By Alis Headlam Editor’s note: This commentary is by Alis Headlam, Ed.D., of Rutland. Headlam retired as a professional educator training teachers to teach literacy in institutions in the United States, Africa and Jamaica; is the former creator and member of the Multiracial Alliance of the Rutland Area; and is currently a member of Project VISION…

Dear Editor, Montpelier is now the second city in the state to decriminalize prostitution within its city limits, and I am deeply concerned for what this move will mean for Vermont. Regardless of where you stand on the issue of sex work, the reality is that wherever prostitution is decriminalized, there is a subsequent increase…

Dear Editor, Every indicator says we are rapidly approaching the implosion of healthcare in Vermont and probably the nation. The 2021 Vermont Household Health Insurance Survey indicates that 38% of Vermonters under age 65 are underinsured, as are 32.3% of those on Medicare. Since the Green Mountain Care Board has again approved large rate increases…

Dear Editor, U.S. colleges bear considerable responsibility for the student debt crisis. Colleges with fat endowments (and bloated tuitions) should be tapped to help address this crisis. How about increased federal and state taxes on endowments to help pay for the dangerous student-debt bailout idea? We hear billionaires should pay their fair share. Well, many…

Editor’s note: This commentary is a joint op-ed from Vermont Natural Resources Council, Vermont Conservation Voters, Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility, Conservation Law Foundation, Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club and Vermont Public Interest Research Group. When it comes to getting where we all need to go — which often needs to be by car…

By Paul Bean Editor’s note: Paul Bean is a resident of Northfield and a candidate for Vermont Senate in Washington County. In honor of Labor Day, I wanted to talk about our workforce. Vermont is a challenging place in which to live, and we want to ensure that our youth are being educated on the…

Dear Editor, There is a great deal of frustration in the community toward the Lake Bomoseen Association (LBA) and the Lake Bomoseen Preservation Trust (LBPT) right now and it appears that much of it has been self induced by the LBA board. The LBA and LBPT and specifically their boards take a position of authority…

By Peter Sterling Editor’s note: Peter Sterling is the executive director of REV, the voice of Vermont’s renewable energy business community who are working to eliminate our reliance on dirty fossil fuels by increasing the use of renewable energy and building a clean energy economy. Incredibly and finally, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has begun…

Dear Editor, The Lake Bomoseen Association was formed in 1954 in response to concerns over water pollution; both from private systems and the large hotels that discharged sewage directly into the lake. While working cooperatively with the town of Castleton and state agencies, this situation was greatly improved as the town sewer was extended along…

Dear Editor, “We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies.” Abraham Lincoln wrote these words for his First Inaugural Address delivered as civil war loomed. And also, “Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.” We then as a country dismissed the warning, and the carnage of…

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…

By James Duff Lyall Editor’s note: James Lyall is the executive director of ACLU of Vermont. Our communities are still struggling through the pandemic and its harmful impacts on mental health, substance use, and affordable housing. It’s clear that we still need to do far more to support one another and build healthy, safe, and…

Dear Editor, The recent proposal by Vermont Huts Association and Moosalamoo Association to construct a hut next to Silver Lake in the Moosalamoo National Recreation and Education Area in Leicester reveals numerous problems with the USDA/Forest Service’s management of the Green Mountain National Forest. Pitched as connecting trails and establishing a series of huts for…

Dear Editor, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans,” to quote John Lennon. Some plan to go to college, some plan to marry, some plan careers, and many succeed in following their plans. Then, it happens, the unexpected, the interruption. The future is now depending on making choices. The feeling of being…

Dear Editor, Vermont has known for at least 60 years that it is not meeting its water quality standards in Lake Champlain and that the major contributor to the problem is conventional dairy. Conventional farming was designed in the years following Wolrd War II, when fossil fuels were cheap and abundant. The Haber-Bosch process, invented…