I wanted to respond to the town of Hartford about a recent column in the Valley News by Jim Kenyon concerning an email that I forwarded to him (“Come Listen to a Story,” Jan. 22). At the time, I did not view the contents of this email as anything other than political commentary.
However, in hindsight, I should have realized that email could have been and was viewed as offensive, insensitive and hurtful. I truly apologize for this action and ask your forgiveness. It has been and continues to be an honor and a privilege to serve as your representative on the Hartford Selectboard. Please understand that such actions are not reflective of me, the Selectboard or our great community.
For this action, I am deeply sorry.
Mike Morris
Hartford
An ‘Amazing Plan’ for WCSU
Recently a group of parents, former teachers, business professionals and community members from the Windsor Central Supervisory Union voted to submit a plan to the State Board of Education in response to Act 46. The proposal plants a flag for taxpayers as well as students to rally for more from their school system: greater efficiency to curb the climbing costs of education, while providing a more diverse and productive path toward each student’s fullest potential. The mission is clear: raise outcomes. not taxes.
It’s truly amazing this plan came together. Formed by our unique and individual districts, the Act 46 Planning Committee approached the question of unification with more doubt and wariness than an expectation for success. Yet the driving question was simple: Could unification benefit students? If the answer was anything but yes, the committee would not have embarked on 16 months of hard conversation and negotiation.
From this balance of compromise and opportunity, the path to the highest-performing district in the state starts to take shape. It requires not just preserving but amplifying the unique strengths of each campus. It requires vision and rigorous accountability for every student’s journey from early education to high school graduation.
The first step on that path begins with an Australian ballot vote in March. Learn more at voteonAct46.org.
Justin Shipman
WCSU Act 46 Planning Committee Chair
Bridgewater
Efficiency and Jobs in Vermont
So Phil Scott, our new governor, plans to improve government efficiency by consolidating some departments. I believe our former Gov. Peter Shumlin did the same thing. And I believe each time, this “efficiency” translated to elimination of jobs.
Efficiency means accomplishing more work with the same number of employees, not doing the same work with fewer employees. Most of us know how difficult it is dealing with state agencies, and most of this is because of too few people trying to do too much.
So we’ll see. If this “efficiency” costs jobs, how will Gov. Scott square that with his declaration to increase jobs?
Stephen Raymond
Sharon
Does anyone ever wonder why the political establishment never prioritized the need to defend our borders? Why would a government dedicated to protecting the U.S. and preventing another 9/11 not immediately close the borders to those who may seek to harm us?
Not only did they not seal the borders, but they have deliberately sought a mass migration of completely undocumented aliens. Any one of those individuals could potentially pose a threat. Now, what sense does that make really? The answer is that it makes no sense at all.
It’s not possible to fight a war on terror and simultaneously have open borders and mass migration. It’s just one of the many illogical and contradictory stories we’re told.
Hardly anything makes sense. Hardly anyone says a word. I often wonder what kind of people I share a country with. Who would hear relentless lies and still continue to listen? Just what kind of people are we now?
Neil Meliment
Hanover
Hope for the New President
Listening to President Obama recently, I was reminded of when I was in sixth grade. My father and I were sharing a meal and I was explaining why a certain teacher was unfair to me, didn’t like me and was seriously going to ruin my life. My father, a man of few words, listened for awhile, looked up, held his hand up and said, “Matty, the teacher’s always right and you’re always wrong.”
I couldn’t agree more with Obama on his accomplishments: halving our dependence on foreign oil, doubling our renewable-energy production, signing a climate change accord, job creation, the start of universal health care, extracting U.S. forces from two wars, not getting started in a third. Not a finished product, but a better world than when he took office eight years ago.
And he did give support to the principle of giving Donald Trump help and expressed that we want him to be a great president.
But he didn’t go far enough.
He didn’t hold his hand up and say to every American, I want you to believe that Donald Trump can be a great person and a great president.
He needs to say that because those of us who find the new president almost totally unacceptable, must open our minds and hearts and genuinely wish Trump well. We have to pray and hope that he is a good person, that he wants all Americans to be included and to share in the beauty that is America and this world.
Make a believer out of me, Mr. President.
Matt Cardillo
Sharon
Paul Knox wrote to the Forum (“Look for the Real Danger,” Jan. 20) to address the untruth that Donald Trump was elected by the silent majority, observing that Hillary Clinton had nearly three million more actual votes.
It may be true that forecasts of a Trump defeat were in error because many of his voters were silent outside the election booths, but that is a different matter. It might be more accurate to say he was elected by a silent minority.
Nevertheless, he was elected. Without the states of New York and California, Clinton’s margin of victory becomes a margin of defeat of equal magnitude. Indeed, excluding just the five boroughs of New York City and the county of Los Angeles, Donald Trump carried the popular vote across the entire rest of the country by over half a million. Clarity is in the eye of the beholder.
If people question the process of the Electoral College, they must also question the fairness of why our beloved states of Vermont and New Hampshire control 4 percent of the U.S. Senate. Maybe we should only have one senate representative for all New England? Perhaps rural farmers across the country should have no representation, relative to cities more populous by orders of magnitude. These questions have already been considered and are answered well by the Constitution.
Tim Dreisbach
South Royalton
Tweet, Tweet, Tweet
I have been hoping that our new president and his advisers would rethink his penchant for tweeting, so that he might be encouraged to behave in a more mature and responsible manner now that he has been inaugurated. Time will tell.
In the event that he or his advisers cannot constrain his impulsive behavior, I suggest that the editors of the Valley News reserve a special section of each day’s paper for whatever random thought, barbed insult or self-centered gloating Trump wants to put out on Twitter. Since there is always a portion of the paper devoted to the day’s television schedule, I think that would be an appropriate placement for a box containing whatever he decides to tweet, if indeed he continues that habit.
I do hope that any of his future messages on Twitter are not considered important news. If an individual, a group or a nation takes a specific and noteworthy action in response to one of his tweets, then that might be worth considering for a real news article, with brief reference to the original tweet. But, in the meantime, I hope editors and readers will treat these things for what they are: disappointing, distracting and juvenile behavior that, if it must be documented, belongs in the entertainment section of the paper.
John Morris
Topsham, Vt.