Does Vermont, the whitest state in the country, have a racism problem? I’ve asked the question before, but Peter Hirschfeld’s excellent front page article in the Rutland Herald/Times Argus today calls the question front and center once again.

I’m not just speaking of overt racism – the kind that accompanies violence – I’m also speaking of the more challenging kind, as described by the famous/infamous Stokely Carmichael and Stanley Hamilton:

The second type is less overt, far more subtle, less identifiable in terms of specific individuals committing the acts. But it is no less destructive of human life. The second type operates in the operation of established and respected forces in the society, and thus receives far less public condemnation than the first type.”… The society either pretends it does not know of this latter situation, or is in fact incapable of doing anything meaningful about it”

To be blunt: as far as racial issues go, does the oft-cited “Vermont Way” have more in common with a 1950’s Mississippi lunch counter than a liberal haven? Consider:

• One of two states in the US (Mississippi being the other one) that doesn’t collect race-based information on police incidents (which would enable the tracking of racial profiling issues).
• According to the Sentencing Project’s data from 2005, Vermont is 4th in the nation in incarceration rates for African Americans (only following South Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa).
• When looking at the ratio of white incarceration rates to black incarceration rates, Vermont comes in second only to Iowa.
• In Brattleboro, 80% of respondents to an Alana survey said they believe racial profiling by police is a problem and 79% of minority households reported contacts with the Brattleboro Police Department in the preceding year.
• Burlington area police continue to have racial profiling issues, including the one highlighted on the front page of today’s Herald/Argus, concerning the profiling and subsequent assault resulting in injury of a pregnant woman by a Williston cop.
• Vermont ranks #11 in per capita race-related hate crime rates in the US (and without a major metropolitan area and all its associated challenges).
• And of course, many on the Vermont left (traditionally the political population that fights for racial justice) gleefully hold hands with white supremacists to the collective yawn by the Vermont media and so-called racial justice and diversity groups.

We in Vermont project all kinds of wonderful, fawning, almost idolatrous emotion and imagery onto our view of the state. Does that make us incapable of addressing its real social and cultural problems in an honest, constructive way? Does it mean we allow them to fester?

What do you think? How far does it have to go before Vermont progressives consider this enough of a priority to step up and do something about it?

On Obama’s campaign website there is a place to “Fight the Smears” (link here).

Personally I think it’s an excellent way to work back against all the email style bullshit currently flooding the ‘net/tubes, and I think the approach of  “lies” vs “truth” is the way to go.

However … referring to being called a Muslim as a “smear”?

That’s plain stupid in my opinion … and bigoted … and insulting to more than a billion non-violent people throughout the world.

Obama has every right to express his religious bent, and he should correct untruths. He shouldn’t be doing it at the expense of folks who have done him no harm however, calling a reference to himself as being a smear is clearly a rhetorical attack against Muslims.

Some news of whistle blower variety on the Agency of Natural Resources today .Comparison between Omya and Intervale compost is a little tough to avoid on this . I have notice is Gov.Douglas awfully touchy about the environment lately.

Whistle Blower : State bent rules for Omya

ANR employee accuses his division of working on the company’s behalf

A state regulator has accused his own department of ignoring the law when it decided in April to issue a draft solid waste disposal permit for Omya Inc.

John Brabant, a 20-year veteran of the Waste Management Division, said the state should bring an enforcement action – a statement of violations along with possible penalties – against Omya because its unpermitted waste site is not in compliance with the state’s solid waste laws.

Brabant accuses the Agency of Natural Resources of working on Omya’s behalf. He said the agency is using a different standard for the company and cited the enforcement action taken against Intervale Compost Products in Burlington, which was found to be in violation of its solid waste certification and also lacked an Act 250 land use permit. ANR also fined the town of Shrewsbury transfer station $9,200 for failing to renew its permit in a timely fashion and for what Brabant termed minor violations.

John Sayles, ANR’s deputy secretary, said the agency’s enforcement action against Intervale Compost Products was based on a determination that if the leachate at the site entered the groundwater “that would cause an imminent threat and it was appropriate to take action,” Sayles said. In Omya’s case, he said a recent study concluded that the Omya site posed no such threat.

Times Argus ,Bruce Edwards   http://www.timesargus.com/apps…

“We are going to be bollixed up in a way that’s terribly unfortunate,” he said. “Our first obligation is the safety and security of this nation and the men and women who defend it. This decision will harm our ability to do that.”

(McCain Denounces Detainee Ruling, Washington Post, 06/14/08)

Actually, Senator McCain, you took the following oath

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

(US  Senate)

And in the United States of America’s Constitution we find the following language

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.

(Article. VI. – Debts, Supremacy, Oaths)

It certainly is politically correct and politically sexy to lay claim to some other supreme responsibility (as opposed to defending the Constitution), but it is also a lie.

I say lie because each and every politician who takes the above oath knows what it says … they give their solemn word … and then what?

PS. This also applies to an awful lot of Democratic politicians too.

I just wanna do a plug for a good friend of mine, Jack McEnany. Check out his political blog Lost Nation. It’s worth a visit.

Jack’s from Franconia, NH and one of the funniest guys I’ve met. In some ways, he’s like Philip Baruth… but on overdrive. Ironically, Lost Nation has a VDB feel to it too. Call him Baruth’s alter ego.

He just wrote his second book Brush Cat: On Trees, the Wood Economy, and the Most Dangerous Job in America and is about to write his third Who Killed Mick Mars? Jack spent a couple weeks, on tour, with Motley Crue guitarist Mick Mars. Find out more. This will be great.  And then of course, we all know his first book, but I digress.

The point I wanna make is… he’s back blogging.

Go check it out or visit his archives.