Dear Editor,
The recent article in VTDigger about Beta Technologies stated that Mike Vincent, owner of J&M Avionics in Middlebury, “said his family roots in Vermont go back generations.” It also described Beta CEO Kyle Clark as “a native Vermonter.” I’m curious why VTDigger thinks such ascriptions — treated as a claim in one case and (perhaps carelessly) as a fact in the other — are pertinent to the story. Please tell me why, in this instance, family history has anything to do with either the economic power of a well-heeled startup or the economic powerlessness of a small-town going concern.
VTDigger has been prone to this sort of bias before, and I chide myself now for not recognizing it long ago. By using such language when it is irrelevant to the subject matter, you perpetuate distinctions among citizens that have no basis in law, ethics or morality — and which are certainly not conducive to overall societal health. One need only consider how offensive similar treatment of other elements of a person’s biography would be to see how pernicious the “Vermonter vs. flatlander” trope has now become.
Frederick Weston
Waterbury, Vt.
(Born in New Jersey. I didn’t have a say in the matter.)
