The Hartford Historical Society is seeking our community’s eldest resident for the presentation of the Hartford Cane award. Please send the name and date of birth for the person you think could be our most “senior” senior via email at vtgram3@gmail.com or by phone at 802-295-2123. The purpose of the Cane presentation is to honor the individual and to recognize his or her talents, lifetime achievements and contributions to the fabric of the town of Hartford.
Thank you for your help!
Mary Nadeau
Hartford Village
The writer is program chairwoman for the Hartford Historical Society.
In the introduction to Paideia, Werner Jaeger’s 1939 book on the values of Ancient Greek civilization, Jaeger states, “Every nation which has reached a certain stage of development is instinctively impelled to practice education. Education is the process by which a community preserves and transmits its physical and intellectual character.”
I wonder what kind of “intellectual character” is being transmitted in Croydon these days.
It is disappointing that the Valley News didn’t include in the article (“Half the budget, twice as mad,” March 16) some historical context on the so-called Free State Project. Wikipedia describes it as “an American political migration movement founded in 2001 to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state in order to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas.”
In other words, misguided out-of-state zealots have infiltrated our communities with the expressed and sole purpose of dismantling our long-standing public institutions — starting with education. And in Croydon they’ve found their apotheosis.
Libertarianism is the Esperanto of political philosophies; an interesting idea, until it meets the real world, and reveals itself to be culturally and structurally untenable. Like what’s going to be left of that public school after a 50% cut in funding.
Comparing public to private schools is specious; one does its heavy lifting in the classroom, while the other at the admissions office. And that heavy lifting in the classroom is a necessary public good. Public institutions are about cooperation, community and the sublimation of self-serving impulses for the greater good of the whole.
History is littered with civilizations (and species) that failed in this regard, therefore failing to “preserve and transmit” themselves, through education or otherwise.
And that is the situation we have today, in Croydon, and in America: good people standing by while sociopaths run amok, because, in the words of W.B. Yeats, “The best lack all conviction, while the worst / Are full of passionate intensity.”
David W. Ricker
Orford
There’s a warrant article that will be considered at Enfield’s 2022 Town Meeting that would end traditional Town Meeting in our town.
In virtually every example I know of where a town or school district abandoned traditional “Town Meeting” or “School District Meeting,” two things happened. First, the community lost a true and worthwhile forum for debating pros and cons of the warrant proposals that would shape their town and school districts. And second, the taxpayers in the community, despite the enticement to change to the SB2 format offering, lost control of their budget.
Administrators will successfully game taxpayers every time taxpayers take their eye off the ball and their fingers off the purse. If Enfield voters are wise, they will keep Town Meeting as it is. There is no better form of government than egalitarian, traditional town government, where those interested in their community can meet, rise and have a say on all matters that will determine the future of their community.
At traditional Town Meeting, a single, individual voice can change the course of events.
Enfield tried it both ways, returned to traditional Town Meeting and is better off for having done so.
There are no shortcuts to good government. People have to invest time and energy to get it.
Paul Mirski
Enfield
With the events unfolding in eastern Europe, we are again confronting the existential threat of a nuclear war. Somehow we have allowed ourselves to coexist with these weapons of mass destruction. Mutual Assured Destruction (MAD), with Russia’s president in control of their nuclear arsenal, is not a reassuring strategy for deterrence.
Vermonters should be proud of the fact that in the 1980s, 150 towns passed resolutions urging a freeze on the number of nuclear weapons. Those actions were part of a national effort that ultimately led to a reduction in U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals by 80%.
We need to restart our efforts and join the international community in efforts to ban nuclear weapons, as the non-nuclear states in the United Nations did last year. Closer to home we need to urge our Vermont representatives to support the Joint Resolution JRH7. The Senate has already passed this resolution, which opposes the basing of nuclear weapons and their delivery systems in Vermont. Hopefully JRH7 will be voted out of committee for a floor vote. Please contact your Vermont representative(s) and ask them to vote yes on JRH7 when it comes up for a vote on the House floor.
Paul Manganiello
Norwich