Don’t Shoot the Sheriff

I read with interest your article “Badge of Dishonor” [February 11], and in it I noticed a possible error in the report, which stated: “Sheriffs … maintain their own little fiefdoms.”

Anyone with an awareness of American culture knows that fiefdoms are clearly in the purview of deputies!

Modern-Day Slavery

As a Richford resident, I want to respond to [“Special Deliveries: As Migrants Hunker Down on Farms to Avoid Border Patrol, Helpers Bring Them Food, Services and Holy Communion,” December 3, 2025]. While many people providing services to migrants have charitable intentions, these efforts are effectively enabling and subsidizing a system of slavery imposed by the large factory farms and the laws that have generated them.

Migrant farm laborers are unable to travel freely in the community due to 12-hour workdays and often illegal status in a situation remarkably similar to plantation slaves in the pre-Civil War era. The harsh labor conditions, including unhealthy exposure to solid wastes and pesticides, have created a situation that benefits the few landowners at the expense of the local community and the migrant workers.

Nonetheless, the impoverished locals are often pitted in opposition to the migrant workers. This characterization conceals the reality of a system that exploits migrant laborers while discarding local families who traditionally earned a living off the land; all the while, the haphazard use of pesticides and the spreading of cow manure mixed with human solid wastes makes the surrounding community sick.

Charity that subsidizes large landowners’ importation of cheap labor while ignoring the local poverty (or worse, blaming the poor for their own situation) perpetuates this exploitative system of slavery. Money that is not paid and taxed according to laws is robbed from the community, where it’s desperately needed. Given the dwindling local journalism, I hope Seven Days will consider this perspective.

More Essays!

I really enjoyed the essay by Lucas Farrell [“Farm Porch Politics: An Essay on Pleasantries, Plurality and a Path Forward,” January 7]. I hope he keeps them coming.

Don’t Buy It

[“Manage Your Care: To Lower Health Costs, Vermont’s Largest Insurance Company Is Urging Patients to Shop Around,” January 14] was a breathtaking display of arrogance from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont. It was also an insult to us, as patients, and to humanity in general. By urging Vermonters to “become savvier consumers,” as they frame it, they debase us as patients by turning our need for health care into a shopping spree.

The article, coupled with Diana Bolton’s excellent graphic, highlights the absurdity of BCBS’ suggestion. Imagine going up and down the aisles, searching for a new knee, a hip or even an organ, hoping they’re on sale. But what happens if you need to return them?

Credit: File: Diana Bolton

The hubris lies in BCBS of Vermont (now a subsidiary of the Michigan BCBS) being just as culpable as the University of Vermont Medical Center and, for that matter, Vermont’s state government for this “health care affordability crisis.” By trying to turn us into health care shoppers, they are trying to deflect the blame for their colossal failures onto us.

The only way to end this travesty is to treat health care as a human right and not as a market commodity and implement a publicly financed universal care system. Until then, we’ll be stuck in the same blame game that’s going nowhere — except to more health care absurdities like this.

‘Deceptive’ Tactics

Is it time to discuss how Vermonters for Justice in Palestine continues to overshadow every other local issue? We have now seen a consistent pattern across three different Burlington events: the “No Kings” rally at the waterfront, the follow-up rally at City Hall Park and, most recently, the anti-ICE rally on Church Street [“‘ICE Out’ Rally Draws Huge Crowd in Burlington,” January 30].

In each instance, this group has positioned its specific agenda at the forefront of unrelated causes. At these rallies, its leaders have taken the megaphone, often identifiable by their keffiyehs, and placed themselves center stage while Palestinian flags were distributed throughout the crowd. As seen in the photo at the bottom of your recent article, the visual impact makes it difficult to determine the actual purpose of the gathering.

I know I am not alone in feeling that these tactics are deceptive. By branding every local protest with their own symbols, they create a false impression of a larger following than actually exists and undermine the true focus of the gathering. While I support free speech and the right to rally for one’s beliefs, hijacking the platforms of other movements is dishonest and misleading to the public.

Consolidation Doesn’t Work

[Re “Proposed Vermont Budget Could Lead to a 6 Percent Tax Hike,” January 20, online]: The 6 percent tax hike may be unjustified. What if we’re moving in the wrong direction — specifically regarding education reform?

Statistically speaking, consolidating rural elementary schools doesn’t work. Busing young children far from home, over snow- and ice-packed roads, is a bad idea. Nor is it a draw for young families weighing the pros and cons of where to raise their children.

Moreover, closing small rural schools will drive families out of Vermont even faster, because their existence equates to a sense of belonging and identity for those towns. Statistics also show this.

But Vermont families are not statistics; they’re flesh and blood, heart and soul. When the School District Redistricting Task Force set about to do what was asked of it — draw up the maps, carve up the towns, shutter small schools — its members couldn’t do it in good conscience because they took the pulse of the people, alongside the statistics and the numbers, and found that consolidation would cost more in the end, not less, while destroying rural communities. The disadvantages far outweigh the advantages. Moreover, they came up with viable, alternative solutions. It’s all in the report.

‘Vermont Way’ Forward

Carolyn Van Vleck’s letter to the editor [Feedback: “Woe Is Burlington,” January 21] was a prompt for this one.

I thought the “Vermont way” included looking out for your neighbor. Last Thanksgiving, I went down to Burlington’s waterfront with some food for homeless people living there. Outside a well-staked tent, I was met by a man who, with a trimmed beard and wire-rimmed glasses, looked like he could’ve been a University of Vermont professor. Outside the tent was a walker and a wheelchair. Apparently, his partner was disabled. I imagined how it must be for her to use a walker on the rough ground to get to the Porta-Potty on the bike path. Not all homeless people are drug addicts.

Yes, drugs and addiction are an issue. But watch Bess O’Brien’s film The Hungry Heart, and you might have a fuller idea of how addiction can capture the lives of young people or even a bank manager. If we had more treatment centers in Vermont or, yes, an overdose prevention center, we might see fewer addicts on the streets. OPCs can be a pathway to recovery and are endorsed by American medical associations, as well as law enforcement officials.

Finally, Burlington may be more racially diverse than Brandon so, yes, there was pushback against law enforcement after racial profiling and incidents of unjust treatment of people of color occurred. Law enforcement has improved since then as Burlington strives to meet the needs of all our neighbors.

Southern Exposure?

I am still baffled every time I look at the tagline of Seven Days. It states that it is “Vermont’s independent voice,” yet it is quite a stretch to call it that. This oversight reflects the negative attitude that central Vermont has toward the southern portion of the state. Some may call this a stretch; however, looking at the coverage of the state as whole, the southern portion is consistently forgotten.

The irony of it all is that when Seven Days deigns to cover that part of the state, it is only criminal matters. Seven Days feeds the narrative regarding the danger of areas such as Rutland. Seven Days refuses to see beyond the negative and, in fact, helps perpetuate it. Quite frankly, call yourself “Burlington’s independent voice,” as you could care less to learn more about the southern part of the state.

Collect Delinquent Taxes

[Re “Burlington City Council Adds Tax Hike to the Ballot, Rejects ‘Apartheid-Free’ Pledge,” January 27]: The City of Burlington should collect the taxes that it has already assessed but that remain unpaid before raising taxes on those of us who pay our taxes when billed. Burlington seeks to increase taxes another $3 million when the city is currently owed over $3.2 million in delinquent taxes. Some of the largest delinquent tax balances are owed by large corporations and wealthy people in Colchester and Stowe who simply choose not to pay their taxes — some as far back as the 1980s.

Running the City of Burlington is not just about holding press conferences and cutting ribbons. Officials in the city are also in charge of collecting the taxes they assess, which sometimes means holding a tax sale auction to collect the funds if the owner refuses to pay voluntarily. If the city collected the delinquent taxes already due, there would be no reason to vote for yet another tax increase this March.

‘Seems Like Dictatorship’

This seems like dictatorship [“Vermont to Pursue ‘Junk Food Ban’ for Users of Food Stamps,” February 5, online]. They are punishing the poor and weak who have to survive on very little — no home, no place to cook. To tell people what they can and cannot buy to eat is out-of-hand government regulation.

If the government wants that kind of control, it should stop giving out food stamps and go back to setting up warehouses to hand out so-called “healthy” foods. I am 70 years old and use food shelves to get by, which is a pain because I don’t have a car. My Social Security — after health care funds have been removed — leaves little room to buy food. I do not get Supplemental Security Income, and I do not get Medicaid. I have to buy my own dental insurance, etc.

What is being done will not make America healthy again. It will kill off more than it should.

Noncitizens Cost Money

[Re “Vermont to Pursue ‘Junk Food Ban’ for Users of Food Stamps,” February 5, online]: If all these people who are protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection would think about what the illegal immigrants are costing all of us taxpayers, they would appreciate what these two law enforcement agencies are doing for every American citizen. The people whom the Joe Biden administration basically let just walk into our country unvetted, for the most part, have overcrowded our housing, hospitals and schools in certain parts of the country. Luckily not here, because they were not bused here like they were to places like New York and Washington, D.C.

Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and the city council are worried about the city budget deficit and cut positions in the city workforce, including police officers. Why would any responsible city officials want to encourage noncitizens to live here? When my grandparents came here in the early 1900s, there was a quota for each sending country, and the immigrant had to have a sponsor and a job. Plus, they had to pass a check for disease, and, if they failed, they were sent back to where they came from.

So we should all appreciate the CBP and ICE officers, stay out of their way, and give them access to our prisons and jails. This way, the chance of anyone getting hurt is greatly reduced, if not eliminated. Without immigrants, U.S. Rep. Becca Balint said, Americans wouldn’t have anybody “to wipe our a**es.” It’s evident why the liberals want them here.

This article appears in February 18 • 2026.

Got something to say?

Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!