All Entries in the "Op-ed" Category

Sen. Clarkson: Vermont’s housing crisis continues to be priority in Montpelier
By Sen. Alison Clarkson Addressing Vermont’s housing crisis is one of the legislature’s top agenda items this year – as it has been for the last four years. There are many factors creating the challenge we face. Vermont has been underbuilding new housing units since the 1980s. Add to that the Covid pandemic, the loss […]

Op-ed: One small gift leads to so much more
By Sharon Bondroff ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC GRAY, MAINE In the late 1970s, searching for a gift for my partner Stevens Bunker, I stopped by a small antiques shop in Ellicott City, Md. Turns out Joe the shopkeeper, was friends with Bunker. They both loved, bought and sold old maritime stuff. Joe was a retired […]

Op-ed: So why is the Scott administration encouraging short-term rentals?
By John Walters ©2023 Vermont Political Observer Lately there’s been a big jump in the number of housing units being used as short-term rentals. You know, VRBO, AirBnB, those fine folks. According to a story co-produced by Vermont Public and VTDigger, “the number of homes listed on platforms like Airbnb and VRBO has grown rapidly […]

Op-ed: Coming to grips with racism at school
By Madeline Bodin If you have ever seen me, then you almost certainly have seen me in a sweatshirt with the Chieftain head on it. During the 10 years that my two children attended Green Mountain Union High School and Middle School, I owned three GM hoodies, two green and one gray. I wore them […]

Op-ed: Vermont is more diverse than depicted
Editor’s note: The public is invited to write and send in op-ed’s on a variety of topics that directly affect our communities. Mail them to cprairie@chestertelegraph.org. By Sara Stowell ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC Recently The Chester Telegraph published an op-ed titled Vermont officially perpetuates its whiteness by Phayvanh Leukhamhan. The author critiques recent promotional videos […]

Opinion: Vermont officially perpetuates its whiteness
By Phayvanh Luekhamhan I keep coming back to the question I frequently hear asked: “Why is Vermont so white?” It’s often accompanied by head scratching or a shoulder shrug, as if the phenomenon of our whiteness is inherent as part of our DNA, a natural law, and not something that can be reasonably explained. Vermont […]

Op-ed: A much-welcomed immersion in poetry
By Nicholas Boke We’ve all—everyone, everywhere—been through a lot lately. Maybe your power went out for several very cold days recently; maybe you have friends in Ukraine, or Israel, or Mississippi; maybe you — like me — just spend too much time wondering what will happen to teen-age girls who’ve been raped in Texas, or […]

Op-ed: The price we must pay to protect our kids from the proliferation of guns
By Bill Dunkel The U.S. spends $1.73 trillion a year for national defense, but we cannot protect our children from being shot in school. The carnage at Covenant School in Nashville — the 13th school shooting this year — proves again that all children are vulnerable to this madness. Twenty years ago, the gun industry […]

Sen. Clarkson: Priority housing bill comes before House
By Sen. Alison Clarkson What an intense and productive two weeks it has been in the Vermont legislature. Crossover is largely finished and, with it, the passage of many bills from one chamber to the other. Getting this much work, representing the first half of this 2023 session, presented on the floor in each chamber […]

Op-ed: Honor Sunshine Week by requiring hybrid government meetings
By Justin Silverman During the early months of Covid-19, governors in New England states issued executive orders allowing municipalities to meet online so long as the public could attend remotely. The democratic benefits of this arrangement quickly became evident. According to a public official quoted in a 2020 study, the changes “made it a lot […]

Op-ed: Ranked choice voting, sheriff qualifications on agenda in Montpelier
By Sen. Alison Clarkson So much is happening at the Statehouse. Bills are beginning to be passed out of committees at a rapid pace, a new set of pages have arrived, the Budget Adjustment Act is poised for a final vote in the Senate and will probably go to a Conference Committee, and the building […]

Commentary: What will make the shooting stop?
By Nicholas Boke Let’s see where the action is this morning. Ah. A shopping mall in El Paso. Again. Just across the street from the Walmart where 23 people were murdered in 2019. The earlier shooting was racist. There’s no clear motive for this one yet. Better check in on that Michigan State University shooting […]

Op-ed: Senate housing bill targets rehabs, affordable new builds, accessory dwellings
By Sen. Alison Clarkson The Vermont legislature is now deep into the work of our 2023 session. To date, 230 bills have been introduced, committees are taking testimony on various issues, and the priorities we identified before session began are beginning to take shape in legislation. The discussion about the Senate’s 107-page child care bill, […]

Rep. Chase: Small business experience to serve well on House commerce committee
By Rep. Heather Chase The energy in the Statehouse on the opening day of the legislative session on Jan. 4 was palpable. Children, grandchildren, friends and family joined legislators in the House Chamber as we were sworn in. One of my daughters joined me for the big day. I felt honored to be representing the […]

Op-ed: GM founding principal says time is right to change the Chieftain
By Graham Nye ©2023 Telegraph Publishing LLC When the Green Mountain High School was created in 1971, Chester High School teams were known as the Sentinels. As we transitioned from Chester High School to Green Mountain — a task that I played a role as principal of the newly built school — it was determined […]

Sen. Clarkson: Housing a priority as new legislative session in Montpelier begins
By Sen. Alison Clarkson Our 2023 legislative session in Montpelier is off to a fast start. Only two and a half weeks into the session, we’ve already passed our first bill (H.42 which extends remote options for Town Meetings and the Open Meeting law). Committees are meeting and being brought up to speed on the […]

Op-ed: Vermont needs more housing; support necessary changes to state law
By Nicholas Boke All that state Rep. Seth Bongartz (D-Manchester) and his colleagues are doing is facing the fact that lovely Vermont just isn’t what it thinks it is anymore. The bill they’re proposing to enable housing development by banning single-family zoning and allowing duplexes and even three- and four-unit homes in some municipalities just […]

Op-ed: Protecting reproductive rights
By Nicholas Boke I figured that if somebody was handing out glossy anti-Article 22 fliers at the Chester Town Hall on Primary Election Day, there’d be lots of somebodies handing out glossy anti-Article 22 fliers at other voting stations. I was right. The overstated hypotheticals provided in the flier are just the tack that Vermont […]

Op-ed: What DQSH could have meant to my younger self
By Vic Mowschenson ©2022 Telegraph Publishing LLC Drag Queen Story Hour is just what its name sounds like: Drag Queens reading books to children. Usually these events, which have been taking place since 2015, are held in libraries, bookshops and schools. Their mission is to promote open-mindedness by exposing children to gender presentations outside rigid […]

Op-ed: Bills address continuing impacts of Covid
By Sen. Alison Clarkson This year, instead of producing several smaller, focused bills, the Senate Economic Development Committee created one omnibus economic development bill with a wide range of proposals. It took longer than expected to finish and the House Commerce Committee is now considering it. The purpose of the bill is to “address the […]