Who's to Blame?

I'm a new Vermont resident as of October 1, and I've been reading Seven Days as a way to acquaint myself with the state. You can imagine my surprise reading about eight homicides, all committed in my first month as a Vermonter ["A Spate of Rural Homicides Puts Residents of Small Vermont Towns on Edge," November 1; "Burlington Teen Charged in Shooting Death of Fellow 14-Year-Old," October 31, online].

While this statistic is shocking, none of the stories has bothered me more than that of a 14-year-old being charged as an adult. As an out-of-stater, I perceived Vermonters as chill, politically left-leaning folks. Then I hear of a Black 14-year-old being charged as an adult in an accidental murder case. What I really want to know is: What about the owner of the gun? I don't care if the gun was stolen; that means it wasn't stored safely enough.

This 14-year-old, this child, is going to have enough trouble as it is recovering from the psychological damage of his actions, never mind what he has already experienced in an adult prison. The real criminal in this story is the owner of the gun, who, intentionally or not, allowed it to be picked up by children and cause the death of another human being. Where is that person's punishment?

The easy course of action is to lay blame on the person who held the weapon, but the way to enact change is to consider the full chain of events allowing this death to occur. We, as adults in this story, must think beyond the immediate and question the systems in place that allowed this tragedy to occur.

Savannah Bailey

Montpelier

The Real Cost of Salt

Thank you for Kevin McCallum's well-researched article about the use of salt on roadways in winter ["Low-Sodium Diet: Road Salt Pollutes Vermont Waterways. So Why Aren't More Municipalities Curbing Its Use?" November 8]. It's a subject that is rarely addressed despite the huge impact the practice has on Vermont and many other states. Unfortunately, this article only begins to explore the topic.

For instance, where does the salt come from? Peru is one possibility, but there are other countries that can produce it cheaply enough in quantity and sell it to a global market. Ships only deliver it to ports, then trucks have to distribute it. What is the carbon footprint of this business?

No one has calculated the impact of all the corrosion that salt causes to infrastructure and transportation, but it is probably in the hundreds of millions of dollars annually in the Northeast alone.

It's safe to assume that road salt takes years off the useful life of most vehicles in Vermont, especially those driven regularly on highways, where traffic speed suspends a salty mist that coats every surface.

It's unlikely that any of this will change. This is exactly the type of self-destructive compromise we have embedded in our way of life for too many decades to challenge. We will simply live with it until, like so many unsustainable costs, it will break us.

Brian Carter

Salisbury

Building by Building

[Re "Burlington Takes Initial Steps to Redevelop Memorial Auditorium and Surrounding Properties," November 7, online]: My mom used to say, "The thing about antiques is, they don't make them anymore." One travesty of destroying the amazing Moran Plant is enough. The thought of destroying both Memorial Auditorium and the fire station, to replace them with more generic, cookie-cutter architecture, further erodes any inherent beauty and charm Burlington once had.

Art Bell

Burlington

Get a Clue

As an avid Seven Days crossword player, it was really disappointing to see Elliot Page's deadname used as an answer in the November 8 crossword (96 down). Elliot publicly introduced himself as a transgender man in December 2020, where he specifically indicated his name and pronouns. In March 2021, he appeared on the cover of Time and was interviewed about his trans identity. In June of this year, Elliot released a memoir, titled Pageboy, which discusses his transition and reached No. 1 on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller list. It is largely unclear to me why his deadname was chosen to be incorporated into a crossword and published at this time.

Nick Tatakis

Burlington

Editor's note: Seven Days gets our print crossword from King Features, a syndication service. We're going to have a word with them.

Bird Bad for Local Biz

Bird is the third out-of-state venture capital bike-share outfit to land with a splat in Burlington in six years ["Bird Watching: A 'Dockless' Bike-Share Program Has Landed in the Burlington Area," October 18].

I objected to the last two failed so-called point-to-point bike share programs because two-thirds of all e-bike rentals in those systems originated and ended at a waterfront rack. Obviously, the primary use of those e-bikes was to cruise the Burlington bike path — not to travel between 17 hubs scattered throughout the area. These out-of-state corporations are cannibalizing the summer e-bike rental market, taking business away from local bike shops like Local Motion, Skirack, North Star Sports, and us, Burlington Segways and Electric Bikes.

In order to compete with the big out-of-state outfits, we purchased 12 smartphone-activated e-bikes from another vendor this year for use on the bike path. We rent our e-bikes from a rack at the Burlington Community Boathouse. We pay the city 10 percent of our income from the rack. Bird pays nothing. But unlike Bird, we keep close track of our bikes, and they are not left helter-skelter about the city. They must be returned to our rack at the boathouse. Our bikes don't get graffiti sprawled all over them, and they don't end up on the roof at the skate park.

The city should carefully review the operation of Bird bikes this past year before it even thinks about renewing the contract next year. Go with the local bike shops instead. We provide better service because we live here and care about our community.

Rick Sharp

Colchester

Question Capitalism

[Re "Housing Crisis Is Slowing Vermont's Population Growth, Treasurer Says," November 6, online]: What is the problem with zero population growth to people other than Realtors and the building industry? Builders will still exist, though perhaps not to the extent they now do.

Desiring more population is an obsolete strategy for bringing prosperity to society because it inevitably tramples the environment and puts unsustainable strains on natural resources. We are currently destroying the planet with unbridled growth, and those who call for more people are simply further enabling that.

We have an economic capitalist system that has been deliberately tailored to require growth in order to sustain itself — by design, for the profit of a few. That will lead to the end of us all, just like lemmings jumping off the cliffs into the ocean to drown. This could change, but not from what I see with articles like this one.

The current structure of the capitalist system itself has to morph into one that protects the environment and biodiversity. No, not communism. There are ways to accomplish it that have been known for decades, but greed among too many is too strong.

Ray Gonda

South Burlington

Nothing 'Complex'

[Re "Our Life During Wartime: During a Previous Explosion of Mideast Bloodshed, a Journalist and His Family Straddled the Divide," November 1]: In his piece about the time he spent in occupied Palestine, Ken Ellingwood, like so many Western reporters writing from that country in the past decades, displays a depressingly naïve view of the conflict, despite his time in the country.

Like so many others, he talks about the "complexities" of the situation. If he really made friends with Palestinians, as he claims, he would know that describing the conflict as "complex" is racist and therefore offensive to Arabs. There is nothing complex about white supremacist settler colonialism: Europeans, for various reasons, see a part of the world that isn't theirs, decide they want it, and then move in and take it by force, obliterating the Indigenous inhabitants or driving them from the area. It's pretty simple, and this is what happened and continues to happen in Palestine.

What "complicated" means when used by Europeans to describe the theft of Palestine is: "I'm so entrenched in my culture's white supremacist point of view that I can't help considering the European colonialist approach as legitimate."

In the 21st century, when more and more people of European descent are recognizing their settler colonial heritage and attempting to make amends, readers of Seven Days need better voices than Mr. Ellingwood's.

Dave Hall

New York, N.Y.

View From City Hall

I was confused to stumble upon a huge banner reading "Burlington Stands With Israel" at city hall on October 15 ["Hundreds Rally in Burlington in Response to Israel-Hamas War," October 15]. While I am a moderate, we're a pretty progressive city. Who is making this decision for the people of Burlington?

As a rally gathered, I found out our mayor, Miro Weinberger, a guy I voted for and wave hi to on the streets, would be speaking. Since he is openly Jewish, I wondered, But what of separation of church and state? In his defense, it turns out it wasn't just him there.

I stuck around and respectfully called out between the intros: "Return electricity to hospitals. Support Judaism." And "One million children in Gaza. Stop blockading aid. Support Judaism."

People were respectful back. I felt I did my civic duty of mild protest and left.

I found out later Gov. Phil Scott was there, and again as a moderate Democrat, I was bummed. He's always just seemed like a rational, good guy.

I'm so glad that Jewish leaders like Sen. Bernie Sanders are coming out strongly against Israel's extreme actions. One can say it's all Hamas' fault, but tell that to the children in Gaza, some slowly dying in their mothers' arms with no morphine.

I won't offer more gruesome images, but this could be a long Vietnam-like engagement — this time with thousands of cellphones capturing the horror live. Good luck to us all.

Jon Roberts

Burlington

Jews for Palestine

[Re "Hundreds Rally in Burlington in Response to Israel-Hamas War," October 15]: As Vermont Jews, we attended and spoke at a rally for freedom in Palestine on October 14. Seven Days' reporting on this rally referred to a statement, made by some other members of Vermont's Jewish community, that condemned the rally. That condemnation saddened us. As Jews, we needed to stand with Palestinians in that moment, listening and calling together for an end to this violence.

The statement conflated support for Palestinian freedom with support of Hamas. It misunderstood "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" as an incitement to killing Jews. As Palestinian American historian Maha Nassar explains in the Forward, this chant expresses Palestinian grief at the division of the once-unified land of Palestine during the establishment of Israel and at so much oppression since. The chant is a yearning for beloved homelands and for freedom.

As Jews, we cannot let our own grief and anger prevent us from standing with Palestinians to demand an end to this cycle of violence. We know there is no way to peace through violent efforts to silence Palestinian resistance while oppression remains intact. The only way to safety, for both our peoples, is through justice and liberation for Palestinians.

The State of Israel has the power to end this oppression. As Vermont Jews, we urge our leaders to demand a cease-fire now and to press for justice for Palestinians.

Jason Hirsch

Montpelier

Hirsch is a member of Central Vermont Chavurah for Justice and Liberation and Jewish Voice for Peace Vermont.

You Missed It

[Re "UVM Students Protest Cancellation of Palestinian Writer's Appearance," October 24, online]. Universities are expected to be places where opinions can be freely expressed without arbitrary censorship. News outlets are similarly expected to report on notable events that happen in their communities.

On Saturday, November 4, a demonstration including approximately 1,000 people gathered at Battery Park and marched through Burlington's downtown, demanding that Israel stop its admittedly indiscriminate bombing of the civilian population trapped in Gaza and that our elected officials act to promote a cease-fire.

Despite its impressive numbers, and despite the urgency of its message, this event has not yet been reported online by Seven Days. We are left to wonder how Seven Days rationalizes this omission.

Peter Lackowski

Burlington

Editor's note: Seven Days has covered four local protests related to the Israel-Gaza War – most recently last Friday's "Empty Shabbat Table on Church Street Honors Israeli Hostages Held in Gaza." We've also written about the positions of our congressional delegation.

'The Left Shrugs'

[Re "Protesters Disrupt Balint Fundraiser to Demand Cease-Fire in Gaza," November 9, online]: Shouting Hebrew songs while excusing terrorism against Jews is creepy, even if some of the protesters were from Jewish Voice for Peace. Just as we don't pretend that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas speaks for African Americans, we shouldn't pretend that JVP speaks for Jews.

While the rich world left protests Israel, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad has killed at least 200,000 civilians and tortured to death 15,000, including children. The left shrugs. China is eliminating a Muslim population six times that of Gaza's and occupies Tibet, 400 times the area of Palestine — and the left repeats China's talking points. Refugees from the 1947 founding of Pakistan far outnumbered the Palestinians. The list could continue, but the only rallies I've seen oppose Israel.

Yes, Israel is a U.S. ally. But U.S. ally Turkey kills Kurds with American-made weapons, and there are twice as many Kurds as Palestinians. Turkey has already exterminated Armenians. The Turks come from Central Asia and have ruled "Turkey" for about as long as Europeans have been in the Americas. If the Turks aren't settler-colonists, then the term is meaningless.

Of course, most countries are occupied by settler-colonists with less claim than Jews have to Israel. To be clear, I think enmity toward Turkey, China or other settler-colonists, such as Palestinians originally from Arabia, is unhelpful. And we absolutely should care about innocent Palestinians. But demonizing Israel, while excusing terrorism against Jews and ignoring actual genocide elsewhere, is rooted in antisemitism, even if the protesters don't realize that.

Peter Dubrul

Charlotte