Letters to the Editor: May 1, 2025

Speaking up: From cult recovery to political clarity

To the Editor:

It happens every year. On a fine spring morning walk, I find myself surprised, even shocked, to see where the sun rises. This, despite the fact that my daily walks offer ample consistency to track this detail, year after year, along the same familiar trails.

Blame it on my lack of attention. Blame it on my poor memory, my inability to recall the sun’s annual pilgrimage. Blame it on Vermont’s cloudy days. This solar surprise often occurs after a few, or many, overcast mornings when I’ve lost track of where along the horizon it should appear. Something about the swing to the north-northeast always boggles me.

I’m often unsure what coat to wear for my morning escapades, as spring temperatures fluctuate wildly.

I gasped when I saw the pond iced over, again. Just the day before, most of the ice had melted. 

It was a familiar gasp. I had just done it the evening before, reading the news.

Standing in my shin-length down coat, gazing at the re-frozen pond, I take a long, slow, deep inhale. I linger for several minutes, digesting my gasps and wondering about a gentler way to be.

None of these experiences are truly surprising.

I remind myself of the steady, precise and predictable path the sun traces every year.

I remind myself of our son’s birthday 25 years ago in late April, when my husband and I paddled our canoe through a thin layer of ice on a bright, blue-sky day, just hours before his birth.

I remind myself of the consistent, tried-and-true tactics wielded by every narcissistic, cultic, coercive leader alive: moving goalposts, bait-and-switch strategies and loaded language — three tactics I recognized in that news story about tariffs the night before.

I remind myself that I’ve been subjected to those same tactics of control. I recognize the patterns. I was trapped by them in the past, but I don’t want them messing with my life today.

So, what’s the surprise, when there is no surprise?

Granted, the sudden switch to a totalitarian-led government after 250 years of (imperfect) democracy is not easy to get used to. But here we are. 

As I stood looking out across the newly re-frozen pond, I realized how activated my nervous system has become, how my gasps of surprise are expressions of existential anxiety and anger. It was humbling and clarifying to realize that I’ve been letting world news push me into low-grade survival mode. 

But that’s not how I want to live. I’ve been there, done that. For nearly 11 post-cult years, I’ve been recovering from the pressure-pot of indoctrination, supporting my body, mind and psyche to heal.

Today, I will do my damndest not to let a cultic president’s predictable bullying tactics get the better of me. Because I know better now. It’s devastating to watch world leaders kowtow to his false power. (May they learn from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney how best to respond to a narcissistic bully.)

And may I learn from what I’ve learned before:

• Pause before consuming national news. Know it may sound shocking, but know that it’s predictable.
• Prioritize daily practices of self-care.
• Focus my energy where it matters most and where I can maintain the most agency.
• Befriend my nervous system.
• Be attentive to the joy and beauty all around me.
• Actively cultivate relationships that support my well-being.
• And write — for me, and for you. If you’ve made it this far, I thank you.

However noisy things get in the coming years, we won’t alter the path of the sun. I aim to pay better attention to its steady arc, take delight in it and keep my emotional reactions in check. We have a few more solar cycles to strengthen our capacity to weather what’s ahead. Dress wisely.

Gerette Buglion
Hyde Park

(Gerette Buglion of Hyde Park is an author and educator whose work centers on liberation from coercive control and supporting survivors of cultic abuse. She draws on both lived experience and years of advocacy and education to do this work.)

I love Vermont for its mountains and commitment to child care

To the Editor:

As an athlete and advocate for the outdoors, I was attracted to Vermont’s incredible mountains, its stewardship of natural resources, its quirky downtowns with local bookstores and cafes, and rural landscapes with farmstands and fresh zucchini … lots and lots of zucchini. But the primary reason for choosing to settle my family in the Green Mountain State was because of its values, including its commitment to progress on child care.

Vermont is full of hardy folk who take action for the benefit of their community. Because of the hard work of over 40,000 Vermonters, our state has become a national leader on child care. Act 76 — the 2023 law that provides desperately needed, long-term funding for accessible and affordable child care — has emerged as one of the most transformative actions on child care at the state level.

Access to affordable child care is something that concerns all Vermonters, even those who do not have children. My son is already a junior in college, and neither of us would be where we are today without having had access to affordable, quality child care.

I taught in day and boarding schools for 18 years, working within 24/7 schedules. I often had to be at school very early and tended to students in the dorm until fairly late at night, all while attending graduate school and teaching privately on the weekends. Access to quality child care and a trusted professional educator who cared for and loved my son allowed me to focus on taking care of my family and my career.

Miss Barbara, who ran a child care program in her home, had a background in early childhood education and used several different curricula to teach the children in her program. My son loved going to Miss Barbara’s; he enjoyed playing and learning with the other children, the guided walks outside, and her delicious homemade food. Meanwhile, with her care and teachings, his language and communication improved vastly, as did his social skills and physical development.

Early childhood educators are professionals with specialized knowledge and training. The only way to bolster a diverse, well-prepared, and well-supported early-childhood-educator workforce is with professional compensation and respect for the essential work they do to help care for and educate our children.

And there are many Vermont families with young children who would and could benefit from more robust child-care options. Access to affordable and professional child care empowers parents to participate in the economy. It allows them to be fully present in their workplaces. And, when we are less worried and anxious about where our children will be during the day, we have more time to dream, to create businesses that contribute to the economy and livelihood of our state. Our children experience the benefits of having parents and caregivers who have the time and freedom to work.

When we invest in common-sense solutions that support families and our economy, we keep people and businesses in our Green Mountain State. Public investment in child care does just that.

The 2025 legislative session has big implications for child care. As lawmakers in Montpelier make critical state funding decisions, they need to hear from us that child care is an absolute priority for Vermonters. Our state representatives and senators have an opportunity to build on a solution that’s working. Doing so would increase access and lower costs for child care while supporting our workforce and preparing our youngest children for school.

I love our state. I love that my job lets me experience so much of it and share it with others. Neither my son nor I would be where we are today without the luck we had in accessing quality early education. So, let’s build a Vermont where it’s not just about luck but, instead, about our values and creating a community where we can all thrive, and that all starts with access to quality, affordable child care. Join me in taking action with Vermont’s Child Care Campaign.

Mirna Valerio
Winooski

(Mirna Valerio is a Vermont-based professional athlete, advocate and educator.)