Letters to the Editor; Jan. 23
Inclusion more than declaration, it requires intentional efforts
To The Editor:
“A democratic society and system of government, while among the grandest of human concepts, are among the most difficult to implement. … We should never forget that in the long run, democracy is judged by the way that the majority treats the minority.”
— Pierre Elliott Trudeau
Unlike what I see in some of today’s politicians, equal treatment of the individual in law and policy is something that Pierre Trudeau grasped and argued for during his tenure as Prime Minister of Canada.
On Monday, Jan. 13, I believe that Charlotte became the 161st of 247 towns and cities (home to nearly 80 percent of the state’s population) to adopt the Vermont Declaration of Inclusion.
What does this mean for our town?
Inclusion is much more than a mere declaration. Inclusion, if we are sincere about the missive, involves active, intentional and ongoing efforts to create environments wherein all individuals (versus groups) belong and feel respected and valued. Inclusion means making accommodations of varying needs and perspectives. In the ideology of an inclusive town, no individual should be left unheard, no individual should be left behind, no person should experience any form of exclusionary rhetoric.
“Diversity is fact
Equity is a choice
Inclusion is an action
Belonging is an outcome”
— Arthur Chan
If Charlotte wishes to make intentions of this declaration real, adoption is just a step.
The declaration alone is not enough to be able to claim any ground on the matter. The next part is what the town does to make its declaration real. Some implementation pieces are simple and some pieces can become more complex and costly as time goes on.
A little bit of research reveals that towns across Vermont which have adopted the declaration have hired consultants to administer, assess and implement bias training and examine ordinances and job descriptions and websites, etc. Towns established committees, some partnering with non-profit, state and private agencies to continue the work. Towns are doing what they believe is necessary to implement relevant actions and programs for the declaration that they formally adopted.
Michael Ignatieff, the Canadian human rights scholar, defines the ideal inclusive state as “a community of equal rights-bearing citizens united in patriotic attachment to a shared set of political practices and values.”
I have no sense if the town of Charlotte is going to make its declaration real, or not. Maybe we simply increased our awareness of the intersectional complexities that shape our town, our state and our entire country. Perhaps, as some sincerely believe, we are already the inclusive community we intend to be through this declaration. As one Ford F150 truck in Charlotte boldly and permanently declares on its tailgate, “#2 Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself – MATT 22:39 – They Aren’t the Ten Suggestions.” Now that is a beautiful example of active, intentional and ongoing effort broadcasting a values-based commitment to inclusion.
Robert Caldwell
Charlotte
Thank you to Charlotte Central School mentors
To the Editor:
“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself,” Oprah Winfey said.
January is National Mentoring Month, and I want to recognize the dedication of some amazing volunteer mentors with the Charlotte Central School’s Connecting Youth Mentoring Program. Charlotte Central School is fortunate to have more than 20 dedicated adult mentors who spend about an hour a week with a student. These mentors embrace the power of relationships and recognize that one person can change a young person’s life. They are empowered to make a difference. Our mentors have seen growth, boosted the trajectories of young lives and made the community stronger.
Mentoring takes place on school grounds, during school hours with students in fifth-eighth grades. The mentoring room is an inviting place filled with all sorts of games, crafts and sports equipment. Many mentoring pairs enjoy baking and cooking in the kitchen.
Mentors bring a sense of shared fun, new experiences and great listening skills. The mentors provide encouragement and options for expanding a young person’s regard for themselves and their world. By sharing yourself with your mentee, you help to inspire them in creating a meaningful future for themselves. Some mentoring pairs have been meeting for years while others started this month. It’s never too late to join our team and begin a meaningful relationship with a great student. Many mentors have said that they feel they gain more from the friendship than the students they mentor.
If you are interested in applying to be a mentor at Charlotte Central School or learning more, please contact or 802-425-6682.
If you’re interested in working with high school students, the mentoring program at Champlain Valley Union High is also seeking mentors. Contact Alison Duback at [email protected] for more information.
Kate Rooney
Essex
(Rooney is mentoring coordinator at Charlotte Central School.)
The brief and loving life of a Christmas tree
To the Editor:
One month ago, mid-December, we drove to the parking lot where trees were standing in neat rows, awaiting new homes. Like puppies in a pound hopefully watching the critical gaze of possible owners. Choose me! Choose me! They called. We pulled them out, shook off snow, argued about height and girth. Let’s get a small one. No, bigger, we have to fill that corner. We haggled and found the right puppy, bundled it and brought it home.
Our tree fit splendidly this year and blossomed in the living room with ancient decorations, memories of decades past, specimens of family art and creations dangling with glee from its branches. It brought a unique scent and sight of hope and a refuge from these brutal human times outside the window and our cocooned community. It held space for three weeks, welcoming family and friends as if a new family member, radiating a unique recognition of seasonal peace and refuge. Christmas, birthdays, holidays and quiet nights rolled past. Cold outside, warm within.
Then one day, as if driven by an unspoken instinct or signal, we looked up and agreed it was time. The tree neither requested nor received a requiem, just a nod of appreciation for a brief life well lived. Unceremoniously, it was stripped of its tokens of the season, naked on a Saturday morning and carried to a resting spot outside. Today a man with a truck and trailer, aided by his young son, came and scooped up the shedding remains. In gratuity, we gave a $15 donation to the boy’s school music program. Then it was over, the closing hymn for a ritual that began last month, last year. A lifetime ago.
I loved our tree, as I do all our trees, and its journey toward a chipper somewhere makes me melancholy. It lived a bright, if brief, life in our home and transformed our living room into a different place, a service of love for which I feel appreciation as I sit in this treeless space on a mid-January morning. There is worry in the world, fear of tyrants and undeserved grief. But our tree etched a small place in our family history that lives hopefully in memory, leaving behind the gift of its balsam scent.
Thomas Powell
South Burlington
Headline didn’t do bathhouse story justice
To the Editor:
We have heard it before — headlines make (or break) the news. We all know that Fox News runs one headline and NPR runs a different headline — same story, different result. The same thing could be said of The Charlotte News — the optics can change as a result of the headline.
What if the headline read: “Recreation commission demonstrates need for major renovations to bathhouse” instead of “Recreation commission wants new bathhouse”?
The story could then go on to explain that the existing almost 50-year-old bathhouse requires many repairs including a new roof and would highlight that the existing bathhouse does not meet the Americans with Disabilities Act requirements for wheelchair and mobility-impaired access. This article could explain that the recreation commission plans to pay for the majority of these major renovations with grants, donations and major gifts, and that the cost to taxpayers would be a maximum of $40,000 per year ($10 per resident) or $200,000 over five years.
The article might also illustrate that the Charlotte Beach-Fred St. George Fields generates over $40,000 income annually which the recreation commission is asking to have reinvested in the town’s recreational facilities.
The article might point out that over 20,000 visitors came to enjoy the Charlotte Beach-Fred St. George Fields this past year, but some visitors cannot access the beach because there is no ramp. The article might emphasize that the recreation commission would like to add a ramp to the beach and provide an ADA bathroom facility for the enjoyment of all community members. Perhaps then the article would garner more support for the project and the knee-jerk reaction to facilities improvements would not be “but my taxes are going to go up” and “we don’t need to be Shelburne.”
Maura Wygmans
Charlotte
(Wygmans is a member of the recreation commission.)
Legislature wrestles questions without easy solutions
To the Editor:
Here we go, the Vermont State Legislature is back in session. In addition to being sworn in, we should have to take the Hippocratic oath, to first do no harm.
The voters have spoken by throwing out many lawmakers that would seek to do harm to working Vermonters. It is time for the Legislature to work together and make changes that will control property tax rates and foster a better education system, rein in health care costs, promote public safety and fix the Global Warming Solutions Act to align it with reality. These are the issues Republicans ran on, and the people of Vermont clearly agree.
Controlling property taxes is going to take a whole system overhaul. We need to make cuts in some areas like bloated administration and look to compromise on local control. School consolidation is also going to be on the table and must come from the top down rather than pitting neighbor against neighbor to strike a balance. The Secretary of Education has been working closely with the administration to come up with a bold new plan. It will be up to the Legislature to get elements of this plan passed.
Rising health care costs are crushing everyone in the state. We need more competition in the market place and a complete overhaul of the Green Mountain Care Board. The board is completely dysfunctional and is not bringing health care costs into check. How can we penalize hospitals that are turning a profit by eliminating beds? What is the impact of an out-of-control state Medicaid system on the overall cost of health care? And how do we serve an aging population that is largely rural? These are the questions that the Legislature will grapple with during this session and there are not a lot of easy answers.
Public safety is of the utmost concern; the catch and release policies that have been pushed are clearly not working. We are continually re-releasing dangerous offenders with no accountability. We must hold offenders accountable for their behavior or they will continue to re-offend. Harsher penalties and a repeal of “Raise the Age” are on the table. It is clear that criminals have taken advantage of Vermont’s lax laws on youthful offenders which has promoted the use of youth in the commission of crimes. Raising the age is having the opposite effect on children by leading criminal syndicates to target young people for smuggling, distributing and selling drugs.
Revising and repealing portions of the Global Warming Solutions Act must be done immediately. The clock is ticking on the unrealistic benchmarks that were included in this legislation. We will not be able to meet the ludicrous reductions in carbon output that we prescribed in this poor legislation and we have opened ourselves up to lawsuits when that does not happen. Auto dealerships will not be able to procure enough EV’s to meet the requirements, and folks will be forced to buy 2-year-old EVs 20 percent or more over market value. Home heating fuel must not be taxed at an additional $4 per gallon, and expensive carbon credits can not be traded as a commodity.
Making progress on these issues means that the Legislature needs to work together and work with the Governor’s office. Democrats seemed poised to do this, as they are eagerly waiting for the Governor’s plan for education funding, as they have none and created the mess we are in. They have co-opted the Republican message of affordability, and now they must step up to work with and listen to us. The issues we Republicans ran on are the issues that the people of Vermont found to be the most important. We Republicans look forward to rolling up our sleeves and getting to work and sincerely hope that we will be listened to in 2025 and 2026. Democrats still have the majority and Republicans can’t advance logical policies without their approval.
Gina Galfetti
Barre Town
(Galfetti is a Republican member of the state House of Representatives.)
Land-use acronym battle of YIMBYs, NIMBYs and SIMBYs
To the Editor:
These three acronyms have one common theme: land use and development. IMBY stands for in my back yard), so YIMBYs are those who say “yes” to land development but not necessarily in their own backyard but more likely in your backyard.
They are typically supported by land speculators and real estate developers and “growth is good” politicians. They support “smart growth,” infill development, but not limits on development. They are here today and gone tomorrow, off to their next profit potential endeavor. They paint those not for development in a derogatory manner as NIMBYs.
NIMBYs value the status quo and often do oppose development for many reasons associated with “no.” Sometimes they win by opposing a nuclear power station on Lake Champlain; sometimes they lose by having to suffer under excessive noise from F-35 fighters in their backyard. Often they want to preserve what they have, be it a landscape, viewscape or soundscape as they wish to stay in and preserve their community. They are not profit driven but also do not want their home investment devalued or neighborhood degraded by inappropriate development.
SIMBYs seek sustainability and sufficiency in their backyard. They value land for the long term to supply them with energy for the gut and energy and materials for the household. For this they ideally need access to gardens, meadows and a woodlot. They realize that their needs cannot be satisfied in a densely developed village or city but could be satisfied in a low-density village. They would not support downzoning to a point where expensive water and sewer infrastructure will be needed. They wish to be prepared for a future that may see globalization collapse, and the need for more local economies to rise again.
Development generally takes land that is ecologically mature and degrades it with hardscape, destroying the soil and its ability to absorb stormwater while leaving less land for other lifeforms. How do we help meet the 30×30 goal of saving 30 percent of land for biodiversity as well as the our global warming solution goals when the Vermont Chamber of Commerce has a goal of increasing Vermont’s population by 25 percent in the next decade?
So, who will the new town plan support? Will it open up Charlotte to the YIMBY supporters, or will it support the status quo for future developments? Will it recognize ecological limits? Do Charlotte residents have a vision for their land’s future? Why not find out? If the selectboard and the planning commission would really want a better answer, I suggest they create a citizens assembly to find out.
A citizens assembly for our town would select a group of residents by lottery to deliberate on important public questions. The group’s members would form a more representative cross-section of the public and would be provided with time, resources and a broad range of viewpoints to learn deeply about an issue. Through skilled facilitation, the assembly members would weigh trade-offs and work to find common ground on a shared set of recommendations. Citizens assemblies can be more representative and deliberative than public engagement, polls, legislatures or ballot initiatives. Citizens assemblies have generally been successful worldwide. Let’s give it a try, Charlotte.
Wolfger Schneider
Charlotte