Western face of Camel's Hump Mountain (elevation 4,079 feet), in Vermont.
— Photo by Niranjan Arminius
“….You know how it is with an April day
When the sun is out and the wind is still,
You're one month on in the middle of May.
But if you so much as dare to speak,
A cloud comes over the sunlit arch,
A wind comes off a frozen peak,
And you're two months back in the middle of March….’’
— From “Two Tramps in Mud Time,’’ by Robert Frost (1874-1963)
Vermont Sen. Ralph Flanders (1880-1970). He was a rock-ribbed, old-fashioned New England Republican.
March 9, 1954
Mr. President, this brief talk is in the nature of advice to the junior Senator from Wisconsin. I had hoped that he would be present. I do not feel constrained to put off the talk in his absence. I find that he is to be in New York today. Not knowing when he can be present, I proceed.
Mr. President, the junior Senator from Wisconsin interests us all – there can be no doubt about that – but also he puzzles some of us. To what party does he belong? Is he a hidden satellite of the Democratic Party, to which he is furnishing so much material for quiet mirth? It does not seem that his Republican label can be stuck on very tightly, when, by intention or through ignorance, he is doing his best to shatter the party whose label he wears. He no longer claims or wants any support from the Communist fringe. What is his party affiliation?
One must conclude that he is a one-man party, and that its name is “McCarthyism,” a title which he proudly accepted.
The junior Senator from Vermont finds much to praise and much to deplore in McCarthyism, as he sees it displayed on the national stage. That which is praiseworthy is the vigorous and effective housecleaning which it undertakes.
In January of last year the Republican family moved into quarters which had been occupied by another family for twenty long years. The outgoing family did not clean up before it left. The premises were dirty indeed.
Into these dirty premises the junior Senator from Wisconsin charged with all the energy and enthusiasm of a natural-born housekeeper. He found dirt under the rug. He found dirt behind the chiffonier. He found dirt in all the corners. He found cobwebs and spiders in the cellarway. All this dirt he found and displayed, and the clean-up he personally superintended.
Of course it was not done quietly. In the long years of my life I have come to the conclusion that natural-born housewives seldom work quietly – particularly when cleaning premises left by someone else. There is much clatter and hullabaloo. The neighbors across the backyard fence are apprised of each newly discovered deposit of grime. Much of this in his long life has the junior Senator from Vermont seen and heard, but he has never seen or heard anything to match the dust and racket of this particular job of housecleaning. Perhaps these extremes are necessary if a one-man party is to be kept in the headlines and in the limelight.
Now the question before the nation is this: Is the necessary housecleaning the great task before the United States, or do we face far more dangerous problems, from the serious consideration of which we are being diverted by the dust and racket? It is the deep conviction of the junior Senator from Vermont that we are being diverted, and to an extent dangerous to our future as a nation. He feels called upon to say to the junior Senator from Wisconsin: “Right about face.” Having looked inward for so long, let him now look out outward.
When he and we look outward, what do we see? We see defeat in Korea, and the Iron Curtain moved down the truce line by force of arms, in defiance of the principles and purposes of the United Nations. We find the same aggression pursued in Indochina, with our country assigned to play the part of a supporter of colonialism, and persuaded to enter into negotiations which are foredoomed to parallel, to a greater or less extent, the foreordained conclusions of the Korean truce.
In Europe we see Italy ready to fall into communist hands. We find France irresolute, palsied in thought and action, where her Communists well organized and sure of their ground. Saddest of all, we see Great Britain nibbling at the drugged bait of trade profits, which benumbed her judgments when Japan moved into Manchuria and Mussolini moved into Ethiopia. Then followed, in logical sequence, the fall of the Rhineland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, and the Second World War.
Let us look to the south. In Latin America there are sturdy strong-points of freedom. But there are likewise, alas, spreading infections of communism. Whole countries are being taken over. Other countries, not yet captured, are undergoing relentless infiltration.
There is little need to spotlight the other trouble spots in Asia and Africa. If this massive advance is not stemmed, our future place in the world is clearly foreordained. The Iron Curtain, now protecting Communist countries, will be drawn about the United States and Canada, the last remnants of the free world. This will not need to be accomplished by defeating us militarily. It will result from the capture of the rest of the world by infiltration and subversion. We will be left with no place to trade and no place to go except as we are permitted to trade and to go by the Communist masters of the world.
Of course the attack may come from the air – sudden, catastrophic. This is possible, though unlikely, for why should the Soviet Government subject the Russian cities to destruction when it is doing so well by infiltration and subversion? In either case, the dangerous attack is from without, not from within. Look out, Senator, and see what is creeping upon us.
In very truth, the world seems to be mobilizing for the great battle of Armageddon. Now is a crisis in the agelong warfare between God and the Devil for the souls of men.
In this battle of the agelong war, what is the part played by the junior Senator from Wisconsin? He dons his war paint. He goes into his war dance. He emits his war whoops. He goes forth to battle and proudly returns with the scalp of a pink Army dentist. We may assume that this presents the depth and seriousness of Communist penetration in this country at this time.
If he cannot view the larger scene and the real danger, let him return to his housecleaning. Let him sweep out all the dirt that is under the rugs, back of the furniture and in the remotest corners. After he has done all this, let him take a pocket handkerchief and rub over the tops of the doors and window frames. He may find a little dust there too. But let him not so work as to conceal mortal danger in which our country finds itself from the external enemies of mankind.
Let me appeal to him in the words of a great hymn, written by St. Andrew of Crete about the year of our Lord 700:
Christian, dost thou see them
On the holy ground,
How the hosts of darkness
Compass thee around?
Christian, up and smite them,
Counting gain but loss;
Smite them, Christ is with thee,
Soldier of the cross.
Main Street in Danby, Vt.
— Photo by Redjar
Battery Park, overlooking the Burlington Waterfront and Lake Champlain
— Photo by Tania Dey
“All in all, Vermont is a jewel state, small but precious.”
— Pearl S. Buck (1892-1973), Nobel Prize-winning novelist. She lived in Danby, Vt.
xxx
“I don’t have a PR rep. I live in Vermont.”
Colin Trevorrow (born 1976), film director who has lived in Burlington. Vt.
“Raking leaves can be totally Zen,’’ by Adam Blue, in his show “Adam Blue: Astroexplorer — A Guide to the Heavens,’’ at Maine Street Museum, White River Junction, Vt., through Nov. 18.
The museum says:
The exhibition provides concise and sometimes blunt discourse on current environmental, political and social issues, as well as pop culture.
Lillian Gish on the White River, at White River Junction, being filmed for the 1920 silent film Way Down East.
White River Junction in 1989. It was a major railroad center.
Official presidential portrait of Calvin Coolidge
The Coolidge Homestead, in Plymouth Notch, Vt. It’s now a museum.
— Photo by Magicpiano
The ‘‘Brave Little State of Vermont’’’ speech is a name given to remarks delivered by Vermont native and President Calvin Coolidge at Bennington on Sept. 21, 1928.
Coolidge was touring his home state by train to assess progress of recovery following the devastating 1927 flood. Considered taciturn and nicknamed "Silent Cal," Coolidge demonstrated unusual emotion in delivering his extemporaneous response to the human suffering and loss he had witnessed.
Text of Coolidge's remarks follow:
My fellow Vermonters:
For two days we have been traveling through this state. We have been up the East side, across and down the West side. We have seen Brattleboro, Bellows Falls, Windsor, White River Junction and Bethel. We have looked toward Montpelier. We have visited Burlington and Middlebury. Returning we have seen Rutland.
I have had an opportunity of visiting again the scenes of my childhood. I want to express to you, and through the press to the other cities of Vermont, my sincere appreciation for the general hospitality bestowed upon me and my associates on the occasion of this journey.
It is gratifying to note the splendid recovery from the great catastrophe which overtook the state nearly a year ago. Transportation has been restored. The railroads are in a better condition than before. The highways are open to traffic for those who wish to travel by automobile.
Vermont is a state I love. I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield, and Equinox, without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me. It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride, here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our everlasting hills.
I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the Union, and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.
Ralph E. Flanders
“I’m a New Englander and most of us are pack rats. We save everything, old bedsprings, empty cartons, clothing that went out of style fifty years ago, and trunks full of papers. Every once in a while it’s worth it if I can find what I’ll looking for.’’
— Ralph E. Flanders (1880-1970), U.S. senator from Vermont (1946-1959), mechanical engineer, industrialist. and writer. A Republican, he helped put an end to the career of the demagogic liar Sen. Joseph McCarthy (R.-Wis.) His base was Springfield, Vt.
Black River Falls, in Springfield, Vt., about 1910
Vermontasaurus sculpture in Post Mills, Vt., in 2010
— Photo by HopsonRoad
‘‘Vermont, Designed by the Creator for the Playground of Continent.’’
— The Green Mountain State’s first state-sponsored tourist brochure (1911)
#Vermont
Old Constitution House, in Windsor, Vt., where the Constitution of the Vermont Republic was signed, in 1777.
“When people who have never lived in New Hampshire or Vermont visit here,
they often say they feel like they've come home. Our urban center, commercial
districts, small villages and industrial enterprises are set amid farmlands and
forests. This is a landscape in which the natural and built environments are
balanced on a human scale. This delicate balance is the nature of our
’community character.’ It's important to strengthen our distinctive, traditional
settlement patterns to counteract the commercial and residential sprawl that
upsets this balance and destroys our economic and social stability."
~ Richard J. Ewald, in his book Proud to Live Here.
American Precision Museum at the old Robbins and Lawrence factory, in Windsor. The building is said to be the first U.S. factory at which precision interchangeable parts were made, giving birth to the precision machine-tool industry
“Sumac thickets by the roadbed, either side,
spangled by snow and the big moon’s light.
Deeper in, evergreens, taller, darker,
but still undark in that light, this weather.’’
— From “Inviting the Moose: A Vision,’’ by Sydney Lea (born 1942), a former poet laureate of Vermont who has taught at various New England colleges.
Murray Bookchin, who moved to Vermont from New York City.
“You see my residence is in New England, and New England has a strong tradition of localism. What is ordinarily called election day in most of the United States is called town meeting day in Vermont. And there are town meetings that are to one degree or another active, however vestigial their powers. They, for example, banned uranium mining in the Green Mountains of Vermont. And the governor of the state was forced to knuckle down to that even though he wanted uranium mining. A number of town meetings—not very large a number but at least a majority of those who had it on their agenda—voted for a nuclear arms moratorium. They’re taking up issues like that at town meetings. What we would like to do if we could is foster, at least in Vermont, greater local power, discussions around issues that are not simply immediate local issues. We would like to raise broad issues at these town meetings and turn them into discussion arenas and interlink the various assemblies and town meetings or try to help create growth of this type of local municipal power—communal power—a view toward, very frankly, establishing a grass-roots self-management institutional framework or network. Now this may be a pure dream, a hopeless ideal, but it’s meaningless for us to go to factories, I can tell you that much.’’
— Murray Bookchin (1921-2006), author, democratic socialist, writer and environmentalist.
Dan & Whit’s, the famous general store in Norwich, Vt., where Peter Welch lives when not in Washington.
“I represent a rural state and live in a small town. Small merchants make up the majority of Vermont’s small businesses and thread our state together. It is the mom-and-pop grocers, farm-supply stores, coffee shops, bookstores and barber shops where Vermonters connect, conduct business and check in on one another.”
— Peter Welch (born 1947), Vermont’s sole member of the U.S. House.
xxx
“Vermonters are not only charmless of manner, on the whole; they are also, as far as I can judge, utterly without pretense, and give the salutary impression that they don't care ten cents whether you are amused, affronted, intrigued, or bored stiff by them. Hardly anybody asked me how I liked Vermont. Not a soul said 'Have a nice day!'‘'
“Vermonters, it seems to me, are like ethnics in their own land. They are exceedingly conscious of their difference from other Americans, and they talk a great deal about outsiders, newcomers, and people from the south.”
— Jan Morris (1926-2020), British historian, author and famed travel writer
“Move and Flow” (oil and graphite on panel), by Rose Umerlik, in her show “Repose,’’ at Atelier Newport, July 30-Aug. 31.
The gallery says:
“Rose Umerlik is an internationally recognized artist, who maintains a full-time studio practice in Vermont. Her work has always been based on strong ideals she has long held, such as the importance of being able to self-evaluate in a spirit of honesty and having a strong work ethic that helps her be fully present to life. These core values are always reflected in her work.
“During the worldwide pandemic, Rose spent much of the early months of lockdown with her family in quiet peace on their mountainside homestead, raising their firstborn into a world in disrepair. And while in isolation, Rose and her husband only had one task to fulfill: Revel and marinate in their love for their daughter as they watch her grow. Happiness and repose entered the home and established roots there. Their daughter is now almost two years old.
“One of the most trying times in history prevailed yet, through it all, as a new mother with her cherished blossoming family, Rose was able to find an unwavering peace and calm repose.”
See this very unusual and exciting show at the Southern Vermont Art Center's Wilson Museum, Manchester, Vt., through Aug. 14: Hit this link for a video about the show.
It's titled "RELATIONSHIPS: hot, cold, intricate'' and features New England Wax, a regional association of 31 artists who work in encaustic and other wax mediums. The museum notes that encaustic, in Greek, means “to burn in”.
"It is an exciting art medium with a rich history that offers many creative options. Composed of beeswax, tree resin, and pigment applied with a brush or other tools while molten, each layer is fused to the previous one using a heat gun, torch, or other heated implement. Cold wax is a more contemporary medium combined with oil paint or other pigmenting methods. Each of these wax mediums offers many possibilities for translucency, layering, incising, and other techniques in both 2D and 3D work. The exhibiting artists, from the six New England states, use creative interpretations of the RELATIONSHIPS theme to demonstrate the many expressive and unique possibilities of working with wax-based materials.''
A section of Vermont’s Long Trail, which from the Massachusetts line to Quebec.
“I think I sought it. I think I
could not know myself un-
til I did not know where I was.
Then my self-knowledge con-
tinued for a while while I found
my way again in fear
and reluctance, lost truly at
last….’’
— From “Lost” (in the woods), by Hayden Carruth, an American poet and teacher who lived many years in the town of Johnson, in northern Vermont.
Thetford, Vt., in 1912.
“Most people believe ….that any problem in the world can be solved if you know enough; Vermonters know better.’’
— John Gardner (1933-1982) in his novel October Light, set in rural Vermont.
“It is mud season. God’s yearly reminder to us of the clay from which we rose and to which we must return, hill people and Commoners alike.’’
Howard Frank Mosher (1942-1917), novelist, in Where the Rivers Flow North. Virtually everything he wrote for publication was set in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, where he lived in Irasburg.
Panoramic view of Willoughby Notch and Mount Pisgah, in the Northeast Kingdom
— Photo by Patmac13
From atop Mount Equinox.
“Vermont is a state I love.
“I could not look upon the peaks of Ascutney, Killington, Mansfield and Equinox without being moved in a way that no other scene could move me.
“It was here that I first saw the light of day; here I received my bride; here my dead lie pillowed on the loving breast of our everlasting hills.
“I love Vermont because of her hills and valleys, her scenery and invigorating climate, but most of all, because of her indomitable people. They are a race of pioneers who have almost beggared themselves to serve others. If the spirit of liberty should vanish in other parts of the union and support of our institutions should languish, it could all be replenished from the generous store held by the people of this brave little state of Vermont.
“Vermont is my birthright. Here one gets close to nature, in the mountains, in the brooks, the waters which hurry to the sea; in the lakes, shining like silver in their green setting; fields tilled, not by machinery, but by the brain and hand of man. My folks are happy and contented. They belong to themselves, live within their incomes, and fear no man.’’
— President Calvin Coolidge (18720-1933) on Sept. 21, 1928. He grew up in Plymouth Notch, Vt., though he went to college (Amherst College), practiced law and rose to governor in Massachusetts.
Visit the Coolidge homestead. Hit this link.
At the Coolidge homestead, in Plymouth Notch, Vt. Calvin Coolidge was born in the rear of the general store in the foreground and the Coolidges’ still operative cheese company is in the distance.
— Photo by Swampyank
Regions of New England:
1. Northwest Vermont/Champlain Valley
2. Northeast Kingdom
3. Central Vermont
4. Southern Vermont
5. Great North Woods Region
6. White Mountains
7. Lakes Region
8. Dartmouth/Lake Sunapee Region
9. Seacoast Region
10. Merrimack Valley
11. Monadnock Region
12. Aroostook
13. Maine Highlands
14. Acadia/Down East
15. Mid-Coast/Penobscot Bay
16. Southern Maine/South Coast
17. Mountain and Lakes Region
18. Kennebec Valley
19. North Shore
20. Metro Boston
21. South Shore
22. Cape Cod and Islands
23. South Coast
24. Southeastern Massachusetts
25. Blackstone River Valley
26. Metrowest/Greater Boston
27. Central Massachusetts
28. Pioneer Valley
29. The Berkshires
30. South County
31. East Bay
32. Quiet Corner
33. Greater Hartford
34. Central Naugatuck Valley
35. Northwest Hills
36. Southeastern Connecticut/Greater New London
37. Western Connecticut
38. Connecticut Shoreline
From The New England Journal of Higher Education (NEJHE), a service of The New England Board of Higher Education (nebhe.org)
BOSTON
“This Covid-19 pandemic has been part of our lives for nearly two years now. It’s what we talk about at our kitchen tables over breakfast in the morning, and again over dinner at night. It gets brought up in nearly every conversation we have throughout the day, and it’s a topic at nearly every special gathering we attend,” Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee noted in his recent 2022 State of the State address.
Indeed, that was a consistent theme among all six New England governors’ 2022 State of the State speeches. As were plugs for innovation in healthcare, especially mental health, housing, workforce development, climate strategies, children’s services, transportation, schools, budgets and, with varying degrees of gratitude, acknowledgement of federal infusions of relief money.
Here are links to the full New England State of the State addresses, highlighting some key points from the beat:
Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont’s 2022 State of the State Address
“Our budget invests 10 times more money than ever before in workforce development—with a hyper focus on trade schools, apprentice programs and tuition-free certificate programs where students of all ages can earn an industry-recognized credential in half the time, with a full-time job all but guaranteed.
This investment will train over 10,000 students and job seekers this year in courses designed by businesses around the skills that they need.
This isn’t just about providing people with credentials; this is about changing people’s lives.
A stay-at-home mom whose husband lost his job earned her pharmacy tech certificate in three months and now works at Yale New Haven Hospital.
A man who was homeless was provided housing, transportation, a laptop and training. He’s now a user support specialist for a large tech company.
These are just two examples of opportunities that completely change the course of someone’s life.
We are working with our partners in the trade unions to develop programs for the next generation of laser welders and pipefitters. Building on the amazing partnership between Hartford Hospital and Quinnipiac University, we are also ramping up our next generation of healthcare workers.
I want students and trainees to take a job in Connecticut, and I want Connecticut employers to hire from Connecticut first! To encourage that, we’re expanding a tax credit for small businesses that help repay their employees’ student loans. More reasons for your business to hire in Connecticut, and for graduates to stay in Connecticut—that’s the Connecticut difference.”
Maine Gov. Janet Mills’s 2022 State of the State Address
“It is also our responsibility to ensure that higher education is affordable.
And I’ve got some ideas to tackle that.
First, I am proposing funding in my supplemental budget to stave off tuition hikes across the University of Maine System, to keep university education in Maine affordable.
Secondly, thinking especially about all those young people whose aspirations have been most impacted by the pandemic, I propose making two years of community college free.
To the high school classes of 2020 through 2023—if you enroll full-time in a Maine community college this fall or next, the State of Maine will cover every last dollar of your tuition so you can obtain a one-year certificate or two-year associate degree and graduate unburdened by debt and ready to enter the workforce.
And if you are someone who’s already started a two-year program, we’ve got your back too. We will cover the last dollar of your second year.”
Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker’s 2022 State of the State Address
“We increased public school spending by $1.6 billion, and fully funded the game-changing Student Opportunity Act.
We invested over $100 million in modernizing equipment at our vocational and technical programs, bringing opportunities to thousands of students and young adults.
We dramatically expanded STEM programming, and we helped thousands of high school students from Gateway Cities earn college credits free through our Early College programs.”
New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu’s State of the State Address
“Our way of life here in the 603 is the best of the best.
We didn’t get here by accident—we did it through smart management, prioritizing individuals over government, citizens over systems, and delivering results with the immense responsibility of properly managing our citizens tax dollars.
As other states were forced to buckle down and weather the storm, we took a more proactive approach in 2021. In just the last year, we:
• Cut the statewide property tax by $100 million to provide relief to New Hampshire taxpayers
• Cut the rooms and meals tax
• Cut business taxes—again
• Began permanently phasing out the interest and dividends tax
And while we heard scary stories of how cutting taxes and returning such large amounts of money to citizens and towns would ‘cost too much’, the actual results have played out exactly as we planned, record tax revenue pouring into New Hampshire, exceeding all surplus estimates, allowing us to double the State’s Rainy Day Fund to over $250 million.”
Rhode Island Gov. Daniel McKee’s State of the State Address
“We all know that the economy was changing well before the pandemic. A college degree or credential is a basic qualification for over 70 percent of jobs created since 2008. Although we have made great progress over the last decade, there’s more to do.
Let’s launch Rhode Island’s first Higher Ed Academy, a statewide effort to meet Rhode Islanders where they are and provide access to education and training, that leads to a good-paying job. Through this initiative, which will be run by our Postsecondary Education Commissioner Shannon Gilkey, we expect to support over a thousand Rhode Islanders helping them gain the skills needed to be successful in obtaining a credential or degree.
Having a strong, educated workforce is critical for a strong economy—and Rhode Island’s economy is built on small businesses. Small businesses employ over half of our workforce. As these businesses continue to recover from the pandemic, we know that challenges still persist. That’s why in the first several weeks of my administration, I put millions of unspent CARES Act dollars that we received in 2020 into grants to help more than 3,600 small businesses stay afloat.
My budget will call for key small business supports like more funding for small business grants, especially for severely impacted industries like tourism and hospitality. It will also increase grant funding for Rhode Island’s small farms.
As our businesses deal with workforce challenges, I’ll also propose more funding to forgive student loan debt, especially for health-care professionals, and $40 million to continue the Real Jobs Rhode Island program which has already helped thousands of Rhode Islanders get back to work.”
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott’s State of the State Address
“The hardest part of addressing our workforce shortage is that it is so intertwined with other big challenges, from affordability and education to our economy and recovery. Each problem makes the others harder to solve, creating a vicious cycle that’s been difficult to break.
Specifically, I believe our high cost of living has contributed to a declining workforce and stunted our growth. As we lose Vermonters who cannot afford to live, do business or even retire here, that burden—from taxes and utility rates to healthcare and education costs—falls on fewer and fewer of us, making life even less affordable.
With fewer working families comes fewer kids in our schools. But lower enrollment hasn’t meant lower costs and from district to district, kids are not offered the same opportunities, like foreign languages, AP courses or electives. And with fewer school offerings, it is hard to attract families, workers and jobs to those communities.
Fewer workers and fewer students mean our businesses struggle to fill the jobs they need to survive, deepening the economic divide from region to region.
And for years, state budgets and policies failed to adapt to this reality. …
Let’s start with the people already here and do more to connect them with great jobs.
First, our internship, returnship and apprenticeship programs have been incredibly successful, not only giving workers job experience, but also building ties to local employers. To improve on this work, the Department of Labor assists employers to fill and manage internships statewide and we’ll invest more to help cover interns’ wages.
And let’s not forget about retired Vermonters who want to go back to work and have a lot to offer. I look forward to working with Representative Marcotte and the House Commerce Committee on this issue and may others.
Next, let’s put a greater focus on trades training. And here’s why:
We all know we need more nurses and healthcare workers. And as I previewed with {state} Senator Sanders and {state} Senator Balint earlier this week, I will propose investments in this area. But if we don’t have enough CDL drivers, mechanics and technicians, hospital staff won’t get to work; there will be issues getting the life-saving equipment and supplies we need; and we will see fewer EMTs available to get patients to emergency rooms. If we don’t have enough carpenters, plumbers and electricians, or heating, ventilation, air handling and refrigeration techs, there are fewer to construct and maintain the facilities in our health-care system or build homes for the workers we are trying to attract.”
John O. Harney is the executive editor of The New England Journal of Higher Education.
— Photo by Scoo
“Home drive. High beams shearing the bromegrass,
blackcaps, brambles by the roadside;
red stems siphon frozen ground
grown soft, a bruise beneath the smooth suede
winter peach that rolls across
the dashboard. Thaw through frost….
…Mount Equinox, Ascutney …far ahead….’’
— From “Driving Sleeping People,’’ by Richard Kenney, who has lived in western Vermont and teaches at the University of Washington.
Mount Ascutney, in eastern Vermont
Lamoille County Superior Courthouse, in Hyde Park, Vt.
Fog in the Lamoille River valley in Hyde Park.
Even Eden, a snow-covered paradise in northern Vermont’s Lamoille County, is poisoned by Omicron. {The area was poisoned for decades by the mining of asbestos at Belvidere Mountain.}
The nearly vertical ascent of new coronavirus cases in recent weeks, before peaking in mid-January, affected nearly every mountain hamlet, every shuttered factory town, every frozen bucolic college campus in this state despite its near-perfect vaccination record.
Of all the states, Vermont appeared best prepared for the omicron battle: It is the nation’s most vaccinated state against covid, with nearly 80% of residents fully vaccinated — and 95% of residents age 65 and up, the age group considered most vulnerable to serious risk of covid.
Yet, even this super-vaxxed state has not proved impenetrable. The state in mid-January hit record highs for residents hospitalized with COVID-19; elective surgeries in some Vermont hospitals are on hold; and schools and day care centers are in a tailspin from the numbers of staff and teacher absences and students quarantined at home. Hospitals are leaning on Federal Emergency Management Agency paramedics and EMTs.
And, in a troubling sign of what lies ahead for the remaining winter months: about 1 in 10 covid tests in Vermont are positive, a startling rise from the summer months when the delta variant on the loose elsewhere in the country barely registered here.
“It shows how transmissible Omicron is,” said Dr. Trey Dobson, chief medical officer at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in Bennington. “Even if someone is vaccinated, you’re going to breathe it in, it’s going to replicate, and if you test, you’re going to be positive.”
But experts are quick to note that Vermont also serves as a window into what’s possible as the U.S. learns to live with covid. Although nearly universal vaccination could not keep the highly mutated Omicron variant from sweeping through the state, Vermont’s collective measures do appear to be protecting residents from the worst of the contagion’s damage. Vermont’s COVID-related hospitalization rates, while higher than last winter’s peak, still rank last in the nation. And overall death rates also rank comparatively low.
Children in Vermont are testing positive for COVID, and pediatric hospitalizations have increased. But an accompanying decrease in other seasonal pediatric illnesses, such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus, and the vaccinated status of the majority of the state’s eligible children, has eased the strain on hospitals that many other states are facing.
“I have to remind people that cases don’t mean disease, and I think we’re seeing that in Vermont,” said Dr. Rebecca Bell, a pediatric critical-care specialist at the University of Vermont Health Network in Burlington, the only pediatric intensive-care hospital in the state. “We have a lot of cases, but we’re not seeing a lot of severe disease and hospitalization.”
She added, “I have not admitted a vaccinated child to the hospital with COVID.”
Vermont in many ways embodies the future that the Biden administration and public health officials aim to usher in: high vaccination rates across all races and ethnicities; adherence to evolving public health guidelines; and a stick-to-itiveness and social cohesion when the virus is swarming. There is no “good enough” in Vermont, a state of just 645,000 residents. While vaccination efforts among adults and children have stalled elsewhere, Vermont is pressing hard to better its near-perfect score.
“We have a high percentage of kids vaccinated, but we could do better,” said Dobson.
He continues to urge unvaccinated patients to attend his weekly vaccination clinic. The “first-timers” showing up seem to have held off due to schedules or indifference rather than major reservations about the vaccines. “They are nonchalant about it,” he said. “I ask, ‘Why now?’ And they say, ‘My job required it.’”
Replicating Vermont’s success may prove difficult.
“There is a New England small-town dynamic,” said Dr. Tim Lahey, director of clinical ethics at the University of Vermont Medical Center in Burlington. “It’s easy to imagine how your behavior impacts your neighbor and an expectation that we take care of each other.”
While other rural states in the Midwest and South have struggled to boost vaccination rates, New England, in general, is outpacing the pack. Behind Vermont, Rhode Island, Maine and Connecticut have the highest percentage of fully vaccinated residents in the country.
“It’s something beyond just the size,” said Dr. Ben Lee, an associate professor at the Robert Larner, M.D. College of Medicine at the University of Vermont. “There is a sense of communal responsibility here that is a bit unique.”
In a state with the motto “Freedom and Unity,” freedom has largely yielded to unity, and the state’s pandemic response has been met with eager compliance. “The general attitude here has been enthusiasm to be safer,” said Lahey.
Lahey credits the state’s Republican governor, Phil Scott, who has been “unambivalent about pro-vax messaging.” Combined with a “tendency to trust the vaccine, you get a different outcome than in places where political leaders are exploiting that minority voice and whipping people up in anger.”
Vermont’s medical leaders are advising state leaders to shift from a covid war footing — surveillance testing, contact tracing, quarantines, and lockdowns — to rapprochement: testing for COVID only if the outcome will change how doctors treat a patient; ceasing school-based surveillance testing and contact tracing; and recommending that students with symptoms simply recuperate at home.
Once the Omicron wave passes and less virus is circulating, Dobson said, a highly vaccinated state like Vermont “could really drop nearly all mitigation measures and society would function well.” Vermonters will become accustomed to taking appropriate measures to protect themselves, he said, not unlike wearing seat belts and driving cautiously to mitigate the risk of a car accident. “And yet,” he added, “it’s never zero risk.”
Spared the acrimony and bitterness that has alienated neighbor from neighbor in other states, Vermont may have something else in short supply elsewhere: stamina.
“All of us are just exhausted,” said Lahey, the ethics director. But “we’re exhausted with friends.”
Sarah Varney is a Kaiser Health News journalist.
svarney@kff.org, @SarahVarney4
