Editor’s note: This op-ed is by John Perry, a member of the Northeast Kingdom Area Agency on Aging board.
An open letter to my representatives in the Vermont General Assembly
Dear Senators and Representatives:
I am writing to express my concern over proposed cuts in Gov. Peter Shumlin’s budget plan which is currently in the House, but will shortly come before the Senate.
I am a member of the board of directors for the Northeast Kingdom Area Agency on Aging and I have seen firsthand the impact of programs that help seniors keep their dignity, their independence, and their homes.
Like all of us, I pay my taxes: property, income, sales, gasoline, telephone, and, on occasion, rooms and meals, although the latter less frequently than I might like. Like all of us, I would rather pay less tax than more tax.
Like all of us, I recognize that these are difficult times and that state revenues are down.
However, I am also a Vermonter.
In Vermont, hard times are not a new thing. The soil on Vermont hillsides is not the most fertile, and the roads are not the straightest, nor the smoothest. Vermonters are frugal. We are independent. We cut our own wood, and we can our own tomatoes. We mow our own hay, and we make our own bread.
But we also are interdependent, and we know when folks are in trouble. We take casseroles to neighbors when someone passes on, and we go to town meeting to settle our differences. We go to chicken pie suppers and talk face to face about the things we value, our families and our friends.
We go to farmers’ market to get fresh vegetables, and even if they cost a little more, we buy local. We stop our vehicles when a friend comes the other way, and chat until someone comes along and needs to get by. If we hear that someone needs help, we help. We don’t ask, we just show up, and when the job is done, we leave. We know that we all work together, whether, as Frost says, we work together or apart.
In good times, we celebrate; in hard times, we help each other. We drive meals on wheels to shut-in seniors, and we stop in to check on our elderly neighbor when the lights don’t come on in a late winter afternoon. We know that our neighbor does not want to go to the nursing home, nor do we. We insist that we not leave our children or our grandchildren with debts and obligations that we can pay for now, and we invest in their future as well.
I would rather, as a Vermonter, pay more taxes than see cuts to programs that help people who cannot help themselves, people who are my neighbors. I recognize the obligation of those who have to help and sustain those who do not have.
I am particularly concerned that the governor’s budget has lost sight of this. I am concerned that some of our legislators have lost sight of their solemn promise to represent all Vermonters, not just some. I am concerned that some of our legislators have stopped hearing the voices of the weak and the frail, the old and the sick.
I am also concerned that some of our legislators, and our governor, have lost sight of their obligation to ensure the safety of all of us in need, and to share the wealth we have with those who do not.
I am afraid that some of our legislators, and our governor, have lost their courage. I am afraid that they have listened to the power and the greed and self interest of the few, and the ideology of those who believe in the myth of self-reliance.
I urge you, as my representatives, to resist the easy answer, and refuse to cut funds for those who cannot defend themselves, and instead do the difficult thing, the hard thing, and honor our commitment to the elderly and the weak, and stand up to the powerful and selfish.
This is Vermont. We do not let old ladies freeze to death alone in the dark, and we do not let children grow up eating one meal a day. We take care of our neighbors.
