‘Save Independent Media’

As the February 25 “From the Publisher” column [“State of the Media”] asserts, “COVID-19 forever changed the Vermont media industry” — and, actually, the entire media industry, as evidenced by the lead stories on “NBC Nightly News” in the days preceding the life-altering rescission vote in Congress last summer: fires, floods and more fires.

If I were a conspiracy theorist, knowing what I know now about who owns the media, I would be promoting the rumor that COVID-19 was not developed in a virus lab in Wuhan, China, but in a tech lab in Silicon Valley in order to train the population to abandon human contact and learn to live entirely through AI-engineered social media.

One full year of isolation and developing a sharing-air phobia should do it, the billionaires would surmise. Just close the schools and workplaces; shut down movie theaters, libraries, restaurants, theaters, jazz bars and anything indoors where people gather. By the end of 12 months, everyone should be well trained to prefer the on-screen company of their devices to the annoying company of contaminated fellow human beings. Crazy, I know, but it does kind of look like that’s what the billionaires did.

I pray the Vermont Community Foundation, the Vermont Journalism Coalition and the activism of the human community will find ways to save independent media and protect the diversity of opinions, tastes, cultures and voices that will save us in the end.

AI Helped Write This

I read the recent reporting on Compass Vermont’s AI use and AI’s potential ripple effects in VTDigger’s labor negotiations [“Navigating AI: Compass Vermont, an Online Outlet, Raises Questions About the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Producing the News”; “Disunion at Digger: A Spat Over the Possible Use of Artificial Intelligence Has Sown Discord in Vermont’s Largest Newsroom,” February 25]. Ultimately, this comes down to transparency and trust.

When readers cannot distinguish what was reported by a human, synthesized by a model or materially shaped by automation, trust erodes. And trust is the most essential ingredient of a functioning society — already under strain from technological systems deployed without clear guardrails or accountability.

Clear-eyed AI use requires obnoxious transparency. If AI materially shapes reporting, writing, translation, transcription, summarization, image generation or data analysis, readers deserve a clear, prominent disclosure explaining how it was used and what safeguards were applied.

Transparency could also acknowledge broader harms embedded in AI systems: labor exploitation in data labeling, environmental costs, bias reproduction, misinformation amplification and wealth extraction. As scholar Vanessa Andreotti suggests, societies must learn to metabolize the harms of modern systems rather than deny them. That requires slowing down and reflecting — something our economic incentives rarely reward.

It’s also worth remembering the incentive structure surrounding AI. Companies like OpenAI, Anthropic and Google operate within markets that reward engagement and scale in service to investors, not the public.

For the sake of transparency: Generative AI, specifically Dorothy Coccinella Ladybugboss, a meta-relational custom GPT informed by Andreotti’s work, assisted in shaping this letter.

Scott Needs a Challenger

I was disappointed to read that state Treasurer Mike Pieciak will not run for governor [“Democrats’ Dilemma: With No Prominent Candidates Yet Taking on Gov. Scott, the Window to Find a Strong Challenger Is Closing,” February 11]. Vermont needs a real contest this year — one that would finally require the incumbent to explain what he intends to accomplish in the next two-year term. Pieciak is one of the few officials with the competence and seriousness to force that conversation, and his absence leaves the state facing yet another election with no meaningful test of ideas.

For nearly a decade, Gov. Phil Scott has governed by drift. He offers steadiness and broad likability but not a plan equal to the scale of Vermont’s challenges. The state still lacks a credible strategy to increase housing supply, address demographic and workforce decline, build climate resilience at the level our risks demand, or stabilize the education fund. These are structural issues that determine whether Vermont remains viable for working families, and they cannot be solved through incremental gestures or reactive management.

A competitive race would have required the governor to move beyond tone and generalities and articulate concrete goals, trade-offs and timelines. Pieciak was one of the few potential candidates capable of demanding that level of clarity and seriousness.

His decision not to run is a loss for voters who believe elections should force accountability, not reward a governor for avoiding hard choices. Vermont deserves leadership willing to spend political capital, not merely protect it. Popularity is not a substitute for vision, and without a credible challenger, that distinction may once again be blurred.

Filmmaker Responds

I spent untold hours filming the tribal recognition process in the Vermont Statehouse for Part 1 of Freedom & Unity: The Vermont Movie, which has been censored by Vermont Public [“Vermont Public Declines to Re-Air an Old Film About State-Recognized Abenakis,” February 25]. This legislative process capped 36 years of the Vermont Abenakis’ tribal recognition efforts — succeeding, then being reversed; succeeding, then being reversed; and finally succeeding in 2012 after working their way through all three branches of government in their efforts to gain this recognition.

This status is now being challenged by the Canadian Odanak Abenaki.

Back when Bellows Falls was trying to buy its Connecticut River dam, I was filming the process and saw firsthand what happens when two Canadian power companies get involved. Every family feud from the past 100 years is magnified, blown out of proportion and weaponized in their effort to sway a vote.

The Canadian Abenakis’ challenge to the Vermont Abenakis’ status appears to me to be a family feud weaponized by Canadian power companies.

Read This Memoir

I was delighted to see a favorable if brief review of Alexis Lathem’s Lambs in Winter in Seven Days [Page 32, February 25], but I was disappointed that it did not mention the book’s central theme: the impact of climate change on a Vermont farm and an exploration of what we can do about it as individuals and as a community. By turns a tender and even rapturous account of rural life, and a chronicle of the vast changes we are in the midst of, the book offers both solace and challenge as we face what is already an increasingly chaotic future. The book is one of the best on the shelf of such memoirs and deserves your readers’ close attention.

Poor Depiction of Gaza

[Re True 802: “Sailing to Gaza,” February 18]: While I appreciate Lucy Tompkins’ piece on John Bauer’s work to beef up the Gaza relief flotilla, I have to take exception with her butchering of the context of the Gaza genocide. To begin with, Israel does not have a “relentless bombing campaign.” It is implementing a calculated genocide that has killed over 100,000 civilians, mostly women and children, for which Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant have been indicted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court. This same Israeli governmental entity has not “slowed the movement of aid”; it has strategically reneged on commitments to allow a minimum of aid for the Palestinian people. It has reneged on negotiated agreements for a ceasefire in the occupied lands.

Worst of all, Tompkins degrades the Palestinian people even further by referring to their ancestral homeland as an “enclave,” thereby relegating the Palestinian people to an enclosed social unit within a foreign territory, Israel, and acknowledging that their land is now a subset of Israel.  

The short overview would have been much more powerful and informational if Tompkins hadn’t invented her own context instead of utilizing one that is defined and recognized by a majority of the humans on the planet.

Hands Off Cuba

It is unfortunate that Kevin J. Kelley ended his review of Bernie for Burlington by slandering two countries targeted for regime change by the U.S.: Nicaragua and Cuba [“Bern After Reading: Book Review: Bernie for Burlington: The Rise of the People’s Politician, Dan Chiasson,” January 28]. Nicaragua, the second-poorest country in the hemisphere in terms of GDP, has remarkably achieved a score of “high human development” thanks to government priorities, such as free education and health care; the best hospital and road infrastructure in Central America; massive public housing programs; and town hall-style local, direct democracy. The country is one of the safest in the Americas, as attested on various international tourism sites. I have witnessed this myself on multiple visits to the country, including one this past December.

Cuba has similar priorities and is a global model for human development and medical aid. The human rights of the Cuban people are violated not by their government but ours. The escalating criminal U.S. blockade prevents Cuba from importing medicines, health supplies and other essential products, to the point of causing a humanitarian crisis and increasing infant mortality.

According to the largest-ever study of the impacts of unilateral economic sanctions, these cause over half a million deaths per year — as much as armed conflict — with a majority of the deaths among children under age 5. Those who care about human rights should demand an end to our country’s illegal sanctions on Cuba, Nicaragua and other countries.

‘Angels’ Advocate

I was excited to open Seven Days and see Ken Picard’s informative article on Beth Malow and Doug Teschner’s recent book: Beyond the Politics of Contempt: Practical Steps to Build Positive Relationships in Divided Times [“Striking Discord,” February 18].

I have been involved in Braver Angels since 2020, when I attended a Zoom meeting featuring the first Braver Angels workshop, which took place in Ohio after the Trump-Clinton election. I was so impressed by what transpired in that workshop between the eight Republican and eight Democrat attendees that I joined Braver Angels and have continued my involvement ever since.

I followed the progress of Beyond the Politics of Contempt and read it “hot off the press.” I knew it would offer hope to the “exhausted majority” discouraged by the divide in our nation. However, I was also drawn to the “Further Thought” section at the end of each chapter, which encouraged me to examine my own values and biases. 

I would highly recommend the book and invite your readers to attend a free talk by the authors hosted at Brownell Library in Essex this coming April 11.

More to the Story

Shoppers leaving City Market
Credit: File: Courtney Lamdin

This was a disappointing article to read [“Downtown City Market Closed for the Day After Shoplifting Incident,” February 28, online]. It doesn’t pursue any of the real-life consequences to this business and the community caused by this one man’s actions.

Once again, a run-of-the-mill shoplifter is able to come to Burlington and, through their actions, cost our community not only a loss in our sense of security but also a lot of revenue.

Not only was he a dangerous threat to the security team and the victim of the thrown bottle, but he was also a threat to our food security.

I am curious: How many hours of sales were lost? How much food was deemed unusable and disposed from the bulk and produce sections? How much staff time was used in the cleanup instead of their usual work? What is the cost of replacement food? I know the weather has impacted several states that grow produce we consume in the winter, and that it is more expensive now.

How many people changed or will change their shopping habits because of this incident? When is the loss of security too high to continue business in downtown?

Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak needs to drive up revenue in the city of Burlington so we can reduce our $12 million deficit and not increase taxes astronomically. To do this, we need to increase sales and encourage people to spend their time and money here.

When is that going to be a priority?

Further reporting is needed here [“Downtown City Market Closed for the Day After Shoplifting Incident,” February 28, online]. This is part of a series of violent incidents at our downtown store. Sure, it’s bad for business, but really, what’s going on?

As co-op members, we got an email stating that the store would be closed because of a fire extinguisher going off. But the part about violence was left out.

“We have multiple security incidents almost daily at this point.” What does this mean?

Corrections

A February 25 story headlined “Senator Who Resigned Over Racist Chats Lands Reporting Gig” miscounted the number of times Sam Douglass had contributed to Vermont Daily Chronicle. Douglass had written at least one previous story for the online outlet.

A story in the July 9, 2025, issue, “New Juvie Lockup Site Sought,” misspelled the first name of Department for Children and Families deputy commissioner Aryka Radke.

This article appears in March 11 • 2026.

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