Hello! Hello! Hello! Can you hear me? This is a voice from far outside the power structure of Vermont. Or so says a reporter on Vermont Public Television’s weekly show called “Vermont This Week,” which aired on Friday, October 9 and Sunday, October 11.
One segment on the show talked about the candidacy of Daniel Freilich who is running against Senator Pat Leahy in the primary.
Here is the quote from the reporter. “He (Daniel Freilich) announced his campaign in Wilmington. Now I love the town of Wilmington. It is a beautiful little place to visit but it is way down there in southern Vermont so far outside the power structure of Vermont that the ripple didn’t go very far.”
The reporter got one thing right, we are a beautiful little place. But we are so much more. We are bedrock! Along with all the other towns from border to border, we form the bedrock on which the power structure rests. We are part of the Deerfield Valley. Thus we are an essential part of Vermont’s travel and tourism economy as host communities to one of Vermont’s premier recreation areas. Is that not bedrock? We are home to Vermonters who work, play, raise and educate children, tend their lands, run their businesses, volunteer in their communities, and follow the happenings in and out of Vermont, including on “Vermont This Week,” and vote. Is that not bedrock?
And why wouldn’t a candidate for any office be proud to announce from his or her home?
So I write this letter to get the hackles off the back of my neck at the idea that a well-respected reporter on a long-standing and well-respected news program would marginalize my community just because we are a long distance away from the power structure, however he or anyone might define it.
And if our only avenue of power is to ripple, then I encourage my fellow Wilmingtonians and our neighbors way down here in southern Vermont to ripple away – let our voices be heard louder and more often in the halls of power. After all, we send a whole lot more money out of our community than we get back, so let’s send a message with the money.
Rep. Ann Manwaring, Windham 2-Wilmington, Whitingham and Halifax
Wilmington
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