Every weekday I go to my post office box in Montpelier, slip the big, industrial strength key into #1547, and hope to see a letter from a reader.
Most days, the mailbox is empty. No worries or complaining there – just a statement of fact that explains that scratching the Lottery ticket feeling of knowing it will probably be bupkus but HEY look at that! A winner, today!
These letters usually carry a double blessing:
- a check (typically $108 for an annual subscription, sometimes more, sometimes less), without which I couldn’t continue to publish.
- A note of encouragement. Such letters are, as Vermont author Katherine Paterson titled a book, “Bread and Roses, too.” Both means and motivation to keep going to the State House and write the stories that need to be told by someone.
Thursday I hit the jackpot – a nice check with a handwritten note offering the following words:
“Dear Guy – Thank you for giving us alternative and truthful news. Vermont is truly blessed that you stepped up to start and continue this much needed news venue. Gratefully, C”
Oh C, you’re breaking my heart – it’s breaking in gratitude. You’re building my confidence daily. Thank you C and everyone else who gets that the Vermont Daily Chronicle is a creature that needs a steady diet of both bread and roses, too.
Last night I attended Jesus Revolution, a new film about the hippies who found Jesus in the late 60’s and early 1970’s. It reminded me that sometimes good things do come from California to Burlington, like the Bethel house of worship on College Street started in the early 1970’s by some JP refugees from California.
The point of this segue is that after the movie ended, a viewer said that sometimes reading the Chronicle makes him angry – but it also motivates him to write letters to his legislators and other people in responsibility. I get the anger at some of the decision-making, and I’m grateful (again) that some readers respond by finding lawmakers’ email addresses in the Legislative Directory in the Toolbox and then exercise their constitutional right and responsibility to speak truth to power.
Thank you readers, for taking the initiative to write your letters to me and to the legislators.
Free Speech Forever,
Guy Page
Editor & Publisher, Vermont Daily Chronicle
P.O. Box 1547, Montpelier VT 05641