Legislative Wishlist 2024 – Part 2
by Alison Despathy
Yesterday, Vermont Daily Chronicle published Part 1 of my Wish List for the Vermont Legislature. Today, I submit several more requests.
- A special request to Senators White, Bray, Watson, McCormack, and MacDonald and Representatives Sibilia, Sheldon, Campbell, Stebbins, Torre, Bongartz et al – please stop shoving your ‘green’ colonialism on Vermonters. Support options, provide assistance and let the people choose. You are not saving the world or being realistic, you are making it difficult for Vermonters to afford to live in Vermont.
- Connect Vermont higher education with our community- encourage apprenticeships, mentoring programs and opportunities for Vermont students to develop skills. I was heartbroken to see that Vermont State University would be dropping agriculture and forestry programs. There are farmers and foresters who could take on apprentices and aid these industries that are integral to the future of Vermont. Ensure the Vermont State University does not become yet another online school trying to compete in a now flooded market. Keep the human connection alive at our colleges with a focus on hands-on learning, libraries, books and real teachers. This will attract students who do not thrive with online classes and are instead seeking community, human interactions and dedicated teachers.
- Use the vice taxes to help with the rampant and debilitating infrastructure issues that our schools are experiencing– keep kids in school and off drugs- it only makes sense
- Support and uphold parental rights in all cases, including those related to education and health. This especially applies to any and all medical decisions relating to minors.
- Support towns’ abilities to govern and ensure that they do not lose local control over major community decisions such as renewable energy projects and housing development. This loss has recently occurred in democratically controlled states such as Michigan, Illinois, California and New York. The wind turbine situation in Stamford, Vermont has demonstrated the significance of local engagement on impactful decisions and how towns can be steamrolled by industry if they are not prepared. Ban the use of eminent domain for these projects.
- Moving forward, ensure that the real environmentalists such as Vermonters for a Clean Environment hold a seat at the table with industry and special interests as legislation that impacts the health of our environment is developed. Legislators must remember that renewable energy is an industry that would love to gobble up Vermont. We need all hands on deck to keep an eye and prevent abuses.
- H.182 prohibits interference with an individual’s right to body autonomy, to make their own healthcare decisions and to be free to accept or refuse any medical intervention, testing, treatment or vaccines. Bring back philosophical exemption for vaccines. Does it really take almost 80 vaccines laden with aluminum and mercury to be injected into children to be healthy? Or as in the case of the covid injection, experimental, synthetic biology gene therapy vaccines. Really think about that. Big Pharma marketing campaigns have become entrenched to the detriment of the health of our children. Let parents do their own research and work with their doctors to decide what is best for their children.
- Support the loggers and forest industry. Sustainable conservation practices are critical to maintaining our forests, wilderness and natural resources in VT. Logging in VT must be supported as major moves towards carbon sequestration are in play and venture capitalists, investments funds and ‘environmental groups’ like the Nature Conservancy buy up land and resources placing them in carbon sequestration for investment opportunities on the bogus carbon market. These purchases are used to receive return on investments through the United Nations sustainable development goals which are impact investing markets.This is currently playing out in Pittsburg, NH where Bluesource Sustainable Forest company purchased 146,000 acres for climate mitigation and carbon sequestration. This places strain on the local community’s logging economy, employment opportunities and tax budget. Bluesource is the largest carbon credit developer in the United States. In February, 2022 they merged with Elements Markets under majority ownership by TPG Rise. “Headquartered in San Francisco, the Rise Fund was founded in 2016 by TPG in partnership with Bono (the U2 guy) and Jeff Skoll and offers deep expertise in business solutions to help achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals” This is a local example of how heavily funded investors and the UN Sustainable Development Goals as impact investing markets can wreak havoc in communities by altering industry, resource access, and taxes. Awareness around this situation could guide VT and help ensure that Vermonters can access property and resources, meanwhile preventing the UN impact markets from causing large scale disturbances in our state.
- H.183 offers an ethical path in that it honors healthcare providers and healthcare institution’s right to make conscientious choices regarding practices that align with their belief systems. For example, a provider should never be forced to perform or risk loss of employment if they choose not to perform an abortion. This should never be forced upon a provider or institution if it violates their fundamental right to conscience.
- Ensure that pregnancy resource centers are as equally supported and accessible as Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood cannot hold a monopoly on pregnancy care and options.
- H.188 guarantees informed consent for immunizations. Informed consent is a foundational base for medical ethics. H.188 ensures that informed consent enshrined in the Nuremberg Code of 1947 is provided to all patients.
- It is way past time to ensure that electric vehicles and hybrids are paying their fair share for road repairs via another mechanism than the gas tax utilized for this revenue.
- H.354 offers income tax deductions for homestudy- definitely biased as a homeschooler myself here, but I do know first hand the difference this money could make for homeschool families to support their children instead of handing it all over to a public school.
- No discrimination based on immunization is provided by H.364. As Vermont towns sign onto the Vermont Declaration of Inclusion–which is ironically exclusive due to its attempt to list some protected groups and not others– let’s keep in mind the unvaccinated who suffered discrimination during covid despite failed vaccines that did not prevent illness or transmission. With this lesson freshly learned, ensuring that immunization discrimination is not tolerated here is urgent. Respecting personal, private healthcare decisions is a priority.
- Finally and very dear to my heart, may Vermont hold onto humanity as machines, computers, programs and digitized services take hold. These are of course convenient and have a place but can we prioritize a human-centered economy and government, based on real people, real places, handshakes and human connection instead of falling into the trap of digital worlds as the answer to all. These are tools but let’s keep Vermont human.
I am sure that I have missed additional critical actions. Please feel free to edit, revise, shred and add to this legislative wishlist. If sanity and common sense were the driving forces in the statehouse, maybe we could get there. The majority of these bills are in place ready to be taken up and molded into legislation that will serve Vermonters and keep Vermont affordable. Of course, the real question is will the supermajority– currently hellbent on carbon, collecting taxes in every way possible and sporting an unhealthy obsession with social engineering–allow a shift back to our real Vermont issues, Vermonters and service. I can hope and pray.
The author is a clinical nutritionist in St. Johnsbury.