The new budget has been presented as an “America First” budget. On careful reading, it might better be called an “Americans Last” budget. It does not speak to the major challenge we face: the growing income inequality between the very rich and the rest of us. Rather, it makes it worse by taking resources away from programs that support the poor and middle class and gives a large tax cut to the very rich.
The priority given to military and border control expenditures to the detriment of diplomacy and national community development (guns over butter) reflects the narrow view that we can continue global leadership, economic as well as military, by building a wall around the country and insulating ourselves from outside developments.
American economic growth over the long term depends on the ability of our businesses to succeed globally, not just in local markets. Failure to support these activities will result in even greater job losses for American workers. The budget also eliminates many effective training and job search opportunities designed to support American workers’ ability to adapt to these changes.
America is facing serious challenges. The world is developing in ways that could give the United States even more opportunities to provide world leadership. We must be part of that process. The idea that we are an “embattled nation” is based on the idea that we can return to “when it was better!”
In fact, we can’t go backwards. Rather, we need to accept the reality of global competition and continue to support the development of the social, economic and human resources that have made America great in the past and that will keep America great in the future. This budget is a giant step in the wrong direction.
Gerald Rosenthal
Bradford, Vt.
I took advantage of a snowy day to figure out my federal income taxes. I have been filing taxes for 50 years and I can honestly say I have never resented paying my fair share to help maintain a decent quality of life for all my brothers and sisters in this country. Until now!
I am furious that I am giving away $10,911 of my hard-earned money because I am not “smart enough” to find the loopholes so cleverly used by our illustrious president and his cronies. Maybe if I could actually see their full returns, I could learn a few tricks. Hah!
Nancy Pejouhy
Bethel
Contrary to the sentiments expressed by many of the recent contributors to the Forum, there are many fates worse than that of being subjected to the ill-considered, ham-handed and fatuous proclamations of Donald Trump. One of these is to be assaulted on a daily basis by both the above and the self-righteous and hysterical rantings of the opposition. To those afflicted with moderate to severe objectivity, the sum of these is an even greater annoyance than its parts.
Anthony Stimson
Lebanon
This week H.422, the gun violence restraining order, sailed out of the House Judiciary Committee in Montpelier by a wide 8-to-3 margin. Its strong support reflects a similar sentiment statewide. Vermonters get it: H.422 would temporarily remove deadly weapons from a residence with a simmering domestic violence situation.
This represents a reasonable precaution to protect individuals who are already being abused from the risk of lethal violence. Half of Vermont’s homicides are related to domestic violence, according to the 2015 State of Vermont Domestic Violence Fatality Review Commission Report, and nearly 60 percent of those murders happen with a gun. It makes sense to lower the temperature of a heated dispute, as H.422 proposes, by removing a gun for five days.
Tell your lawmakers to pass H.422 now. It will make us safer.
Bob Williamson
South Woodstock
It might be expected that as a home-schooling parent, I would be excited about Betsy DeVos’ proposal to subsidize home schooling by giving families vouchers. On the contrary, I think this plan is a big mistake.
Giving vouchers to home schoolers takes money away from public schools. Over the years my family has attended puppet shows, astronomy nights, book discussions, picnics, soccer and basketball practices, plays and art shows at our local public school. We have used the playground, the nature trail, the school library and testing services. My children took enrichment classes through the after-school program and my youngest child joins the kindergarten class several times a week for music and literacy. Every week the school emails us a newsletter to update our family about community events, and the bus delivers my kids’ friends for playdates.
The idea behind vouchers is that parents can itemize the school services they want their children to have. If we follow this idea to its logical conclusion, home schoolers would pay to use the school playground and nature trail, we would pay to subscribe to the school newsletter, and we would pay a fee every time the bus dropped off a friend. The more likely outcome is that the playground and nature trail would fall into disrepair, the school would cease to have a newsletter, and the bus routes would be restricted due to lack of funding.
Public schools benefit everyone, including home schoolers. Voucher systems pit home-schooling families against the public schools and divide our communities when we should be working together.
Abigail Fleming
Bradford, Vt.
A quiet presence whose work has had a significant impact on recovery from addiction in the Upper Valley is retiring soon and it seems worth taking note of what he has accomplished in the past 20 years.
Mark Helijas, of Thetford, became manager of the Upper Valley Turning Point in 1998. At that time, an AA clubhouse located in downtown White River Junction, the Turning Point was struggling financially; there weren’t enough recovering alcoholics making use of the space to keep it afloat.
Helijas decided to invite recovery groups in addition to AA to make use of the Turning Point, and with that simple gesture the recovery center movement was born.
Helijas took the recovery center concept to the Vermont Legislature in 2001, proposing a network of centers throughout the state. He received initial support of about the amount it took to keep one prisoner in jail for one year. Today, over 35,000 visits are made to the Upper Valley Turning Point annually by over 400 unique visitors, and there are additional Vermont Turning Point centers in Brattleboro, Bennington, Springfield, Rutland, Middlebury, Barre, Morrisville, Burlington, St. Albans, St. Johnsbury and Newport, as well. Each recovery center offers those with substance use disorders a safe, alcohol-and-other-drug-free environment where they can engage in life in recovery with the support of peers and without judgment.
Helijas noted recently that in his years operating the Turning Point and Willow Grove, the women’s transitional residence he established in 2004, he’d come to realize that the opposite of addiction isn’t abstinence, but community — community informed by the experience of addiction, and of recovery.
The Upper Valley Turning Point and Willow Grove women’s transitional housing are programs of the Second Wind Foundation, which Mark Helijas will be leaving in the capable hands of long-time associate Sheila Young upon his retirement in April.
Chris Weinmann
Norwich