I have family connections to Vermont, and VTDigger is on the list of news sources that I read regularly.
Like other letter writers before me, I also take issue with the commentary (“What it’s like to move to Florida as a liberal”) by Darryl Benjamin Jan. 27 in VTDigger. As other readers have pointed out, it is blatantly ageist. It is also laced with self-superiority, snark and condescension.
What seems to have gotten his spleen in a twist is an intrusive neighbor with a political agenda opposite to his own. Fair enough. But there are kinder and more polite ways of dealing with the nuisance of overbearing busybodies.
From his commentary, Mr. Benjamin appears to be a person of strong beliefs, who forms and holds equally strong opinions. I would ask him what his opinion would be of someone who is contemptuous of those fellow citizens who are older than him, eat different foods and vote for a different political party.
Arrogance, intolerance and zealotry are generally behind the opinions and biases that have created society’s “isms.” And they are not necessarily acquired with age, nor bound by political stripe.
Richard E. Gower
Ottawa, Canada