This is a public thank you and holiday greeting to the Mormon Church and the welcoming folks at the Joseph Smith Memorial in South Royalton. Their Christmas light show and open house is clearly a labor of love that gives joy to all who visit in all sorts of weather. It is a happy destination for the kids and grand-kids (and us older kids, too). ย
Thanks again for making a positive contribution to our greater community.
Dick Ruben and Lynn Parker
Sharon
Kudos to Christine Porter, Paul Belaski and Geลry Grimo for a professional and beautiful Christmas concert at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Windsor. It was very true to the meaning of the season.
Elaine G. Smith
Hartland
For the Dec. 17 Pats-Steelers game, perhaps your sports editor should have read the NFL rulebook before using the headline โSteal Cityโ for the Associated Press story you published the next day. Nothing was stolen, and the ruling on the field at the end of the game was in accordance with NFL rules.
Laird Klingler
Cornish
Vermont legislators need to better educate themselves on energy issues so theyโre not taxing the cleanest home-heating alternatives (natural gas and oil) more heavily to encourage use of a less clean alternative (electricity). A recent proposal would place a carbon tax on fossil fuels used for heating and transportation, to promote use of โcleanโ electricity. However, over 60 percent of the electricity produced in the U.S. is generated by fossil fuels (oil, coal and natural gas). Less than 20 percent is produced by renewables.
As long as renewables make up such a small fraction of the electricity production in this country, the cleanest sources for home heating are still propane and fuel oil. When fossil fuels are used to generate electricity as much as 60 percent of the energy in the fuel is wasted through heat going up the smoke stack of the power plant. This means only about 40 percent of the fuelโs energy actually is used to heat homes; it is even less when you consider energy losses due to power transmission. By contrast modern natural gas and fuel oil heaters can convert over 80 percent of the fuelโs energy into heat.
The Vermont Legislature needs to get off the โall electricity is clean energyโ bandwagon and do its homework. Taxing the cleanest alternatives (natural gas and fuel oil) to promote a use of less clean and more expensive, but currently more popular, electricity is irresponsible and ill informed.
Robert Haehnel
White River Junction
In the holiday movie classic Die Hard, a group of self-styled revolutionaries take over an L.A. office building to make political demands. But their โcauseโ turns out to be a diversion; their real plan is to loot the vault.
This holiday season it is Donald Trump, Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell who are recycling the Die Hard plot twist. While promising middle-class tax cuts and reform, they passed a hastily-drafted bill that will leave 13 million more people without health insurance, add a trillion dollars to the debt, riddle the tax code with new loopholes, and actually raise taxes on millions of middle class families โ all so corporations and the wealthy can walk away with trillions. Trump himself stands to personally pocket millions from the deal, with ordinary Americans paying the bill.
In the movie the bad guys are thwarted and punished, but this is real life. Unless voters remember and hold Republicans accountable at the polls, these scoundrels will get off scot-free.
Jim Matthews
Hanover