Letters to the Editor (12/18/24)

The Other Meta

I want to let you know how wonderful it was to watch Eva Sollberger’s latest “Stuck in Vermont” video [“Meta Strick Makes Magical Mixed-Media Art in Fairfield,” December 12]. We all need this boost of creative, upbeat energy this time of year. Brilliant and uplifting. Thank you, Eva!

Karen Didricksen

Georgia

Wrong About Barre

[Re “Acts of the Apostles,” December 4]: Paula Routly’s adoring “From the Publisher” intro of Joe Sexton and his cover story about a church for the addicted in Barre leads me to believe that Seven Days is too deferential to a writer whom you perceive to be better than our local reporters. Within his trope-filled version of Barre, Sexton also writes, “It had an opera house and handsome museums, too.” The tense, of course, is wrong and should have been corrected.

Sexton’s article, while painting some engaging human-interest portraits, turns one-dimensional when it comes to writing about the city itself and piles on Barre in the easiest ways. Ultimately, the author is a person from away who made visits to the city for interviews. But your editorial staff — who know better — should have exercised some agency here when it came to substantive editing and fact-checking.

Yes, Vermont cities suffer modern problems — as all American cities do. And, living in Vermont for the past 25 years, yes, I have seen needles on the street and had my car broken into for spare change. But none of those things has happened to me in Barre. I do, however, attend shows at the Barre Opera House, browse the Vermont History Center’s Research and Exhibition Gallery, and visit the Vermont Granite Museum.

Lovejoy Dole

Barre

‘A Model for All of Us’

I wish to thank Joe Sexton and Seven Days for highlighting the work of Enough Ministries in Barre [“Acts of the Apostles,” December 4]. Pastor Dan Molind, along with Southern Baptist Disaster Relief and the Mennonite Disaster Service, taught me so much about lives devoted to service.

Dan helped the town of Plainfield — and also Lyndonville — in immeasurable ways during our July floods. His wife, Cathy, cooked dozens of meals for the displaced residents in our shelter at Goddard College, for weeks, and Pastor Dan delivered them.

Dan’s commitment and faith have been a model for all of us and still continue to inspire me to be 100 percent people-centered in our response to disaster.

Michael Cerulli Billingsley

Plainfield

Billingsley is the emergency management director for Plainfield.

Not So Scary

First of all, I love Seven Days! Thank you so much for existing.

I need to stand up for Barre in response to Joe Sexton’s Scary Barre article. Or excuse me, “Acts of the Apostles” [December 4]. I wish y’all and Joe had heeded your initial caution of Barre being an easy target. Is Joe going to break a new story about drugs on Church Street next?

Ten thousand words dedicated to reinforcing the tired Scary Barre rhetoric, but it’s somehow interesting because now there’s a church involved? Give me a break; evangelical churches setting up in places where people are at their lowest is not new, nor is it news.

You know what is interesting about Barre? Our Main Street right now. It’s a queer and allied landscape of businesses that cannot be found in most rural places. Rainbow Bridge Community Center, Foxy’s bar and my shop, Slowpoke Exchange, are all owned by out-and-proud queer folk. Tally bar has hosted multiple queer takeovers and dance parties since opening a year ago!

After opening Slowpoke, I received a message from someone I had never met. They wrote about how they had to move away from Barre the second they could because they are queer and it wasn’t safe. They wrote to tell us how incredible it is to see their hometown becoming a place where being queer is celebrated.

But I get it: Sadness and drugs sell papers. Maybe just keep it to the regular length next time?

Maddie Cobb

Barre

Too Much ‘Negativity’

I was really disappointed to hear the negativity in the article that was published about Barre [“Acts of the Apostles,” December 4]. Barre is a thriving community and actually quite on the up and up, despite what was written. There are a ton of new businesses and a great sense of community. Poverty is widespread in rural Vermont, but that doesn’t put a stain on the city or surrounding areas; if anything, it makes it stronger and more closely knit. Maybe for your next article on Barre, you could talk about all the fun businesses that have opened up or look into some of the positive community events that are happening.

Andrea Garritano

Graniteville

Frontline Worship

I appreciate Seven Days covering this Barre church [“Acts of the Apostles,” December 4]. True churches are spiritual hospitals, not mere social gatherings — though the two purposes often effectively overlap.

Vermont needs more private actors to address its opioid and homelessness crisis. These front lines are where the hardest — and most meaningful — work is found.

I think I will attend Enough Ministries some Sunday soon.

John Klar

Brookfield

Embrace the ‘Gritty’

I read a letter to Seven Days complaining about the use of the word “gritty” in the editor’s preamble to an article about Barre [Feedback: “‘Gritty’ Sounds Sh*tty,” December 11]. Barre is a great and storied city, as the editor’s preamble emphasized [From the Publisher: “Leap of Faith,” December 4]. And it is gritty. Vermont has older cities of character, with stories. Vermont residents are making these cities meaningful in today’s world, against the odds, while dealing meaningfully with serious contemporary problems that are characteristic of many American cities.

Go Barre, and Be Gritty. It’s a laurel, not an epithet.

Ned Farquhar

Waitsfield

How to Help Older Vermonters

Community paramedicine is an effective, logical and cost-effective way to care for our nation’s aging population. Community paramedics operate much like the community nurses mentioned in [“Aging Alone,” November 20]. Both could be a key solution. Both are in short supply. Vermont’s emergency medical services providers are highly trained medical professionals able to diagnose and treat acute and chronic illness and injury, but unfortunately they are sometimes limited to only being transporters due to legislation and funding. EMS could be a key player in filling gaps in home care for elders and others.

Simple changes in legislation would help realign EMS as both an essential public first-response service and an essential public health care service able to be reimbursed for on-scene care. At the national level, there’s the Community Paramedicine Act of 2024, H.R. 8042. This bill would create a grant program under the secretary of health and human services that would authorize $25 million per year for five years to support community paramedicine services; award qualified entities up to $750,000 for individual applications and $1.5 million for joint applications; and establish an advisory board composed of national community paramedicine, emergency medical service and fire service organizations to advise, assist and peer-review grant applications in rural and underserved areas.

Diana Osborn

Johnson

A Word on SASH

Thank you for the continued coverage of issues facing older Vermonters through the “This Old State” series. “Aging Alone” [December 4] illustrates the vital importance of connection between older Vermonters with each other, their families and support persons, as well as the staff of community-based aging organizations, such as community nurses and councils on aging.

The many issues you have reported on in the series — workforce and housing shortages and financial scams — are all front and center for the organization I work for, Cathedral Square. We see the challenges of isolation and loneliness on a regular basis and have been working in partnership with our residents on solutions, including creating Support and Services at Home. SASH has also been a cornerstone in supporting healthy aging in place for older Vermonters since 2011. This program, free for Medicare recipients, is primarily based in housing owned by nonprofit and public housing organizations. Five thousand participants are currently enrolled, and more than 12,000 Vermonters have been served!

The program’s success in Vermont has led to its replication in Rhode Island, showing promising trends such as reduced inpatient readmissions and fewer nursing home days among participants.

More resources must be made available to ensure that Vermonters are safe, healthy and connected. A heartfelt thank-you to the devoted staff within all these organizations for their invaluable contributions.

Liz Genge

Montpelier

Genge is SASH director at Cathedral Square.

Rev Is Wrong

Over the years I’ve been disappointed with your “Ask the Reverend” column, but a recent response from the “Reverend” really bothered me [“How Can I Keep Politics Off the Thanksgiving Table?” November 20]. What kind of “Reverend” hosts a wake at their home but then bullies attendees who cry? My answer: not a “Reverend” whose advice column I would read.

The way we deal with grief in our culture is so broken, and the last thing we need is more grief shaming from our local news source. If we want to care for one another better, we have to rehumanize grief and stop shunning or maligning it. If the “Reverend” was intending to make a joke in their response, it didn’t come across that way.

I hope the “Reverend” will rethink their relationship with grief and that Seven Days will consider wiser insights for the “Ask the Rev” column. Amen.

Leslie Ruster

Montpelier

Tax ‘Alternative’

[Re “Vermont Teachers’ Union Pitches Income Tax to Fund Education,” November 22, online]: I applaud the Vermont-National Education Association for opening discussion on how to better fund education, but I suspect their three-tier system will require more staff to implement and require taxpayers to get professional help to apply for inclusion in rebates.

During a late 1990s discussion on Act 60, a large minority of legislators proposed a value-added tax instead of putting it on the property taxes. They stated that a property tax system would eventually implode. A VAT would lower property taxes to 1997 levels plus inflation, provide a system that allows the millions of visitors to Vermont to help, and replace or reduce sales taxes and rooms and meals taxes.

It’s worth reconsidering as an alternative, in my opinion.

Ken Libby

Stowe

Deep Dark Fear

Every cold morning

when I start a fire

in the woodstove

with Seven Days

I worry that the

deceased in the

Obituary page will

come back to haunt me.

Lester Maple

Milton

Backward Budget

[“Vermont Teachers’ Union Pitches Income Tax to Fund Education,” November 22, online] notes that “Dems appear to have gotten the message … Senators pledged to make soaring property taxes their top priority.” Unfortunately, the Dems appear to be mistaken about the message voters actually had in mind.

For anyone who does a household budget or manages a business, the budgeting process begins with determining how much income you’ll have. Then you can decide how to spend the money, based on basic needs and then on personal priorities for whatever is left. Unfortunately, with education spending we do it backward: We decide how much we want to spend and then go looking for sources of money to pay for it. That’s how school budgets get defeated multiple times.

So far, it looks like we’re headed in the same direction for the coming year. It’s not surprising that the Vermont teachers’ union would suggest we start by increasing income taxes, rather than reducing the steadily rising costs of educating our kids. After all, the vast majority of school budget funds go to paying union members. But increasing taxes does nothing to make Vermont more affordable.

Vermont has the third-highest educational cost per student in the nation, so clearly there are ways to improve on that. Starting out by looking for new funding sources is backward and ignores the underlying problem. If you can reduce costs, you won’t have to raise any taxes. We do have a choice of which one to focus on first.

Peter Straube

Monkton

A Season of Gratitude

We are grateful for good health, warm homes, family and the First Congregational Church United Church of Christ in Burlington that supports us in times of joy and struggle.

Not everyone is so fortunate in this city, state or nation. Homelessness, addiction, alcoholism and mental illness are epidemic. Many have landed on our doorstep for shelter. They could be your brother, sister, son, daughter, mother, or maybe even you or one of us. They are human beings.

It has been asked: “Why would anyone want to go to this church?” Because we care! Because we seek to practice love, not fear. Because we want to walk where Jesus walked and know that “in as much as you have done it unto one of the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”

Rob Backus, Paul Bloomhardt, L. Diana Carlisle, Barbara Carter, Janice Clements, Susan Ellwood, Linda Elrick, John Floyd, Cyndy Hall, Tony Hall, Carl Herzog, Carlanne Herzog, Mary Hyde, Steve Hyde, Donna Lee, Bob McKearin, Mary McKearin, Amy Mellencamp, Bill Neil, Faith Neil, Jamie Polli, Susan Saunders, Lynn Schouten, Ann Vivian, Doug Viehmann

Shame on Whom?

Who was the coward who ran a full-page unsigned ad in Seven Days [page 75, November 20] suggesting that the former cathedral be opened as a homeless shelter, as “It is the Christian thing to do”? I, for one, took offense to that ad. Catholic charities do more behind the scenes for charity than anyone knows, and to try to shame them into opening the cathedral was an insult. Perhaps the funds are lacking to convert it to a homeless shelter since so much is being paid out for sexual abuse cases having had the statute of limitations eliminated, opening up lawsuits for unproven abuse. Perhaps the pot of gold thought to be there is no longer. But to try to shame them into opening the cathedral is unbelievable and cowardly, to say the least.

Joyce Coutu

Essex Junction

Editor’s note: The ad was paid for by the local magazine 05401, as indicated. Its publisher is Burlington architect Louis Mannie Lionni.

Notes From a Newcomer

Having recently moved to Shelburne, I find Seven Days very well done and helpful. Random comments on the November 13 edition:

• We did not realize how extensive and varied the cultural/entertainment scene is in the area.

• In the “Last 7” [Emoji That: “Trump Bump”], you note that Elise Stefanik, congressperson from across Lake Champlain, has been nominated to be United Nations ambassador. As a longtime resident of her district, I’m relieved to see her out of there. But be warned: She is a liar (she still claims the 2020 election was stolen, and she was just reelected to her sixth term, having once promised to serve only five). She is self-centered and ravenous for power. She brags about being “ultra-MAGA.” She can do a lot of damage to U.S. interests at the UN.

• Regarding the lack of workers to weatherize Burlington apartments [“Cold Discomfort“]: There are plenty of workers. Donald Trump intends to deport them.

Neal Burdick

Shelburne

Murad Deserves Respect

[Re “Burlington Police Chief Jon Murad to Resign Next Year,” November 19, online]: I find Burlington City Councilor Melo Grant’s comment about departing Police Chief Jon Murad distressing. Grant is quoted as saying, “I felt like every day he was in place was another day that we were further away from being better.” This is beyond being a “vocal critic” of Chief Murad; it is a withering, mean-spirited comment made by a city leader about a departing city employee.

I do not know Councilor Grant’s history with the police, or with Chief Murad. I do know that Chief Murad is a public servant who has served this city for the past four years and that it is not light or easy work to be a police officer, let alone to run an understaffed police department.

At the end of this article, Burlington City Council President Ben Traverse says “it is our responsibility as city leaders” — meaning the council and the mayor — “to ensure that we continue to bring stability to the department.”

I agree. And I ask: How will you do this, Council President Traverse, when there is clearly so much hostility toward the police harbored by some of your fellow city leaders?

Polly Vanderputten

Burlington

Not Notre-Dame

Isn’t it ironic that the same day that Paris celebrated the reopening of their most beautiful cathedral, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington celebrated the ability to demolish theirs [“Supreme Court Approves Demolition of Burlington Cathedral,” December 6, online]?

The western part of the site of the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception could easily be transformed to provide nine stories of apartments on its current parking lot just west of the cathedral.

With its graffiti removed, the cathedral itself could remain the focus of a well-designed famous piece of landscape architecture. In the short term it could be used as a warming shelter, and in the long term it could become a community center and a much-needed park in what will soon become the densest part of Burlington.

We need parks and open space downtown, not just more apartments. It is possible to have both on this important downtown site.

We all know this was a real estate deal. Hopefully the secret prospective developers will find a way to create several apartments on the cathedral’s parking lot but keep the cathedral and its landscaping intact for all to enjoy — without the graffiti.

Giving or selling the cathedral to someone who will love it and repurpose it is far less expensive than demolishing it. Building nine stories of apartments on its parking lot would provide enough return on investment without the cost of demolishing a prominent part of Burlington’s cultural heritage.

Deconsecrating can be and is done at churches around the world without destroying them.

Jay White

Burlington