By Steve Costello A scream piercing the darkness on an undeveloped section of my childhood street was my introduction to the topic of rape and domestic violence. I was eight or nine years old, and my initial reaction was to […]
Category: Op – Ed
Op - Ed
We must protect our ridgelines, lakes and streams
By Brian Dubie In 2009, when I was serving as Lt. Governor, I was invited to the Bolton Valley Ski Area resort to take part in the commissioning of a 100 kw wind turbine manufactured by Vermont workers in Barre. […]
Op - Ed
Agriculture takes the RAP for Lake Champlain cleanup
By Julia Purdy On Thursday, Aug. 27, a public information meeting was held at the Fox Room in the Rutland Free Library, for the purpose of bringing to Vermonters the message of Vermont’s new Clean Water Act, Act 64, also […]
Op - Ed
Protecting educational quality and providing property tax relief
By Gov. Peter Shumlin When Julia Dunn arrived at middle school, she learned something troubling about education in her community. Students from certain towns were well prepared in math, and students from some other towns were not. Some students had […]
Op - Ed
On voting… and not
By Lee H. Hamilton The campaigning for next year’s elections is starting to draw more attention, and with it comes a focus on voters and their mood. Which is all well and good, but it leaves out of the equation […]
Op - Ed
Pope Francis: A day to care for creation
By Deb Markowitz Last week I had an opportunity to spend some time with an older gentleman who has lived in the hills of Vermont his whole life. As he showed me his land, he shared his belief that more […]
Op - Ed
Where every student has a voice
By Rebecca Haslam Editor’s note: This commentary is by Rebecca Haslam, who is the 2015 Vermont State Teacher of the Year. It is republished here with permissions from VTDigger which published the commentary on Aug. 18. Haslam teaches first grade […]
Op - Ed
In age of Uber, “Right to Work” makes more sense than ever
By Rob Roper Vermont is a tougher than average place to make a living. No secret there. One of the first questions you get from folks you meet is, “You live here full time? How do you make it work?” […]
Op - Ed
Moving Medicaid forward
Dr. Stephen Pitmon Vermont’s secretary of human services recently saluted the 50th anniversary of Medicaid. As the secretary pointed out, there’s much to celebrate. There are also many elements of the program that must be reformed if Vermont is to […]
Op - Ed
This time was supposed to be different
By Lee H. Hamilton The most important function Congress serves is to debate and pass the federal budget. I know—it also levies taxes, imposes or relaxes regulations, and once in a while nudges our social, economic or political order in […]