State Senator Mark Shepard weighs in on the reasons we should mistrust Venezuela and CITGO. 

CITGO is dividing Americans according to the Senator?  uuummmm, I think America was divided well BEFORE the CITGO programs. 

Also, Senator Shepard DOES NOT address that a major leader of the Religious Right friendly with the Bush Administration, called for the outright assassination of the President of Venezuela. 

I don’t know about Senator Shepard, but I am really divided from the poor elderly widow that lives down the street getting fuel oil cheaper than me.  Why should she get the cheap oil?  I want some cheap oil!  I want my Maypo.

The Senator speaks of an OLIVE BRANCH?  An outright threat by a powerful American to assasinate the President of Venezuela is an OLIVE branch? 

  [url=]http://timesargus.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060315/NEWS/603150309/1022] TIMES ARGUS LETTER FROM SHEPARD HERE[/url]

Citgo oil deal a Trojan Horse

March 15, 2006

Thank you for your editorial (March 1, “Bad Company”) recounting my objection to the Vermont legislature honoring Chavez by formally thanking him for his “gift” of discount oil. And thank you for pointing out “The oil discount program shows Chávez clearly understands the value of the grand gesture.”

This “gift” was not about charity, in my opinion. It was and is propaganda used by Hugo Chávez, whom your editorial points out is “the most vocal and visible symbol of a rising tide of anti-American sentiment in Latin America.”

If any of the countries you mentioned in your article made a similar move and there were a resolution thanking them for it, I would have also objected to that. And it appears that after reviewing my objections, the sponsors of the Chávez resolution quickly came to agree with my position, as they did not even try to defend it, but rather sent it to committee to die.

As the world’s greatest power we must take extra care that our actions work toward building positive and confident relationships with the people (not just the leaders) in other countries, most especially our neighbors in the Americas.

The unrest and difficulties of life in many of the countries south of us is why people from those countries risk their lives to illegally enter the United States. Our foreign policy in South and Central America has often been very poor and has not focused on building long-term healthy relationships between nations. We can do better, and being consistent is the starting point. How can we just enjoy our freedoms and incomparable wealth, while at the same time we honor a man whose policies have reduced freedoms and increased poverty in other nations?

It is critical that our leaders differentiate between an olive branch of help and a Trojan horse designed with the intent to divide Americans.

State Senator Mark Shepard

North Bennington

One of these quotes is not like the others. From The Times Argus:

As he has in the past, the (Vermont) Republican governor (Jim Douglas) declined to stake out a position on whether the war in Iraq was a mistake.

“I really don’t see the value in looking backward. I would rather look forward,” he said. “I don’t think there is much point to second-guessing the policy decisions of the past.”

Some other viewpoints:

Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
George Santayana

Liberty without learning is always in peril
John F. Kennedy

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw

No one who cannot rejoice in the discovery of his own mistakes deserves to be called a scholar.
Donald Foster

Be not ashamed of mistakes and thus make them crimes.
Confucius

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
James Joyce

Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise.
Cato the Elder, from Plutarch, Lives

The past is not dead. In fact, it’s not even past.
William Faulkner

( – promoted by Jack McCullough)

Here’s the entry from Peter Freyne’s column last week. You really have to wonder if the Republicans want Vermont to be the kind of place where outside organizations like the Swifties tell lies about our candidates, whatever the party, don’t you?

Parke Goes Swift-Boat — It looks like Vermont TV viewers will be guaranteed a slew of out-of-state attack ads. The other Republican U.S. Senate candidate, Greg Parke, a commercial pilot for a private charter outfit, has just picked up the support of the truthless “Swift Boat Veterans for Truth” outfit that trashed John Kerry’s Vietnam war record.

In a fundraising letter put out this week by Friends of Greg Parke, John O’Neill, the Swift Boat Vets leader, zeroes in on Bernie Sanders.

“Sanders is as radical as they come,” writes O’Neill to donors. “In fact, he’s so far to the Left that he calls himself an ‘independent’ because he thinks Democrats are ‘too conservative.’ His record in the House of Representatives — particularly on defense matters — is disgraceful.

“He’s consistently fought President Bush on issues of national security — most specifically he voted against the use of force to oust Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

“And even though we are in the middle of a global war on terror, Bernie Sanders proudly says he’s ‘leading the charge against the Bush Administration.’

And proud of it! I know, I know. With enemies like this, Ol’ Bernardo won’t have to break a sweat. It’s free advertising!