by Mike Covey
Last Thursday, a broad cross section of Vermonters gathered in the State House cafeteria to express their displeasure with the direction the state’s political leadership is taking them.
Feeling ignored or otherwise discounted and marginalized, and in some cases, even mocked, the diverse group chose the cafeteria to voice their concerns recognizing that the politicians could not get away with eating Vermonters’ lunch without at least having to look them in the eye.
Rising property and municipal taxes; disregard for our forests, rivers and lakes and agricultural soil; underperforming schools; inaccessible healthcare; the politicization of fish and wildlife and the accompanying discrimination against rural back-to-land lifestyles; the exploitation of our mountains and farms by industrial energy interests and their subsidy through spiraling electricity and fuel costs were among the topics uniting the tripartisan/independent voters and their children. They called on their fellow Vermonters to join them in holding the politicians accountable who are challenging their very ability to live and exist harmoniously in the state they love, in freedom and unity.
“We have to ensure that our legislators are not choosing special interest agendas at the expense of Vermonters. We need a Vermont plan that serves people and the environment that does not attack, punish and penalize. Vermonters are coming together to stand up for our right to afford to live in Vermont. We demand legislative accountability from a supermajority steamrolling Vermonters. We are asking for sound legislation that serves Vermont and the people who live here and love our state.”
–Alison Despathy, Danville
“Our hunting, fishing, and trapping community is a critical contributor to the health of our wildlife and the ecosystems we share with them, and it is not negotiable as a political game piece. While it’s fine for people to express their opinions, it is irresponsible for legislators to move bills that will obstruct a demonstrably functional system, make decisions about, and politicize how we manage wildlife.”
–Michael Covey, Williamstown
“Vermonters see that the legislative agenda is driven by the interests of industry and developers, not constituents. From the buildout of industrial-scale corporate ‘renewables,’ to the lifting of Act 250 water and soil protections in municipalities, to the attempt to eliminate citizen participation at the Public Utilities Commission, this agenda will destroy our forests and fields and rural culture if we don’t stop it.”
–Suzanna Jones, Walden
“Politicians in prioritizing corporate profit forsake the ecology of our home for the economic benefits of the few, leaving only poverty and pollution to trickle down on the rest of us, and, if we allow it, risk transforming what is left of Vermont, already a playground for the wealthy, into just another line item in the elites’ investment portfolios.
“Our lives are one with the water cycle, one with Vermont’s forests, her soil and wild ones, and we have an obligation to defend those downstream, literally and figuratively, against the political interests seeking to exploit us. And that, my brothers and sisters, we will do.”
–James Ehlers, Winooski
“It appears that the majority of the legislature now operates from a position of privilege. No working class Vermonter could possibly support adding hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost-of-living for Vermonters through legislation. Vermonters have seen the cost of living skyrocket far exceeding the increases in our income.
“We are taking action by being here today, but it cannot end here. We must encourage everyone we know to engage their legislators and tell them that we do not support a Vermont where working class Vermonters cannot afford to live and where the Vermont culture is under attack.”
–John Rodgers, Glover
For more information, contact John Rodgers, former State of Vermont senator, at john_rodgers65@icloud.com
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Categories: Vermonters Making A Difference
did you ever think voting for queer marriage was a bad idea/// a deranged cult are running this state
My Vermont June
By Ellin Anderson
Vermont wants me to love it, still:
The moon’s white blaze that shocks the hill
And paints the river with its light
Where currents murmur day and night.
Vermont wants me to love it, still,
At evensong, the veery’s trill
That spirals out across the trees,
And rises with the evening breeze.
Vermont wants me to love it — yet
The daisy and the violet
That shine like stars from field and farm
As if to say, “We do no harm,”
Draw by their very innocence
Green envy’s eyes across the fence
Until our every landmark’s moved,
And envy screams, “It’s much improved.”
And with the people swept away,
Like flowers forgotten yesterday,
Will all our headstones say we died
Where hollow hearts met hollow pride
Of hollow, unelected kings
Who profit from imaginings
And reap the salt-sown fields they tilled
Only to say, “I’m unfulfilled.”
One lesson learn, till fully known:
Leave well enough, and us, alone,
Lest red-flagged bulls drive lessons through:
They know their business more than you.
Unless your name is George Soros, Planned Parenthood or the Teachers Union,
they could give a “_ats _ss what you say or think.
See Virginia, we are in a color revolution, they are doing it, either by being useful idiots, like our college students with their astro turf protests, professionally produced protest signs to which they know literally nothing about historically or even in the present what is going on in the middle east……if they aren’t a useful idiot…
Then they are part of the evil genius of propaganda, censorship, lies and sophisticated speech, while stealing, plundering and giving all control, power and money to their handlers….be it an NGO, Non-Profit…..or corporate lobbyist.
The don’t work for us. They work for their handlers. Remember when both parties abhorred PAC money????? Notice nobody says anything about it now? Billions of dollars funding politicians….but they have no discussion between the two oh no, never.
We are going to need much more than this for change. VT Gun Owners and other groups have been before the legislature with the most informed, sensible arguments they have every heard……doesn’t matter, it’s not part of their plan. Get out of the way…they are doing what they are told.
Good to see Vermonters of different stripes waking up to facts over fiction. Is it too late to change course and more hearts now? Unification will happen, but the power trippers still have a few more tricks up their sleeves….prepare and brace for impact.
The hippies came to Vermont in the sixties because it was cheap to live and no one told you what to do. Now those hippies and their descendants serve in the legislature and in un-elected bureaucracies and the cost to live here is outrageous while they seek to regulate every aspect of your life. Liberals are hypocrites of the highest order…hence the term hippycrits.
The hippies also came to Vermont for its natural environment that had been preserved by legislatures comprised of farmers, lay persons and small business owners from Vermont. They protected our landscape, family farms, hunting, trapping, fishing and our culture of freedom. Those legislators were not owned by lobbyists, or an agenda and they adhered to our constitution that gave us freedoms as strong or stronger than the US constitution.
They protected our firearms rights and the natural right to protect ourselves, our families and our properties. They gathered in the people’s house and took up current business and went back home to their families, farms and businesses. They didn’t stay for months creating new problems while ignoring their duty to be representatives of the people who sent them there in the first place.
For 107 years before Phil Hoff and the out of state stampede of wannabe controllers, energy grifters and the new progressive political class currently destroying everything they touch, Vermont existed quite well. Compare that with now! People too young to know the real Vermont are blind to the propaganda by the schools that teach them very little. The truth is censored by the liberal media and the public is dumbed down by the deliberate omission of the truth.
What just happened to Goddard College will happen to the whole of Vermont if the voters refuse to see the truth. Their feelings will not correct the damage already done. Until the majority of voters open their eyes and decide to be truthful with themselves, the end is near. It is time for the voters to Take Back Vermont from the political class destruction continuing today. Vermonters need to revolt at the polls and overthrow these high and mighty overlords here to control our lives. Legalize Freedom!