Dear Editor,
While real estate prices are absurd — and home-buying and renting are an impossibility for many — laying blame for homelessness at the feet of people of means who move here from elsewhere is a trite and glib iteration of a Vermont Old Guard classic: “It wasn’t a problem until these people showed up.”
In his recent commentary, Bob Stannard harkens back to the folksy golden days when people supposedly hardly noticed socio-economic disparity — and certainly didn’t judge those less fortunate — and then amuses us by judging those more fortunate. A favorite sport in this state. He rues second homes in places like Stowe as a key aspect of the societal ailment that’s evidenced by people living in cars, tents and encampments.
I’m 40 years old and have heard throughout my life any number of old men gripe about the state of things on account of “Them.” The people who come from elsewhere. It’s a tired line, and one that absolves those of us who see ourselves as “Native” of responsibility. It cements us as a group with a soft moral constitution who would rather lay blame and fawn over an idealized past than acknowledge that our corner of the world has changed. Not necessarily for the better, but not categorically for the worse.
Perhaps by not explicitly blaming Flatlanders, Stannard believes he lends his lazy argument credibility and that its implicit inclusion throughout his commentary will go unnoticed.
Vermont’s xenophobia persists.
Alan Rawls
North Ferrisburgh
