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By Paul Bean
The Vermont Truth & Reconciliation Commission, a taxpayer-funded group dedicated to “uncovering historical truths, fostering healing, and promoting reconciliation,” has put out requests for proposal (RFP) for two new Communications and Marketing Consultants.
In the last legislative session, lawmakers approved a $1.1 million budget for the Commission to cover the cost of the Commissioners, its executive director, legal counsel, researcher, and administrative assistant.
Their official government website says their main objective is to represent Vermonters that are considered “impacted community members.”
The RFP emails do not specify how much public money has been budgeted for this work. VDC has reached out to VTRC for information, but have not received a response yet. The 2024 line-by-line budget shows salaries and benefits costing $617,699 of the $796,806.58 spent.
Zoom recordings of Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission meetings are not publicly available online but instead are summarized on their website.
At the VTRC’s November 7 public meeting, Commissioner Melody Mackin offered an opening prompt,
“Consider things that help you to be your best self, physically, mentally emotionally, and spiritually. What are those things? Commissioner Mackin shared a calming method for her is painting walls, watching Lord of the Rings, or jumping in mud puddles with her daughters. Sister Sankofa, singing, and removing herself from Social Media at times.”
The two new roles the VTRC is seeking to fill are:
- RFP Care Coordinator Contractor: who will “co-create the ‘before, during, and aftercare process…The selected contractor will be responsible for ensuring that all volunteers, committee members, and staff are thoroughly trained in trauma-informed practices with cultural humility, specifically tailored to support impacted community members. This role is integral to the VTRC’s mission of providing equitable and compassionate care during the truth-telling process, addressing the generational and genocidal trauma experienced by communities.”
- RFP-Communications and Marketing Consultant: who will “will develop and implement effective messaging strategies and outreach to diverse organizations, communities, and individuals.”
The Vermont Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created in 2022 through Act 128, “An act relating to creating the [VTRC],” the goal of the commission to “examine and begin the process of dismantling institutional, structural, and systemic discrimination in Vermont, both past and present, that has been caused or permitted by State laws and policies.”
Impacted community members as defined on their website as “someone that has often been excluded from telling their truths.” This would include:
- Native American or Indigenous;
- Individuals with physical, psychiatric, or mental conditions or disability, and the families of individuals with the physical, psychiatric or mental health condition or disability;
- Black individuals and other individuals of color;
- Individuals with French Canadian, French- Indian or other mixed ethnic or racial heritage;
- Other populations and communities at the discretion of the commission
The VTRC has three appointed commissioners. All three are full-time state employees, paid approximately $90,000 per year. The commissioners, along with their staff, must assess the damage done to “individuals who identify as Native American or Indigenous, and those with a physical, psychiatric or mental condition or disability.”
Two of the three commissioner roles are currently filled, the third member resigned and the Commission is waiting for the approval of a new member.
Below is some information about the two remaining commissioners, as well as the executive director. Their staff is appears to be entirely comprised of women. The information about the staff was pulled from the VTRC official Government Website.
“Melody Mackin, MA, Commissioner of the VTRC (she/her)is a mother and educator. She grew up along the Missisquoi River in Highgate, VT. She is currently one of three Truth and Reconciliation Commissioners for the State of Vermont and previously worked with the Atowi Project. She is a citizen of the Elnu Abenaki Band and has previously served as the vice chair, secretary, and chair of the Vermont Commission on Native American Affairs. She received her master’s degree in history and is a member of the VT Abenaki Artists Association. “
“Mia Schultz, Commissioner of the VTRC (she/her) As a mixed-race Black woman, Mia brings a wealth of personal experience and unwavering commitment to her role, advocating for truth, healing, and reconciliation within Vermont’s diverse communities. Originally hailing from the southwestern deserts of Arizona, Mia embarked on a transformative journey from Southern California, eventually finding her home in the town of Bennington, Vermont, in 2016. Her dedication to advancing civil rights and education has earned her prestigious accolades, including being recognized as a human rights champion by both the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Education Association”
“Dr. Faith Yacubian, (she/her/they/them). Executive Director of the State of Vermont’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission; Faith has a noteworthy career spanning 17 years at Champlain College. Faith has a wealth of experience and a passionate drive for change. As an Associate Professor in Interdisciplinary Studies, Faith’s work has centered on empowering students through innovative teaching methods informed by Social Justice Education, Queer Theory, and Black Feminist Epistemology. Guided by a profound belief in humanitarianism and community empowerment, Faith’s commitment is further exemplified by her involvement in the Shelburne Equity and Diversity Committee and dedicated volunteer services at the Winooski Food Shelf since 2020.”
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Categories: Local government
I guess this is well intentioned, buy why are we the taxpayers footing the bill?
Should be a volunteer organization and raise money on their own.
Because DEI. The need ‘to become unburdened by what has been’ is a religion, not a word salad from kamala harris. DEI and ‘woke’ culture is a highlight of the liberal agenda- and agendas need dollars. This ‘truth and reconciliation commission’ is a make work virtue signaling project for the D/P zealots, created in 2022 by the super-majority legislature and actually signed into law by phil “mr. affordability” scott. It appears that the taxpayer’s return on their 1.1 million dollar investment has brought another growing assortment of state employees, needing pay and benefits- and not much else. It seems apparent that the intention of this bill is virtue signaling and a jobs program- because hey, what’s another million on an 8 billion dollar budget?
Absolutely agree, T Walton.
I wonder when they get to the history of the Irish enslavement, if this commission will brush it aside, the Irish slaves who were treated much more harshly than their black counterparts and considered less valuable. I find this whole service to victimhood a boondoggle. Anyone who is a women, of any color, is a person who didn’t get the vote until after the black men. Women have not had the opportunities, were not called upon as many times in class as they grew up, and are still subjected to repetitive messages of inferiority, and faced greater economic hindrances than men. Vermont was the first state to ban slavery, and white people died for that. Instead of gratitude the punitive nature of taxation divides and allows the elite to stay ruthless. But this idea of promoting victimhood as a means for economic compensation is harmful to the collective psyche. The elite always like to harm the collective psyche.
Irish enslavement punctures the victimhood logic nicely but the DEI mavens have a script for that. They say that Irish indentured servitude was not chattel slavery so it doesn’t count. It’s true that they have to channel the conversation to a direct comparison between African enslavement to make the distinction work because it fails when you add Native American oppression to the discussion (they weren’t chattel slaves). So that is what they do and they are very good at it.
The real hole in all of their money grubbing nonsense is English enslavement. It blows their minds to hear this because their dishonesty depends on a set of carefully constructed categories. Whites are evil and the English are at the top of the evil hierarchy. But English men and women were driven from their land, sent down coal mines, forced to work in mills and brought here as indentured servants in their millions. It’s just that they and the Irish chose to get on and build a future for themselves.
And it is easy to point out that ordinary English “folk” were sent away as indentured servants as recently as 60 years ago. There is even a BBC documentary about it.
It’s all nonsense. They need aggressive marketing combined with strict censorship to create the appearance of respectability. They are happy to do that because it is profitable to steal taxpayer money.
It is also extremely racist against the very people they are pretending to help.
They just self-identified as over a million dollars in annual budget savings for the legislature.
Let me see if I have this right, there are people in this state struggling to pay their bloated property taxes, grocery, heating, and electricity bills, and we’re worried about “truth and reconciliation ? ” Elon and Vivek, (or someone else) have I got an easy one for you !
What a waste of your tax dollars.
What a racket…
AND-they have NO shame!
“The Vermont Truth & Reconciliation Commission, a taxpayer-funded group dedicated to “uncovering historical truths, fostering healing, and promoting reconciliation,” ”
Foolish waste of taxpayer $. Best course of action: obliterate it. Save the $millions.
There should be a wall of justice to line grifters up against. Nothing less.
How about bring back the Midevil practice of public humilation with stocks, and pillory ? Maybe tar and feathers ?
They’re creating victims by giving them labels and telling them they’ve been victimized. There’s nothing here that states what specifically they’ve been victims of. Meanwhile, our property taxes are going up over 5% this year (30+% over the last several years) to cover the education budget, and don’t think for a second that our local school budgets are going to see any of that. This is disgusting. How much farther are we going to have to go to reach the tipping point?
Unfortunately the legislature passed a bill about 3 years ago that set this whole thing up and mandated that it be done. I was in that legislature and happily voted NO to the bill. Ridiculous and divisive and expensive.
Feels like a cost cutting opportunity to me. Leave the open position empty.
The role of the Care Coordinator Contractor looks like it was written by some Sociology major in typical Leftist gobbledygook. The information about the commissioners has to have been written by a creative writing student. Please fire these racist commissioners and abolish the commission.
Nothing like setting up a new law to feather your own nest. Embezzlement of funds in plain view.
Last I knew, the embezzlement of public funds is a crime. The criminals here are the ‘Grifters’ who were appointed to this bogus ‘Commission’ and members of the Vermont legislature who allowed this travesty. Pay backs, fines and jail time for them seems an appropriate punishment…
Im victimized by the existence of this group. That’s the truth
They need to scrap the reaching back 100+ years ago and focus on the atrocities and crimes against humanity that commenced in 2020 – I demand my COVID-19 scamdemic reparations now! Get busy finding and seizing the $200 billion lost to fraud.
https://oversight.house.gov/release/final-report-covid-select-concludes-2-year-investigation-issues-500-page-final-report-on-lessons-learned-and-the-path-forward/
DEI has become big business. It’s a money maker for the grifters, like climate change. Toxic empathy is what this called. Disband and dismantle this tax fraud ASAP.
It is impossible to move forward while dwelling on the past, any fool knows that. Therefore, it is obvious this silly truth commission is merely about more authoritarian manipulation of society, stealing money from taxpayers, and legislative communists grabbing more power.
This whole “commission” should have been nothing more than a pet project for a lieutenant governor when the legislature is not in session, staffed by volunteers and with a shoestring budget. The whole race/culture obsession about things that happened 150+ years ago and the victim worship has to end. The demand for racism has greatly outpaced the supply.
As a state where slavery was outlawed in its constitution, this commission is a slap to all taxpayers in the state. It’s a costly progressive joke on citizens. Have a beef? file a lawsuit. Truth is truth whether it is ‘yours’, ‘theirs’ or anybodye else’s. Stop this ridiculous governmental creation of non-problems. Real people are suffering in Vermont, and it’s not becasue someone didn’t get to share ‘their truth’.