To the Editor

I respectfully disagree with Pope Leo’s recent criticism of the US immigration policy.  While I agree that compassion and care for migrants are important, I believe every nation has a fundamental responsibility to enforce its laws, maintain secure borders, preserve national security, and protect its citizens.

In considering this issue, I find the insights of Saint Thomas Aquinas particularly relevant. He noted that some nations only deemed citizenship after two or three generations, warning that those who do not yet have the common good firmly at heart might attempt something hurtful to the people. In today’s political environment, this wisdom serves as a reminder of the potential dangers posed by those who may not share our national values yet seek to influence our local, state, and federal governments.

I believe a balanced immigration policy is possible—one that upholds human dignity while simultaneously ensuring public safety and preserving our culture and the rule of law.

-Frank Mazur, South Burlington

To the Editor:

Does anyone else find it preposterous that the Town of Woodstock has to hire a lawyer to write a letter to the Village of Woodstock in order to get accurate information over what should be a routine budget accounting matter?

But that’s where we are with Woodstock’s secret transfer in 2025 of town funds to pay legal fees for an entirely Village personnel matter – the first, illegal demotion of Chief Swanson.

Municipal manager Eric Duffy has been refusing to clarify the matter for months, even though he was central to it. The two board chairs have different stories. The Town’s letter to the Village seems to be the first serious effort to seek greater accuracy and transparency for public issues.

Manager Duffy’s unwillingness to reveal documents related to the unauthorized town tax expenditure for village legal fees and other issues has led to a lawsuit seeking to compel Woodstock to release documents in a dozen matters, arguing that public records were unlawfully withheld. In late April, attorney Nicholas Seldon initiated an “action against the Village of Woodstock for its municipal manager Eric Duffy’s violations of Vermont’s Public Records Act (1 V.S.A, 316),” since amended twice.

According to the lawsuit, issues about which manager Duffy has withheld information include:

• Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) records relating to former police employees, alleging that these records would show that Woodstock was using disparate and unlawful interpretation of FMLA against Chief Swanson.
• An email of December 4, 2025, from manager Duffy to police officer Chris O’Keeffe referring to Seldon;
• Invoices from several law firms paid by Woodstock during the past two years relating to Chief Swanson;
• Qualifications/resumes of other 2023 applicants for police chief, whom Duffy denigrated in an effort to undermine Chief Swanson;
• Photographs, text messages, and interview notes of the woman who filed a police complaint that she had been assaulted by trustee Jeffrey Kahn;
• Letter June 13, 2017 from then police chief Robbie Blish to then manager Philip Swanson, describing trustee Kahn’s treatment of meter maid Terry Poljacik for giving Kahn’s wife a parking ticket.

Manager Duffy has also withheld documents related to alleged violations of the Woodstock Ethics Code by trustees Kahn, Brenda Blakeman, and Seton McIlroy.

Manager Duffy has also withheld documents relating to CSC Investigations and the investigation Duffy hired CSC to perform looking into then patrolman Swanson and his response to a fatal car accident, but no investigation of the five fire department members who responded to the same accident at the same time.

Why do Woodstock’s boards allow such chronic obfuscation in response to public records requests? Is writing a letter asking manager Duffy to report on himself really the answer?

-William Boardman, Woodstock

To the Editor:

U.S. Congresswoman Becca Balint (D) served in the Vermont State Senate from 2015 to 2022. During her tenure, the state budget increased from $5.1 billion to $7.71 billion.

Becca’s voting record can be found at https://www.ethanallen.org/bbalint. I searched and did not find one instance where she voted against a tax increase for Vermonters.

Her voting record is almost a mirror image of her former colleagues, many of whom still serve in the legislature and senate. By a number of measurable metrics — health care, crime, homelessness, academic proficiency in public education, drug addiction, and economic opportunity — Vermont has declined since her rise to power. In 2015, she served on the Senate Education Committee, where she was a strong advocate of Act 46. She even voted to lift the spending caps on the act. Act 46 consolidated and centralized public education governance with promises of equity and cost savings. What we got instead was rural schools closing, higher taxes, and less local control. Equity was delivered in the form of students being nearly equal in their inability to read, write, and understand arithmetic.

Becca Balint’s adherence to high taxation and spending on failed programs with no accountability has been devastating for our young people, the working class, senior citizens, and small businesses. Becca spends a lot of time and energy focusing on selective outrage outside of Vermont. Meanwhile, the forgotten men, women, and families of Vermont struggle to survive the outcomes that she and her progressive colleagues have successfully advocated for years.

Since Becca Balint’s departure from the Vermont State Senate and her election to the U.S. House of Representatives, her ideological allies in the Vermont General Assembly have worked feverishly to continue and expand her legacy. The current state budget is $9.38 billion. Clearly, the extraction of more tax dollars from Vermonters by Balint Democrats is creating more problems than it is solving.

The last year Republicans held majorities in both the Vermont House and Senate was 1986 — 40 years ago. I have listened to members of Vermont’s Democratic Party majority cast blame and aspersions my entire adult life, insisting that all the problems in our state are caused by those terrible Republicans. At the same time they clutch tightly the reins of power. This vilification has won Vermont Democrats decades of elections, but at the expense of economic stability and prosperity in our state. It is long past time for a real course correction — for a future every Vermonter can be hopeful about.

-Stu Lindberg, Cavendish