Many thanks to the voters in Windsor County for re-electing me to serve in the Vermont state Senate. I am deeply honored that you’ve extended your trust to me and I look forward to continuing to advocate for the large and diverse Windsor Senate District in our Statehouse.
Over the last four months, I’ve canvassed, paraded, visited and celebrated across this district in an effort to touch base with as many of you as possible.
Thank you for welcoming me and sharing your concerns and ideas. I enjoyed celebrating some of the high moments in many of our communities, from the Bethel Forward weekend to Mount Holly’s Cider Days, Rochester’s Harvest Festival to the Taste of Woodstock, Windsor’s Autumn Moon Festival, Springfield’s Apple Festival, and painting bowls for Norwich’s Giving Bowls for Willing Hands benefit. I loved it all.
It was a privilege to campaign with my Windsor County district teammates: Sens. Dick McCormack and Alice Nitka. They are smart, experienced, hardworking and dedicated public servants.
I extend enormous gratitude to my dedicated team of supporters who helped make this victory possible. Thank you to those who canvassed with me, stood in the rain at the polls, hosted lawn signs, volunteered and generously financed my 2018 campaign. And to my family: Oliver, Ward and William, thank you for your advice and counsel, your patience and good humor during this long campaign season.
Thanks also to our opponents, who I enjoyed getting to know on the campaign trail. What a pleasure to have a civil discourse about the challenges we face here in Vermont. We all agree — there is a lot to be done. Let’s get to work together to make our green corner of the country the best it can be.
Sen. Alison Clarkson
Woodstock
Our president, while in Europe, chose to not honor our war dead at a Nov. 11 cemetery memorial. It was raining.
Other world leaders did their memorial services.
We don’t have a president. We have an egocentric sociopath.
He does not care about anyone or anything in this country. If you are a vet and once voted for him, now is the time to review your choice. Now is the time to speak out for America, not for Trumpia.
Stan Phaneuf
Newbury, Vt.
I was very pleased to read your article about the important race for New Hampshire secretary of state (“Secretary in Tight Race Of His Own: N.H. Elections Official Faces Tough Challenge,” Nov. 11). Many voters will wonder why it is this contest does not affect their daily lives the way all the other races did leading up to Nov. 6.
As your article pointed out, most citizens don’t get to vote for this important position: only the state’s legislators do that.
This year, the man who has held the job for 42 years faces real competition. I for one say that is entirely appropriate, and not just because the incumbent has been in office for a very long time. The secretary of state is an incredibly important figure in our government, having command of several important divisions, including one that oversees corporations. But far and away the most important function of his office is the management and protection of voting and voting rights here in New Hampshire.
I believe the incumbent has failed the people of this state when it comes to voting. I believe that he has cozied up to those who tried to restrict voting rights through unfounded claims of “voter fraud” when no provable systemic claims could be made. I believe that he failed to stand up for the truth, the New Hampshire truth, that there has been no “voter fraud,” only a hard-fought battle over the right to vote for seniors and students.
The candidate I would vote for if I were still in the Legislature is Colin van Ostern, whose clarity of thought, intelligence, energy and independence make him an ideal candidate for the job.
My hope is that every legislator who truly cares about voting rights and the smooth operation of the Secretary of State’s Office will cast their vote on organization day for Colin van Ostern.
Peter Hoe Burling
Cornish
The writer is a former Democratic leader of the state House and assistant majority leader of the state Senate.
Superman comics got started in the 1930s when it was clear that the world was going to hell.
Krypton, the planet on which Superman was born, was about to disintegrate. His kindly parents placed him on a rocket-powered crib, which they launched into outer space in the hope that he would land on a planet where survival might be possible. He arrived, a lonely refugee, on Earth, where gravity proved considerably less powerful than on Krypton thus giving Superman remarkable abilities, far more than those of any earthling.
We found a tick on our dog this cool November morning. We saw no fireflies last spring. Where are the frogs and salamanders? Puerto Rico has been flooded, as were Florida and the Carolinas. Houston, too. And California is burning once again. And we are fighting 16 feckless, bloody wars all at once.
And our leader is a randy, pugnacious, ignorant narcissist.
Oh, and we are stuck on Krypton without a rocket ship.
Anyway, there is no planet to offer us refuge.
Robert Belenky
Hanover
We live in a world of lies and mass murder. It’s a crazy place because it’s run by crazy people. The source of their derangement is a lust for wealth and power on a level incomprehensible to the rest of us. They control the official sources of information; of government and media and pretty much everything else.
Their power is derived from the fact that they control money and credit, finance at its highest level. The money flows to those who promote their official stories. It’s a self-regulating arrangement. If one wants the money, one plays the game. Big money contracts are inked for those with skills and are willing to sell their souls. It filters all the way down and throughout our society.
We live in a world of madness, big lies, and endless violence. It’s easy to see why, but only for those willing to look beneath the surface of things.
Neil Meliment
Hanover