Philip Baruth and the St. Albans Messenger are reporting that Sara Kittell will be stepping down after seventeen years representing Franklin County in the Vermont Senate.
Because of her committee assignments first in the General Affairs and Housing and then in the Health and Human Services committees I had the chance to work with Sara on a number of bills. I was always impressed by her instinctive empathy for and understanding of tenants, people labeled with mental illness, and others who are structurally powerless in our society. This is something that you don't necessarily see among everyone, even Democrats, and even people who come around to support you intellectually. In fact, it's rare.
There's one story, though, that really says all you need to know about Sara. David Moats, Pulitzer Prize winning writer from the Rutland Herald, tells it in his book Civil Wars: A Battle for Gay Marriage. In 2000, after the Vermont Supreme Court's Baker decision, when civil unions were the big issue in the Legislature, things were really ugly. Legislators who were known or suspected of supporting civil unions were getting threatening calls and even messages from constituents telling them that they would be going to hell; good legislators lost their offices in the Take Back Vermont backlash because of their support for civil unions. Then as now, Democrats had a strong majority in the Senate, and since Sara comes from a conservative county the Senate leadership went to her and told her that there were plenty of yes votes in the Senate, they didn't need her vote, so it would be okay if she voted no to avoid the almost certain personal attacks and potential loss of her seat. Sara knew what was right, and she was right there voting yes no matter what the cost. She later told a colleague, Mark McDonald, another civil union supporter, that it had never occurred to her to do anything else.
She was reelected anyway, but she certainly didn't know that at the time. This was a true profile in courage.
I'll miss Sara when the Senate returns next year.
than her friends and supporters here in Franklin County! We are, in a word… despondent.
We love you Sara!
working as her counterpart as Chair of House Ag for four years. Along with her work for conventional Ag she also balanced and understood the changing Ag scene as well. Sara helped pass the Farmer Protection Act (vetoed by Douglas in her district) and she was re-elected after that episode as well.
I am sorry to see her go. Odds are that Bobby Starr will be the next Chair of Ag.
Sara was, to the best of my knowledge, the first person holding elected office a dozen years ago to say she thought any person should be able to marry the person of their choice, regardless of gender. I will always respect her for being so honest and forthright in support of marriage equality.
NanuqFC
You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt