‘Thank You, Gloria’

Gloria Steinem (1934-2026) changed so many women’s lives. She changed mine. I might not have had the courage to run for governor without her encouragement to “lead our own lives.” I was a doctor’s wife. Most women thought that was enough.

Gloria’s words (paraphrased) resonated with me: “Today we have become the men we thought we wanted to marry.”

The women’s movement told me I could aim high myself and compete with men and women for public office.

I got to know Gloria listening to her speeches and reading almost everything she wrote. She must have known about me because she came to Vermont for my first campaign for governor. She was the star at my first big fundraiser. Gloria minced no words. “Open your wallets,” she instructed the women, who were not used to such direct talk about money. She was considered more radical in those early days. “Don’t surround yourself with feminists,” my older brother, Edgar, warned.

I was his kid sister, but I did not take his advice, that time.

Women became a big and influential part of my campaign, many of whom were fired up, as I was, by Gloria and the feminist wave of the time.

I carried her message with me when I became governor. I had the opportunity to appoint more than nine women to positions of leadership. When my administration ended, they became leaders in the private sector.

Thank you, Gloria. You helped me to carry on your work and mine.

AI Oops

[Re From the Deputy Publisher: “Only Human,” August 19]: Cathy Resmer’s recent self-described confession about using AI to do her job was weird and frustrating.

It’s not very encouraging that Seven Days’ idea of transparency is letting us know about this stuff four months after the fact (and finally publishing AI policy guidelines about a year after everybody else). It’s also dismaying to hear that Seven Days’ position is that “AI companies and their tools are inescapable.”

AI-generated content has no place in news media, or anywhere else. AI is not another “tool.” It doesn’t meaningfully enhance productivity, nor does it facilitate creativity. That’s just the sales pitch.

Instead it’s a monstrously wasteful, dysfunctional product foisted upon us by nakedly dystopian companies. It pollutes the internet with platitudes, gibberish misinformation, and, most importantly, content stolen and assimilated from countless actual writers and artists.

If we’re talking about neologisms, my favorite remains 2023’s “enshittification.” Like it or not, AI is a rip-off, and using it actively causes harm. Don’t use it, don’t engage with it, and don’t contribute to the cheapening of culture. Laziness or desperation is no excuse.

It’s like that old movie WarGames. When it comes to AI, “the only winning move is not to play.”

Just a ‘Tool’

[Re From the Deputy Publisher: “Only Human,” August 19]: I don’t see any meaningful difference between using AI to generate the “right” title and using a thesaurus to find the “right” word. Both are simply tools that help writers express themselves more effectively.

‘One-Sided Story’

I was disturbed by “Dark Matters” [September 2], which presents deeply contested history as settled fact.

The article cites “many international legal scholars, including a 2025 United Nations Commission of Inquiry,” for the claim that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza. Readers aren’t told the commission is a Human Rights Council body, not a court, whose findings aren’t binding and whose members have themselves faced credible antisemitism accusations from the council’s own president and over a dozen governments. Nor is it mentioned that when the International Association of Genocide Scholars passed its own Gaza resolution in 2025, only 28 percent of members even voted.

The historical framing is equally one-sided. The author says the genocide began with the 1948 Nakba and has “always been about land theft” and “settler colonization.” Left out: repeated Arab attacks on Jews in Mandatory Palestine before 1948, including the 1929 killing of 133 Jews across Palestine; Arab leaders’ rejection of the United Nations’ partition plan; and the more than 800,000 Jews subsequently driven from Arab countries, their communities largely destroyed. Also unmentioned: Jews’ ancestral ties to this land have been recognized by other Indigenous peoples, including a coalition of Native American, Aboriginal and Māori representatives who reject the “colonizer” label.

None of this negates Palestinian suffering. But a book and an article examining genocide owe readers more complexity than a one-sided story beginning in 1948. Selectively presenting one people’s suffering while erasing the others’ doesn’t illuminate history — it distorts it.

Had It With Hot Rods

The stats about traffic stops [“Safety in Numbers? As Police Make Fewer Traffic Stops Nationwide, South Burlington Is Bucking the Trend,” August 26] are interesting but abstract. More concrete and of greater concern to many are the nightly serenades of screaming motorcycles and growling hot rods in many towns around Chittenden County. These speeders are dangerous to other drivers and pedestrians, wasteful of gas, and an obnoxious affront to peace and tranquility in our communities.

The police forces of the Chittenden County towns should collaborate to set rotating, unannounced speed traps for these offenders. Since many are probably exceeding the posted limits by more than 30 miles per hour, they would fall under Title 23, Section 1097 of the Vermont Statutes and its stiff penalties (up to three months in prison and $300 fines for the first offense). The word would get out.

Rural Recklessness

Colin Flanders’ “Safety in Numbers?” [August 26] reported that traffic stops in Williston fell from 4,200 in 2019 to 1,700 in 2025. Those numbers help explain what rural residents are experiencing.

Williston’s rural roads have become regional commuter routes and shortcuts, but they remain residential neighborhoods. They contain homes, driveways, mailboxes, school-bus stops and farm entrances, and they are shared by walkers, bicyclists and agricultural equipment. Our rural roads are being driven like highways, but they were not built like highways and are not used like highways.

At a recent meeting with Williston officials, Police Chief Brian LaBarge stated that motorists traveling approximately 10 miles per hour over the posted limit received warnings, while more excessive speeds resulted in tickets. A warning is enforcement, but when 10 miles per hour over becomes routine, a 45-mile-per-hour rural road functions in practice like a 55-mile-per-hour road.

Targeted enforcement of speeding, reckless passing, texting and school-bus violations is necessary. It should focus on dangerous behavior, not minor equipment violations. But enforcement cannot replace appropriate speed limits, road design and permanent traffic calming.

South Burlington Police Chief Bill Breault told Seven Days that people must not only be safe; they must feel safe. Williston’s rural residents are clearly saying they do not.

Developed neighborhoods receive traffic calming. Rural neighborhoods deserve an equivalent commitment: lower operating speeds, no-passing controls, completion of the Oak Hill Road evaluation through the St. George line and a town implementation timeline.

Worth Considering?

[Re “Sour Milk: The Loss of Four Processing Plants in Vermont Has the Dairy Industry on Edge,” August 26]: Look, wild claims from business leaders that it is “impossible to do anything here” are not all that productive or insightful. But maybe, just maybe, it’s worth considering that it really is inconvenient enough (and we have let health insurance costs get bad enough) that it is more difficult than it needs to be to do much in Vermont (beyond environmental consulting).

Gracias, Georgia

[Re Kids VT: “Scoops in Spanish: A Teen Talks With Her Ice Cream Shop Boss About Making People Feel Like They Matter,” August 18]: I loved reading this. Thank you, Georgia Kunkel. I loved reading about the respect given and received, the opportunity for young folks, and wow, next time I am in Vermont I must try the “Bob”!

Respect to Rodney Olsen for the Spanish language accommodations. I must say I feel sorry for the person who was offended. Closed minds live in small worlds.

On the Sunny Side

In the June 17, 2026, issue of Seven Days there was an interview with writer Rowan Jacobsen discussing his new book, In Defense of the Sun [“Let the Sunshine In: With In Defense of Sunlight, Calais Author Rowan Jacobsen Builds a Case for the Health Benefits of the Sun”].

Later I attended his presentation at Galaxy Bookshop in Hardwick and bought the book. I encourage people to read it. Jacobsen reviews human historical relationships to the sun and brings us up to the present day when the sun is seen as an enemy. This idea has been carried to the extreme: Read an opinion in the Washington Post on July 27, 2026, by a doctor trying to convince people to lather up even inside buildings for fear of UV rays getting at them through the windows!

I’ve always been suspicious of this modern push to keep us out of the sun and to sell us sunscreen. I can’t wear it. I’m allergic. I’ve spent a lot of my life out in the sun (you don’t carry extra stuff when thru-hiking the Appalachian Trail). Jacobsen interviews scientists, reviews scientific and historical literature, and does his own personal experiment with sun exposure. And you know what? Getting sunlight is good for us!

This is a very readable book. Find out why Jacobsen comes to the conclusion that we need sunlight. The sun is definitely not our enemy.

Corrections

Last week’s story “Dark Matters: A Haunting New ‘Disaster Comic’ Turns an Unflinching Eye to the Dehumanization That Fuels Genocides” misstated how Raphael Lemkin created a framework for identifying genocide. He established the United Nations’ Genocide Convention. Also, the story mischaracterized an anecdote about Dana Mashoian Walrath’s 10th-grade history teacher. It was she who informed him about the Armenian genocide.

This article appears in September 9 • 2026.