Editor’s note: This op-ed by Telly Halkias first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
Friends poke fun when they see my byline over a New Year’s retrospective, such as AP national writer David Creary’s recent piece on 2011’s top 10 news stories. They claim I must “not have had anything to write about except old news.”
I can’t speak for other journalists, but concede the obvious: In jest there’s some element of truth.
Creary’s roundup covered everything from the Greek economy to the Arab Spring and the Penn State sex scandal, with Osama bin Laden’s death winning top honors. Noticeably absent was the story of Hurricane Irene, its touchdown in New England, and the local response. I may sound partial, but that was 2011’s top national story.
Critics will deride this choice as overcome by regionalism and lacking sophistication; a provincial story, if you will. Yet assessing Irene in Vermont from another angle can tell us a lot about ourselves as a people. At a time when national partisan rancor reached levels last seen in the 19th century, Irene was a salve on the wounds of ideology. It allowed New England, particularly Vermont, to demonstrate the importance of the individual.
In our reflexive debates on the proper role and scope of government, often lost is the primary mandate of public service: the citizen’s safety from immediate and potential physical harm. Whatever policy wonks claim, everything starts and ends at that mile post. Government really can’t do anything effectively if it doesn’t achieve that much.
The official preparation and response to Irene is a matter of record. Authorities throughout Vermont did their best to warn and plan, but no one could anticipate the destruction left behind, or the number of lives affected.
That said, local and state government tapped into federal assistance when required — which was often. But more than anything we invoked the real lesson from Hurricane Katrina: To succeed, boots on the ground must be a local initiative. That’s because we know the needs of our family, friends, and neighbors best.
Immediately after Irene, mostly in the ravaged Vermont Route 9 corridor with Wilmington as epicenter, all past labels were set aside. Republican, Democrat, Christian, atheist, Progressive, Evangelical, Tea Party — suddenly, none of that mattered in the wake of human misery.
Government helped immensely with the deployment of National Guard units and the contracting of road crews to clear debris and rebuild infrastructure. Those efforts are ongoing, and robust. But nothing spoke louder than Yankee self-reliance, much of which was bolstered by outstretched hands in friendship, even from foes and rivals.
On this, Gov. Peter Shumlin led by example, and it rankled some of his vocally partisan base. In early September, he appointed GOP stalwart and rising star Neal Lunderville as the state’s Irene Recovery Czar.
In Shumlin’s words, the former Douglas administration point man (and potential gubernatorial candidate), was eminently qualified to carry out this imperative on behalf of all Vermonters. Lunderville took a leave of absence from his current job and got to work.
To be sure, even if subtle, no one should consider the governor’s action removed from our recent political zeitgeist — for either him or his former adversary. Just look around Vermont at the Hatfields and McCoys of public policy, already back in the ring jostling for position and taking their best shots.
But Shumlin’s action also reflected a populist mood on Irene, a “trickle up” effect from the grass roots. Ironically, it was the type of initiative that kept Governor Douglas in office for so long in the nation’s most liberal state. Given the country’s political scene today, this dynamic offers much to all Americans by way of self-awareness, and thus makes Irene the top story for 2011.
In one 24-hour swath through New England, that storm cut to the fabric of what America can be when we compromise our pet rocks and address what really matters: The safety and well-being of our neighbor. And just as important, it showed how the people’s good will sent a message that influenced a leader’s decision making.
How easy was that? So simple my friends will still josh me for writing about old news.
