It’s Always Porch Season
With apologies to your talented staff writer Nora Doyle-Burr, I fear she vastly underappreciates that architectural inspiration, the porch (“A Porch of One’s Own, An Appreciation,” July 5). It’s not just for summer!
I love and live on my Lyme Center porch year-round, bundling up to watch the moon rise in December or savor a soft snowfall in February. And there’s no better place to thrill to a good thunderstorm or enjoy a gentle rain — outdoors, but dry and under cover.
In my village, we take turns hosting “porch parties” — impromptu potluck affairs (held on the porch and lawn, not indoors) that knit the neighborhood together but don’t require house cleaning. I can’t imagine life without my porch. An essential tool for enjoying the great outdoors in the Upper Valley.
Adair Mulligan
Lyme Center
A Gathering of Democrats
The Orange County Democratic Committee will host the 2016 Vi and Ned Coffin Memorial Forum at the Town House in Strafford on Sunday at 4 p.m. Former secretary of state Don Hooper, of Brookfield, Vt., will serve as moderator. Participants include, for governor: Matt Dunne, Peter Galbraith and Sue Minter. For lieutenant governor: Kesha Ram, Shap Smith and David Zuckerman
The forum is taking place 30 days before the Vermont primary, so it is generating a lot of interest in central Vermont and beyond. Vi Coffin served for several years as chairwoman of the Vermont Democratic Party. In 1992, she led the Vermont delegation to the national convention when Bill Clinton won the party nomination.
Since her death in 2008, a series of forums and lectures have been held at the Strafford Town House in honor of her memory — always with the energetic support of her husband, Ned Coffin. Ned, who died this past April, began planning this forum with the Orange County committee back in February. He would be pleased to know that the Strafford Town House will once again be filled with Vermonters sharing their views with enthusiasm, humor and civility. Please bring your blanket and picnic basket to enjoy on the Townhouse green prior to the forum. For further information please contact Marie Ricketts, chair, at 802-765-4415 or mrickett@gmail.com
Marie Ricketts
South Strafford
Vermont Needs to Confront Bias
In the 30-some years that I have lived in Vermont, I have been so proud of our lead in social and political issues, so it came as a surprise and shock when I read the article in yesterday’s issue of the July 3 Valley News about racial bias in Vermont policing and incarceration.
It indicated that Vermont not only has an imbalance in traffic stops and ticketing of black and Hispanic drivers over white drivers, but even more alarming is the fact that “one out of 14 black men in Vermont is incarcerated, the highest rate in the U.S.”
Our local Standing Up For Racial Justice group is reading The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander. The premise is that the old Jim Crow laws have been replaced by incarceration of black men for “crimes” for which whites would be given warnings or lesser penalties as a method to keep black men “in their place.”
It is encouraging to see that the Vermont Criminal Justice Training Council has developed a model policy for fair and impartial policing. It should be the responsibility of every Vermonter to be sure that policing in our state is fair and balanced and that each case of an incarcerated black man is reviewed.
Susan Spademan
Wilder
Poetry Is Plentiful
I have followed the Forum lettes between Patrick Gillespie and Sydney Lea concerning Chard deNiord’s article about poetry with interest and would like to correct an error in Gillespie’s most recent letter. The Norwich Bookstore has an active poetry section with hundreds of books — both self-published and put out by large and small publishing houses. If we were out of Lea’s books, it was likely right after one of his well-attended events! We welcome all poetry lovers to browse and to attend one of our frequent poetry readings.
Liza Bernard
Norwich
Divest Vermont Pension Money
Although thankfully not in the Valley News, there has been much misinformation published against divestment of state pension funds from fossil fuel companies. Opponents claim money would have been lost had they been divested, when in actuality, it has been shown that divestment would have made the pension fund an additional $77 million. Continued action is needed on this front (some of the world’s strongest economies have stated their pension funds should be concerned about the carbon bubble), and on other fronts to curb the course of climate change.
We need to signal to fossil fuel companies that they need to chart a new course to profitability. We can do that by supporting a well-designed carbon tax, one able to effect change (reduce the use of fossil fuels) while helping those most vulnerable to improve their living conditions through weatherization and a reduced sales tax.
In addition, we need to stop building out new fossil fuel infrastructure. Vermont has banned hydraulic fracking for gas and yet has continued to support the ill-conceived expansion of the Vermont Gas Pipeline — infrastructure that will continue to bring fracked gas into the state for many years to come. We need, instead, to be supporting and investing more fully in the state’s goal of 90 percent renewable energy by 2050. Finally, we need activists and educators to help spread the word.
On July 6, 2013, at 1:14 a.m., a 74-car freight train, carrying Bakken fracked crude oil at high speed through downtown Lac Mégantic, Québec, derailed, exploded and burst into flames. A total of 47 people died in the disaster. More than 30 buildings were destroyed. Of the remaining 39 buildings at the town center, all but three were razed because of oil contamination. This is only one of many accidents and leaks generating excessive methane into our atmosphere. We need to leave fossil fuels in the ground.
Dorothy M. Wolfe
Strafford
An Editor’s Job Well Done
Martin Frank’s July 2 column with kind words for longtime and now retired Valley News editor Jim Fox was eloquent and no doubt applauded by all those who at one time or another had the good fortune to work for Fox (myself included). No newspaper is perfect, but the Valley News has maintained high standards on a limited budget, much to Fox’s credit. He may not like the fanfare, but a job well done deserves recognition.
Philip Glouchevitch
Hanover
No Right to Military-Style Weapons
As written in 1791, the Bill of Rights added 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. The second of these, in its entirety, reads that “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” Note that that it links “the right to bear arms” with “a well regulated Militia,” or “citizen soldiers,” as at the time it was written there was no standing army. Its justification was more to fend off foreign invasion or Indian attacks.
I understand Americans’ awe of our Founding Fathers’ wisdom, especially when it is self-serving. However, at the time that the Second Amendment was added to the original Constitution, members of the “well armed militia” mentioned carried single-shot, muzzle-loading flintlocks with slow moving, (most likely) .30 caliber projectiles. If we were to strictly follow the “letter of the law,” today’s debate concerning the “right” of Americans to bear arms would be self-limited to French and Indian and Revolutionary War enthusiasts. (Even Civil War re-enactors carry more sophisticated weapons.)
What we should be concerned with is why our elected officials can’t see what is clearly a problem of their own doing, namely the legality of allowing the sale of 21st century military-grade weapons. If a potential mass murderer had one of the aforementioned 18th century weapons, all but one of his intended victims would have stampeded out of range long before he had time to reload his musket.
What I don’t see in Washington is a realization that we can’t predict who and when the next mass murderer will strike, but he will no doubt have an assault weapon. Let’s take that away from him.
Ralph Epifanio
Canaan