shelburne Farms has had on educators globally, and thus on children, is immeasurable. This gem of a farm that focuses on sustainability, education and the future must be celebrated and supported.

On Editors

[Re From the Publisher: “Love Letter to the Editors,” September 17]: As a former newspaper editor, I learned two things about the job from editors who came before me. First, the relationship between an editor and writer is like that of a mongoose and a snake; and second, that news is whatever editors say it is.

Gov and Mayor Need to Work Together

We need Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak to be successful in her quest to make the city safer [“Tent City: Burlington Has More Homeless Encampments Than Ever. Two Men Are Tasked With Keeping Them Under Control,” August 13]. However, there are important factors she needs to consider if she is to make any noticeable progress, and Gov. Phil Scott must do his part and be willing to partner with the mayor [“Scott Vows to Help Burlington Amid Public Safety ‘Crisis,’” September 11, online].

First, the mayor has asked people to “combat the narrative” that the homeless “pose an inherent risk to others.” That’s not possible, because any perceived risk is in the eyes of others and not for the mayor to judge how they might feel. Mulvaney-Stanak needs to be honest about the real fear created by the homeless population and the impact that it has on businesses, residents and visitors.

Second, Scott understands that Chittenden County is the economic engine of Vermont, and dealing with homeless individuals, many of whom have come to Burlington, is the state’s business, too. The governor must act with a sense of urgency and engage in constructive discussions with the mayor to get the critical work started.

Finally, we need to combat another narrative: that Burlington is isolated from Montpelier with an unsupportive governor and is an unsafe city in economic decline that provides a “safe harbor” for the homeless. The mayor and the governor must take bold, politically risky and expensive action steps to address the overwhelming issue of public safety not just for the struggling homeless but for the rest of us, as well. We cannot afford to delay the inevitable any longer.

Chavarria Is Impressive

Kudos to Winooski School District superintendent Wilmer Chavarria [“Put to the Test,” September 24]! He has overcome adversity throughout his life and manages to stand for justice for all in the world of education. Not an easy job! Thank you, Seven Days, for reporting this important and timely article.

Nothing ‘Neutral’ About It

[Re “Five Vermont Lawmakers Join Israel-Funded Trip,” September 22, online]: When I learned that five of our state reps went to genocide-committing Israel, and Israel paid for it, I wondered how they thought it would be neutral. I wanted to ask them if they went to the border where Israeli families come to destroy all the food aid off the trucks? Or did they get to talk to the Western doctors who over and over report children being shot in the head and heart? Or did they visit the illegal settlements where they poison sheep and cement over Palestinian wells? Or did they visit an Israeli school where the songs they teach are about killing Arabs?

Oh, pardon me, at some point this will all be labeled antisemitic, which it is not! Watch for H.310, everyone. This bill will make anything critical of Israel antisemitic, which is so wrong. It is conflating Zionism with Judaism. How can a trip paid for by the perpetrators of a genocide and ethnic cleansing be taken at their word? I wish we had reps like the one in Ohio who publicly canceled her trip after hearing from constituents about the harm it would have done.

Too bad our reps didn’t inform their constituents so we could have weighed in. Free Palestine!

A Vote for Genocide

[Re “Five Vermont Lawmakers Join Israel-Funded Trip,” September 22, online]: Three weeks ago, as the Israeli army intensified its genocidal ground offensive on the nearly 1 million civilians sheltering in Gaza City, Vermont state Rep. Matt Birong (D-Addison) sat in business class on his way to Israel for an all-expenses-paid vacation funded by the Netanyahu government. Birong was wined, dined and hosted by an organization tied to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in a deliberate attempt to curry favor for Israel’s genocidal actions and apartheid policies.

AIPAC’s financial investment in Birong over the past several years has paid off.

Last year Birong wrote to the selectboard of Ferrisburgh and the city council of Vergennes, instructing them not to allow their citizens to vote on the Apartheid-Free Communities Pledge. Using official legislative letterhead, he said asking towns to divest from industries profiting from the killing of Palestinian civilians was not a local issue.

So by what rationale did Birong plant a Vermont state flag on occupied Palestinian land in mid-September?

Birong is free to have his own opinion about the murder, maiming and starvation of innocent civilians in Gaza. But as a legislative representative, he should not be using his position to stifle discussion at town meeting or projecting Vermont’s endorsement of genocide abroad.

I certainly will not vote for him again.

‘I Was Sickened’

I wonder how Vermont legislators expected to further “hopes for achieving peace in Gaza and the West Bank” by taking a government-sponsored junket to Israel [“Five Vermont Lawmakers Join Israel-Funded Trip,” September 22, online]. Did the lawmakers find a suggestion box outside Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office where they could submit a comment to “stop the genocide”? Did they challenge the Israeli propaganda that permeated the whole venture and that continues to provide cover for the slaughter of civilians in Gaza? Will they follow up with a Russian-sponsored trip to the war zone in Ukraine so they can register their concerns about those atrocities?

Honestly, I was sickened, in the current gruesome context, to see the smiling legislators planting a tree in Israel. My only real question to the five junketeers would be, following Joseph Welch: “Have you no sense of decency?”

Rep. Greer Should Resign

In [“Five Vermont Lawmakers Join Israel-Funded Trip,” September 22, online], Rep. Will Greer (D-Bennington) is quoted as saying his junket to the apartheid state was accomplished without using taxpayer dollars. This is only true if we ignore the fact that Israel has been the No. 1 recipient of U.S. foreign aid for many years. We don’t want a foreign government influencing our state government, even if it is picking up the tab.

Will Greer, resign from office.

Misguided Junket

I am so disgusted to find out that Vermont reps went on an all-expenses-paid propaganda trip to Israel [“Five Vermont Lawmakers Join Israel-Funded Trip,” September 22, online]. The comment by Rep. James Gregoire (R-Fairfield) — “We wouldn’t have had those opportunities, any of us, to ask those questions if we stayed at our houses” — struck me in particular. Really? Are you not able to read news? Are you unable to tune in to broadcasts? Do you not have the skills to contact people around the world to pose your questions? Have you no time to peruse the testimonies coming out of Gaza, the West Bank and, yes, Israel itself, whose own B’Tselem and Holocaust scholars called it genocide long before our state reps and the United Nations finally shuffled up to the podium? 

The tree planting, the listening sessions, the curated tours complete with the requisite fawning over the Wailing Wall: When will U.S. politicians get past this grotesque hero worship of an apartheid, genocidal state? How many more screaming, bleeding, shattered, dead families will it take for these five pitifully uninformed lawmakers to finally understand they are being hoodwinked by “hasbara”?

People need to understand that the horrific 60,000-plus number of dead now floating around is a vast undercount. The reality is that Palestinians are being exterminated, deliberately and methodically; at last analysis, the number is more like 860,000 and counting.

U.S. politicians need to be doing everything in their power to stop the slaughter, not going on starry-eyed tours and planting trees and flags in pathetic settler cosplay.

This article appears in Oct 8-14 2025.

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