Discover More from This Category: Editorials

We could do better on health care

November 9, 2022
By Cheryl Mitchell Editor’s note: Cheryl Mitchell is president of Treleven, a retreat and learning program located on her family’s sheep farm in Addison County. She does freelance consulting on issues related to children, families, social policy and farm to community work. She can be reached at cheryl.w.mitchell@gmail.com. There is a lovely new project emerging…

Working on the train from Vermont to New York City

October 19, 2022
By Bill McKibben Editor’s note: Bill McKibben is an internationally known climate activist and writer who lives in Ripton. I am writing this dispatch from a southbound train, which left Middlebury at midday and is making its way — not too fast, not too slow — through Rutland and toward Penn Station in New York…

Climate change is humankind’s biggest uncontrolled experiment

August 31, 2022
By Rick Weinstein Weinstein has a Ph.D. in Antarctic microbial ecology from Cambridge University and was a biology lecturer at the University of Tennessee for 15 years. He now lives in Stowe. There is no such thing as cold. That might sound idiotic coming from a Vermonter, but it’s true. In actuality there is only…

Child abuse is preventable and gun violence is child abuse

June 1, 2022
By Linda Johnson Editor’s note: Linda Johnson is the executive director of Prevent Child Abuse Vermont. It is difficult to comprehend that there is yet another mass murder of children in our country. Nonetheless, a young 18-year-old boy who appears to have been bullied, dropped out of school, was unemployed, fighting with his parents and…

If reason prevailed, gun safety would too

June 1, 2022
By Angelo Lynn Editor’s note: Angelo Lynn is the publisher of the Addison Independent, a sister publication to the Mountain Times. If commonsense gun control legislation can’t convince Republican Senators to protect their constituents for fear of upsetting the gun lobby and white supremacists within their party, perhaps portraying the problem as a public health…

Leahy castigates colleagues who would deny women health care equity

May 18, 2022
By Sen. Patrick Leahy Editor’s note: The following is a statement made by Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, on the Senate floor Wednesday, May 11, during discussion about the Women’s Health Protection Act; a federal act that would protect a woman’s right for health care (and abortion) even if Roe v Wade is overruled. This federal…

Ruffles and ripples in Rutland real estate

May 18, 2022
By Jacob Pluta Editor’s note: Jacob Pluta is the principal broker of White Cap Realty and a board member of Rutland Young Professionals. From 2014 to the present day, Vermont’s real estate market has swung from a sluggish buyer’s market to a frenzied seller’s market. I became licensed to sell real estate in Vermont in…

Finally, solid research on TIFs

May 11, 2022
By Emerson Lynn Editor’s note: Emerson Lynn is the former publisher and current editorial writer for the St. Albans Messenger. Tucked into H.159, a bill focused on community and economic development, is a provision that would create a pilot program for “project-based” tax increment financing (TIF) opportunities. Unlike the existing TIF programs, the pilot programs…

Public pensions: A defined contribution is a broken promise

May 11, 2022
By Kesha Ram Hinsdale Editor’s note: Sen. Kesha Ram Hinsdale is a candidate for U.S. Congress. Educators and civil servants in Vermont made a promise to the communities they serve. They work for wages below those paid for comparable private sector jobs, and, in exchange, receive affordable health insurance, paid time off, and a stable…

H.492 will help get landmark Act 250 law back on track

May 4, 2022
By Jon Groveman Editor's note: Jon Groveman is a policy and water program director for the Vermont Natural Resources Council. Vermont’s Act 250, our one-of-a-kind statewide land use program, is often synonymous with the state’s environmental ethic. Act 250 has served Vermont well for more than 50 years, mitigating the impacts of large-scale development on…

Black bears are an asset to Vermont landscapes and public health

April 27, 2022
By Isabella A. Johnson Editor's note: Isabella A. Johnson is working toward her master’s degree in public health at the University of Vermont. As a graduate student in public health, it becomes increasingly clear how fortunate I am to live in Vermont and share the landscape with abundant wildlife that contributes greatly to biodiversity. Many…

Rutland County: A second home

April 20, 2022
By Jacob McCarthy Editor's note: Jacob McCarthy is a senior studying media and communications at Castleton University. He is interning with Rutland Young Professionals for this spring. If you told me the day I showed up at Castleton University on a hot, humid August morning back in 2018 that my life would change forever, I…

If it’s good for kids in public schools, it’s good for kids in private schools

April 20, 2022
By Bruce Baker and Rebecca Holcombe Editor's note: Bruce Baker is a professor at Rutgers Graduate School of Education and a senior fellow at the Learning Policy Institute and Rebecca Holcombe is a Norwich resident, a parent, and former Vermont secretary of education. Based on a University of Vermont study, the Legislature is updating the…

Overdose prevention sites will save lives. What is Vt waiting for?

April 20, 2022
By Jay Diaz and Ed Baker Vermont is experiencing a full-blown overdose crisis. A record 210 Vermonters died of preventable opioid-related overdoses in 2021, marking 33.7 overdose deaths per 100,000 people. That’s a 500% increase since 2010. For context, Portugal, which has committed to handling addiction with a public health approach since the early 2000s,…

Jackson hearings show GOP wants to turn back the clock 

April 13, 2022
By Kevin Ellis It is so very difficult to celebrate the nomination of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to be the next Supreme Court justice. Nominated by President Biden, and confirmed by the Senate, Judge Jackson has a deep resume. She will be the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court. She will be the…