Discover More from This Category: Opinions
Who’s misleading whom?
March 11, 2020
Dear Editor, I was quite taken aback by the quote from Windsor Central Supervisory Union Superintendent Mary Beth Banios in the March 4 Mountain Times in response to Killington’s School Board Representative Jim Haff’s lobbying Killington residents to vote “no” on a rather dubious presented (by Banios) $21 million budget. Her quote is below: “It…
EV market expected to grow
March 11, 2020
By Marilyn Miller I have been the executive director of the Vermont Automobile Dealers Association, more recently known as the Vermont Vehicle and Automotive Distributors Association (VADA), since 1984. From a change in our organization’s name to reflect an expanded membership to autonomous vehicles, I and the entire industry have seen a lot of change…
Make America decent again
March 11, 2020
By Angelo Lynn Super Tuesday was exciting, shocking politics. Vice President Joe Biden’s surge from his seemingly moribund campaign prior to Saturday’s South Carolina’s blow-out to Tuesday’s victory in 9 of 14 states, many of which he had no ground game or advertising presence, was a stunning reversal of fortune for Biden and his chief…
Public Access Television is crucial for transparency
March 4, 2020
By Jim Condos For decades, Vermont’s Community Media Centers have provided our residents direct access to each other, our government and our community events. Now, more than ever, we need a strong network of public, educational and government (“PEG TV”) stations and their Community Media Centers to provide these important services that keep our civic…
Time to start prioritizing people over profit
March 4, 2020
Dear Editor, Climate change is destroying our future, Governer Scott. Your inaction on meaningful environmental policy is extremely disappointing. This is a betrayal of Vermonters, your promises, and the planet. State greenhouse gas emissions are increasing. Summers are getting wetter and hotter, sugar maples’ range is trending north, and tick-borne disease rates are increasing in…
Stop demonizing candidates for big donations
March 4, 2020
Dear Editor, There is a dangerous false equivalency in our political narrative right now. A number of our current Democratic hopefuls have been sowing seeds of falsity with their supporters that accepting large donations guarantees corruption in the White House and that small donations are the only way to guarantee clean politics. This is bad…
Vermont schools’ bloated bureaucracy
March 4, 2020
By John Klar, candidate for 2020 Rep. governor Like a dragon eating its tail, Vermont’s bureaucracy continues to bloat like a runaway coronavirus, exponentially expanding “services” even as these very burdens drive more citizens into poverty, drug use, or emigration to more affordable states. A particularly virulent area of indefatigable expansion is schools. In 2013, Vermont held the…
A victory for Vermont workers
March 4, 2020
By Angelo Lynn Score a small victory for Vermont’s Democratic Legislature as they managed to override Gov. Phil Scott’s veto of the recently passed minimum wage bill. The proposal increases the minimum wage from $10.78 an hour to $12.55 by 2022, with future increases tied to inflation or at 5%. At the current 3% inflation,…
Mosquito district work in Salisbury costly, ineffective
February 26, 2020
Dear Editor, In January, the Salisbury selectboard voted unanimously to separate Salisbury’s payment to the Brandon-Leicester-Salisbury-Goshen-Pittsford Insect Control District (BLSG) into Article 11 on the town meeting ballot. On Election Day, Tuesday, March 3 (Super Tuesday), voters in Salisbury will decide whether to pay $26,371 to BLSG or to receive no mosquito control services. Although…
Vote to take care of your neighbors
February 26, 2020
Dear Editor, Our centuries-old Vermont tradition of Town Meeting Day is just days away. This year, perhaps the presidential primary on that same day is getting most of the attention, but remember that other important business will happen on Super Tuesday. Throughout the state, Vermonters will vote on their school and town budgets. Some will…
Thank you, Slate Valley board
February 26, 2020
Dear Editor, Editor’s note: This letter was directed to the members of the Slate Valley Unified Union School District, which includes Orwell, and shared with the press. I am writing to thank you for your service. I want to thank you for your countless hours of work, your missed family dinners, children’s performances, and sporting…
Why Trump will lose the election
February 26, 2020
By Greg Dennis Fear not, my fellow liberals: Donald Trump is a one-term president. If you believe, as I do, that anyone who says they know what will happen in the 2020 presidential election actually has no idea what will happen, then you can happily ignore the first sentence of this column. But if you…
Impeachment can be a lesson to youth
February 19, 2020
Dear Editor, When I was listening to the impeachment of Donald J. Trump, something just crossed my mind: I hope that every American university, college and high school student in the United States had an assembly in the auditorium to watch it on a big screen. I know this will live in part of our…
America is lost, ‘God Trump’ has corralled enough puppets
February 19, 2020
Dear Editor, On Thursday, Feb. 6, James Hall had a letter in the Rutland Herald discussing Nancy Pelosi’s childish, provocative comments about Trump’s Tuesday night campaign speech. Hall further indicates that the Democratic Party under her is withering away. Hall further states her “disrespectful arrogance” was on display in front of “God” and everyone present.…
Health care is broken, fly to Mexico
February 19, 2020
Dear Editor, I was still trying to get used to the idea that some Americans are going to jail because they don’t show up in court when hospitals sue them for unpaid medical bills when I came across other news that seemed at first like satire. The state of Utah has a “Pharmacy Tourism Program”…