It’s not surprising a political party that has for decades made its bones encouraging constituents to fervently accept things that are simply not true would fight tooth-and-nail to defend their tenderly nurtured supporters from any contradictory ideas.
You could feel the change this week. In the days following Gov. Phil Scott’s announcement he was lifting many COVID restrictions, people seemed both relieved and eager to push forward as normally as possible into summer.
Now that more students are graduating in person again, Poor Elijah cleared his calendar and waited for the phone to ring. As usual, neither Harvard nor the Naval Academy invited him to deliver a commencement address.
With over 80% of Vermonters having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and nearly 72% of us fully vaccinated, on June 15, the governor declared an end to the State of Emergency and the termination of pandemic-related social restrictions. It is significant that Vermont is the …
Did you know that one in six Gen Z adults identify as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community? We celebrate Pride Month to publicly include all members of our families and communities who, in the past, had to hide who they were. Talking about Pride Month as a family can make a big difference in…
Life, you know, is rather like opening a tin of sardines: We are all of us looking for the key.
Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. So this fool (i.e., me) is going to rush in. Be kind. During the past few weeks, an elementary school teacher in Leesburg, Virginia, has been in the news. Mr. Tanner Cross was suspended for saying he would not follow a proposed policy requiring eleme…
Last Sunday, I found myself standing on Church Street in Burlington fighting back tears. It was 95 degrees, and it felt as though the thick, rubber soles of my Chacos were melting, triggering my fight-or-flight response as surely as would a catamount lurching out of City Hall to devour the c…
There has been frustration in recent months with some of our coverage. Some of it is justified but there are elements of what we present to you that we feel is important for you to see. As is.
A soothsayer warned Julius Caesar to beware the ides of March, the date of the new moon. Shortly after noon on the ides, Caesar met him again. To demonstrate that his dire prediction hadn’t come true, Caesar chided him that “the ides of March are come.”
There’s been a lot of postponing on the climate front of late.
For more than 20 years at the Vermont Council on Rural Development, we have hosted community conversations with the goal of helping Vermonters come together, consider their local assets and challenges, decide on priorities for action, and then get to work making those priorities happen. At t…
For as long as I have been able to recall, including during the initial and most tender years of my youth, I have experienced, among other things, what usually gets termed as being severe depression, as well as anxiety and somewhat later on, panic attacks and the like (in the latter instance…
This past year has proven what we have long known to be true: Vermonters are resilient and know how to come together to get through tough times.
"Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose" — the more things change, the more they stay the same — Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, 1849.
In November 2020, I was appointed by Gov. Phil Scott to serve a four-year term on the Vermont Commission on Women, an independent, nonpartisan state commission focused on the advancement of Vermont women and girls. It was during the second wave of the global pandemic, and I was keenly aware …
Just a couple of weeks ago, two major U.S. publishers, HarperCollins and its religious imprint Zondervan, pulled out of a deal to publish “The God Bless the USA Bible.” This was to be the New International Version translation (a well-known translation that has been around for many years); ho…
Being first sometimes means coming in last. Vermont has sure had a lot of “firsts” over the years — the first state to abolish slavery; the first state to allow civil unions for same-sex couples; the first state to allow the importation of lower-cost prescription drugs from Canada; and so on…
June is Pride Month and 2021 marks the 51st celebration — a time when people come together in support of the LGBTQ community. June also marks the official opening of most Vermont State Parks and end of mud season restrictions on hiking trails throughout the state. The Vermont Agency of Natur…
Nearly half of the governors — 23 and counting — have decided to end federal supplemental unemployment benefits for workers in their states. Evidently, they never heard the old adage: Don’t cut off your nose to spite your face. In these bizarre times, I guess we have to be grateful that Gov.…
I’ve always felt pretty comfortable in western Montana even as a few people carried sidearms, mostly because it is “their right,” more than any specific fear. You eventually become inured to such things out here, perhaps because the sheer enormity of the place seems sufficient to absorb almo…
June is Gay Pride Month.
Imagine waking up one morning and seeing crumbs all over the floor, dirty dishes in the sink and the house full of flies because someone left the back door open. Which problem should you deal with first? None of the above — because the smoke and flames should have alerted you the house is on fire.
At the start of the pandemic last year, it became clear that along with significant challenges posed, there were new opportunities to reevaluate Vermont’s needs and invest in our future. The Vermont Chamber identified specific critical needs for working Vermonters in child care, broadband an…
The struggle of Vermont’s workers is deeply interrelated with our state’s climate goals. As a labor advocate, working electrician and member of the Just Transitions subcommittee of the Vermont Climate Council, I’ve spent this past year trying to help people understand why.
If you’re like me, you have found a way to develop procrastination into an art form. Why bother dealing with whatever it is you need to deal with today when you can put it off until tomorrow? Why face reality today when you can bury your head in the sand in hopes your reality will go away?
When I was a child, I fell in love with nature. I explored and knew intimately the wild lands near my home — places full of enchantment, wonder and a multitude of living beings. So it was with an inconsolable broken heart that I watched as they were bulldozed and paved over, all in the name …
Leon Trotsky was a model revolutionary intellectual — wild eyes, wild hair and wire-rimmed glasses. He was one of Lenin’s chief lieutenants in the civil war that overthrew the fledgling democracy that had itself overthrown the tsar. Trotsky commanded the victorious Red Army, served the commu…
Editor’s note: Vermont By Degrees is a series of columns written by representatives of colleges and universities from around the state about the challenges facing higher education at this time.
It might seem like the proposed constitutional amendment on slavery in Vermont, a national historic site in Tennessee and Confederate statues in Virginia have little in common. What draws them together is the shameful legacy of slavery and racism in the United States, and what separates them…
One of the dark accomplishments of the past five years has been the normalization of webs of lies in society. The critical value of the truth has faded as the lying has grown. The Fact Checker website lists over 30,000 false or misleading claims made by the former president during his four y…
This week, hundreds of Vermonters came together to think about what is best for our state. While there were lawmakers present, this group of individuals were all experts in their respective fields. They were convened as part of the Vermont Council on Rural Development’s Summit on the Future …
If you look carefully at the pictures of the Gaza Strip taken after the recent 11-day conflict with Israel, you will appreciate the extraordinary damage done to the Gazan infrastructure.
Years ago, I had a fishing buddy who was also a history professor. We usually cast our flies from opposite ends of a large aluminum scow; and when fishing was slow, we just trolled around the pond and talked. I learned more during those sessions about the details of building the Panama Canal…
Up until about a year ago, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) was among the most trusted of national organizations, but since being politicized because of the COVID-19 pandemic, nearly every recommendation issued since last March has been met with skepticism or downright hos…
If you ever had doubts that climate change was not having an effect on Vermont, you weren’t paying attention. It is happening all around us, across every season.
In the State of Vermont, a large proportion of the local New American population is made up of individuals who were resettled to the state with refugee status. Refugee resettlement in Chittenden County began in the early 1980s and it is now the most ethnically diverse county in the state. De…
The climate crisis is one of the biggest public health threats of our time. However, many people don’t realize global weather patterns can actually have a bearing on their health. I consider it part of my responsibility as a medical professional to explain these challenges to my patients, es…
I don’t know what put the expression “malice aforethought” in Mrs. Evans’s mind or why she chose to introduce it to our second-grade class. It’s a term that dates from medieval English law. Murder with malice aforethought meant a murder that had been premeditated.
The big lie, perpetuated by former President Trump and some of his supporters, is our elections are not secure. These dangerous and disingenuous claims are made without evidence to support them. The former president and his supporters have filed more than 60 lawsuits across the country to tr…
It’s easy to look back over the past 18 months and see all of the ways COVID-19 has set us back: from shuttered businesses, to thousands of Vermonters losing their jobs, a disproportionate amount of whom were women who had to exit the workforce to care for their children.
In a time when businesses are trying to recover from a government-ordered shutdown resulting from COVID-19, some Vermont lawmakers look to pour more salt in their wounds by adding $100 million increased costs onto their backs.
We have heard complaints from employers lately that the extended unemployment benefits and stimulus checks “are keeping people from returning to work,” and a number of states have now refused to participate with the federal government on extending these payments. Along these lines, there is …
Vermont’s post-European settlement identity and cultural history is inextricably linked to the working landscape. However, the relevance of working lands to the state’s future economic and social fabric is at a tipping point. As fewer Vermonters work the land, more Vermonters lose appreciati…
Vermonters, what are our priorities? Where are our hearts?
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Five Questions With
Just over three months ago we started “Five Questions With ...” to put a human face to this pandemic. Today marks the final installment in this stage of the project, but it will continue with a new set of questions more focused on Vermont’s recovery. Here, Paul Costello, of Montpelier, offer…
Marlee Brunton, of Middlesex, talks about the pandemic and its effects on her family.
Marlee Brunton, of Middlesex, talks about the pandemic and its effects on her family.
Alayna Martel, of Barre Town, is a registered nurse at UVM Medical Center. She talks about how, as a frontline workers, her life has been affected by the pandemic.
Gayle Townsend-Lang, of Rutland, works full time wearing many hats for the Rutland City Public Schools as “Miss Gayle.” Here she talks about how she has been affected by the pandemic.
Stefanie Schaffer, of Rutland, talks about how she has been coping with self-isolation and dealing with the pandemic.
Stefanie Schaffer, of Rutland, talks about how she has been coping with self-isolation and dealing with the pandemic.
Yankee Notebook columnist Willem Lange, of East Montpelier, talks about how he has been affected by self-isolation and the pandemic.
CPA Thomas Lauzon, of Barre, discusses how his life has been affected by the pandemic and self-isolation. Earlier this spring Lauzon was named to the governor’s Economic Mitigation & Recovery Task Force.
Chrispin White, of Rutland, discusses how he has been adapting to self-isolation and how the pandemic has been affecting him.
Christina Sweet, of Rutland, discusses how she and her family have been affected by the pandemic and self-isolation over these months.
Educator and Vermont Mountaineers General Manager Brian Gallagher, of East Montpelier, discusses how the pandemic has affected his life. Earlier this spring, the Mountaineers’ organizers announced they would cancel the 2020 season.
Cat Heatley, of Rutland, talks about how her life has been affected by the pandemic in recent weeks.
Cat Heatley, of Rutland, talks about how her life has been affected by the pandemic in recent weeks.
Salon owner and fitness instructor April Rogers Farnham, of Plainfield, talks about how she has been affected by self-isolation.
Barre Partnership Executive Director Tracie Lewis talks about self-isolation and how the pandemic has been affecting her life.
Montpelier writer Thomas Greene discusses how he has been affected by self-isolation and the pandemic.
Drew Smith, of Rutland, talks about self-isolation and how the pandemic has affected his life.
Jessica Van Orman talks about her experience in self-isolation and how the pandemic has affected her life.
Artist Jen Rondinone, of Rutland, reflects on self-isolation and how the pandemic has affected her and her family.
Mark Breen, the "Eye on the Sky" guy from the Fairbanks Museum in St. Johnsbury, shares his thoughts in self-isolation and how the pandemic has been affecting his life.
Senate President Pro Tem Tim Ashe discusses how self-isolation and the pandemic have affected his life.
Executive Director of the Paramount Bruce Bouchard, of Rutland, talks about how his life has been affected by the pandemic and its consequences.
Stay-at-home mom and low-income advocate Roni Lynn Shrout, of Montpelier, discusses how the pandemic has affected her family.
Carrie Allen, of Rutland, explains how she has been coping with self-isolation and what she hopes will come from it after the pandemic is over.
Vermont cartoonist Tim Newcomb provides a bit of levity to his answers about self-isolation and how he is coping.
Recovery Vermont’s Melissa Story, of Montpelier, shares her thoughts on self-isolation and how it has affected her.
Major Jackson is a poet and professor at the University of Vermont. He lives in South Burlington.
Former governor Jim Douglas shared his thoughts on self-isolation.
Danziger: Five Questions With