Don’t Mess With Lebanon

I would like to thank Jen Langley, Gary Shepard and Tom McGonis for their astute observations in recent Forum letters about the changes being recommended to Lebanon’s downtown. It will be interesting to see if city planners will pay heed to their thoughts and concerns.

Lebanon has been selected as one of the best cities in the country to settle in. Let’s not ruin it by making it a mess with traffic congestion, stoplights and more storefronts that close in a few years and leave empty spaces.

Ellie Hogan-Downing

Lebanon

Short Shelf Life of Novels

I wasn’t entirely convinced by Walter Wetherell’s June 30 column pitying the short lives of writers or their unproductive dotage. It seems to me there are so many ifs, ands and provisos that any such discussion becomes a parlor game. There are examples and counter-examples to be found in every art.

But Mr. Wetherell got me thinking not just about the writer, but the writer’s work. And of that we might conversely write: “Ars Brevis, Vita Longa.” Let us pity the poem, play or novel which, in its day, was considered “good” (if not a masterpiece), but which time and custom have cruelly withered. And let us especially pity the long life of the writer who witnesses it.

Mr. Wetherell might just as accurately write that few works survive their youth. Most novels don’t survive prepubescence, let alone their 20s and 30s. Surprisingly few make it past their 70s. And any poem or novel that survives into its 90s may be expected to die from complications at any moment.

To paraphrase Orwell, it’s likely that every book or poem has a certain number of readers in it and a given period of time before it begins to attract flies.

I must admit that I found Wetherell’s description of Herman Melville’s decline especially poignant. To read that a great novelist, at the end of his life, was reduced to writing “mostly poetry” can only be called a tragedy of the highest order — old age compounded by folly. And to think that I began writing poetry as a teenager.

My writing career didn’t even survive youth. May God punish me with a long life.

Patrick Gillespie

South Stafford

Applause for NCCT

The North Country Community Theatre production of The Secret Garden was one of the best community theater productions I have seen in a long while. All of the actors were marvelously talented and had beautiful voices. The dancers and supporting actors did an excellent job, including the young girls who were the garden nymphs. The stage sets were simple yet powerfully effective, the acts seamlessly interwoven. Songs from India added an exotic flavor. And to top it off it was a heartwarming story.

NCCT is completely run by community members, many of them high school students who not only acted but did technical support. Congratulations to all on a job well done!

Robin Nuse

Hanover

Inequality, Rage and Keeping Calm

The analysis in the July 14 column “Inequality Is What Makes People Rage” is curious. Studies found that the presence of a first-class airline compartment through which second-class passengers walked to their seats was strongly associated with a higher rate of air rage incidents.

The article makes a leap: “An extensive literature shows that … (even) more than poverty, it’s poverty amid plenty that enrages us.” Subsequently, the article equates the bad behavior of offended passengers to the aggression by neighbors within a poverty zone.

Conversely, studies of conspicuous “ruling class” displays of wealth “drive up entitled behavior,” exemplified by a decreasing likelihood to stop for pedestrians. The more general explanation is that “the visibility of inequality seems central for such results.”  

Poverty is a second-class airline ticket?  The inability to afford any long-distance transportation might better symbolize poverty. Conversely, many of the wealthy are gracious, charitable and modest. Moreover, the truly impoverished face difficulties neither of these other groups do.

More likely, these studies show two things:

Some of the middle class have inaccurate and disproportionate perceptions of where judgments of inequality should apply. Some expect equality even where comparative “second-class” products and services make benefits possible — for example, flying cross-country very cheaply. Some wealthy people, taking inordinate liberties, have lost all sense of kinship to fellow humans. 

The article really cannot say “visible inequality causes bad behavior” because it does not. The two are, rather, associated and catalyzed by other factors. Perhaps, one factor is a disproportionate ethical sense. The loutish rich and the enraged middle class, unlike their fellows who display appropriate comportment, have two choices: therapy or ethical reflection. The latter can still be found in churches, synagogues, mosques, educational institutions dedicated to building character, and family. Without accepting gross social disparities, if we want to reduce loutish and enraged behavior, the societal goal is neither to reduce most things to material equality, or to hide inequality, but to begin to learn, ethically, why there are better alternatives to such behavior. Put otherwise, what can we learn from the generous and calm among us, no matter where they are found?

Scott Lee

Bradford, Vt.

Zuckerman Knows Sustainability

David Zuckerman’s credentials as a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor are not the usual ones. He’s a full-time organic vegetable farmer, working long, hard hours for modest compensation. He’s committed to sustainable farming methods that will keep Vermont agriculture healthy down the road.

This is great for agriculture, but I also see it as a model for what Zuckerman would bring to state government. He understands that we need to prosper, not just now, but in the future. He knows the importance of frugality, but also knows what every farmer knows — that failure to invest in the long term is foolish and irresponsible. What Vermont needs now is a “sustainable” model of government, one that builds resilient communities, fosters human values and protects our working environment. True, we need to make Vermont “affordable,” but a windfall that ignores true costs is not the same as affordability — especially if it dismantles the infrastructure and weakens communities.

As Zuckerman knows, the best and smartest way to build a thriving economy is through the cornerstones of sustainability: renewable energy, a healthy environment, greater economic and social equality, broader educational opportunity and the strengthening of our local communities. Every one of these things is a foundation of our well-being.

In Zuckerman’s more than 20 years as a legislator, he’s gotten pretty good at translating this vision into practical results.

Dan Breslaw

West Corinth