All posts by Sue Prent

About Sue Prent

Artist/Writer/Activist living in St. Albans, Vermont with my husband since 1983. I was born in Chicago; moved to Montreal in 1969; lived there and in Berlin, W. Germany until we finally settled in St. Albans.

In defense of GENEROUS paid family leave

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While it certainly is fair to ask questions about the numbers involved in the paid family leave program under consideration by our Legislature, there is no question that, whatever the costs, they will, in the long-run, be outweighed by benefits provided under such a policy.  
Secure in the knowledge that paid family leave will be available when needed, young working families will find Vermont a more attractive place in which to take up residence, bringing with them the skills we sorely need in order to continue Vermont’s pathway to prosperity.  Even individuals who never draw directly upon paid family leave will benefit indirectly from the increased economic activity and social stability that paid family leave has been widely demonstrated to provide.
Furthermore, paid family leave can allow a family’s resources to extend further in caring for a family member’s temporary health challenges without the expense of hired nursing care.  
An added benefit of paid family leave lies in strengthening family bonds and relieving some of the emotional stress and guilt associated with conflicts between work and caring for a loved one.  There are actual costs attached to such conflicts when workers are forced to stay on the job even though they feel they should be at home.  Productivity suffers and the workers themselves may have ill health effects from the associated stress.
Virtually everywhere else in the world, paid family leave is the norm.  The U.S. is one of only three countries where it is not.  Only four out of fifty U.S. states offer paid family leave.  If our objective is to attract and hold a young workforce in Vermont, generous paid family leave is an essential incentive to make this small, wintery state competitive.
We cannot afford to be cheap about this fundamental benefit when our near neighbors, New York and New Jersey, have already outpaced Vermont in adopting paid family leave.

An Intervention

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Scan 3Custodial Care interview #3: Eric Trump

Interviewer:  So, Mr. Trump you believe your father could benefit from placement in our facility?

ET:  Yes, I do; he’s lost it. Totally.

Interviewer: I see.  Could you elaborate for me?

ET:  Well, he’s always been a little long on fantasy and short on the truth…like when me and Donnie and Vannie were little and he promised us a dog.  I mean he PROMISED us!  Still waiting for that dog, man.

Interviewer:  I’m sorry to hear that; but what has he done recently to raise your concerns?

ET:  What hasn’t he done?  He’s got that damn iPhone, you know; and we can’t peel him away from it.  Last weekend he locked himself in the bathroom for three hours and just let fly.  Not a word of truth…just the biggest whoppers you ever heard!  He lies like a million times a day!

Interviewer:  What about your siblings? Can’t they do anything to make him stop?  I hear that sister of yours can really get around him.  And Don Jr.;  what about him?

ET:  Junior?  Don’t make me laugh.  His voice gets higher every time he talks to Dad.  He wants so bad to be a chip off the ol’ block that we call him “Mini Me.”  But Dad is one of a kind: a gold-plated swaggering sonofabitch who believes his own bullshit.  That’s a hard act to follow. Donnie’s brand of bullshit just makes him stink, and he knows it.  Smells like desperation.  No wonder his wife showed him the door.  I hear she’d had enough even before he started fooling  around with Little Miss Paparazzi Bait.

Interviewer:  Your sister then; surely, she has some influence…

ET:  Pu-leaase!!  All she can manage is to get more for her.  Of course it works both ways. Vanny’s got more plastic on her than a Barbie doll. She was always his favorite, but she knew she better be picture perfect or he might drop her like he did our Ma…and Tiff’s Ma…and those three Ukranian house maids we had over at the Tower.  

She’s Daddy’s little girl, alright, but even she can’t make him behave.  And that goonie husband of hers…

Interviewer: Jared?

ET:  Yeah, Jared…Mr. Know-it-all Asshole.  “Why can’t you be like Jared??”  “Jared is smart.” “Jared’s going to make my Saudi hotel finally happen.”  “Jared’s got the Sheik’s ear.”  I am so sick of him!  I really hoped he’d end up in jail like his dear ol’ dad…  

Interviewer: Yes, I see you have issues with a lot of family members,  but we’re really here to discuss your father.  What makes you think he needs custodial care?

ET: Well, I downloaded the dementia checklist and he’s got all that, plus a few extra kinks.  He’s selfish and childish. He imagines stuff.  He’s paranoid.  He repeats himself endlessly.  He’s forgotten all but about 250 actual words, which he just repeats louder and louder; and he doesn’t always manage to get even those out in the right order.  He keeps making racist, insulting and just plain crazy remarks, right out loud. I tell you, it’s embarrassing to be out in public with the guy!

Interviewer:  Yes, I see…

ET: You tell him the simplest fact and he says or does just the opposite, as many times as he can.  Like that time he watched the eclipse on the White House lawn.  Everyone told him to wear those special shades, but no, he had to be the big tough guy and stare straight into the sun. He complained for a week about the “sand” in his eyes!

… And they say I’m the dumb one.  What a moron!

Interviewer:  Yes, yes, many people wonder…

ET:  He’s destroying the family businesses…again!! He shouldn’t be allowed near an iPhone.

Interviewer:  …And think of what he’s doing to the nation….

ET:  Screw the nation!  He’s tanking our inheritance.  We’ll all end up working at Walmart.

Interviewer (aside):  Your lips to God’s ear.

Doug Hoffer is just doing his job.

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Apparently Doug Hoffer struck a few nerves when, in his recent op-ed, he attempted to correct  some misconceptions concerning VEGI awards and other economic development incentives.

One of those nerves connected to St. Albans City Manager, Dominic Cloud, who responded very defensively in his own op-ed, which claims that the state auditor is biased against such incentives and therefore unfit to audit these programs.  

Sorry, Mr. Cloud, but that is his job.  

As City Manager, your job and that of everyone on your team is to promote the City and whatever you believe will serve the near-term interests of the City.  Hopefully, those near-term interests will not jeopardize long-term interests, but that is where politics complicate decision-making. 

The job of any business negotiator is to promote the immediate interests of the company, and that includes seizing on any available financial incentive.

The job of the state auditor is to assess, however possible, the net value of state invest

ments wherever they occur.  If the auditor genuinely cares for the interests of the citizenry, he/she goes one step further and attempts to explain the metrics involved in his assessments so that informed voters can do a better job of evaluating the performance of those who hold the purse strings.  Auditor Hoffer is to be applauded for his commitment to truth and transparency, even when that truth may be less flattering than others might hope.

It isn’t his job to be a cheer-leader for the state.  We have plenty of elected and appointed officials who need no coaxing to fill that role.  

We don’t need to look any further than the EB-5 scandal for evidence that incentive programs can be abused.  We need only look a little further back to remember when the Milton TIF went off the rails.

We need the cold hard gaze of an unromantic number cruncher like Doug Hoffer to offset

the overly rosy picture of opportunity that local politicians are inclined to paint.

What Mr. Hoffer is reminding us is that these economic incentive programs may look like easy wins; but the devil is in the details, of which we often have an insufficient grasp.  Outlining some of those considerations for taxpayers to weigh may look like “bias” to Mr. Cloud.  To me, it looks like responsible stewardship and an auditor’s job well-done.

Could it be that Mr. Cloud is trying to throw a little shade on Hoffer in anticipation that the   audit of St. Albans’s TIF will prove unfavorable?

We need a statewide Council on Senior Mobility

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It’s been a thoroughly harrowing winter. That, and an approaching big birthday, got me to thinking… 

We regularly hear moans about Vermont’s “aging population;” but little innovation is undertaken to improve the experience of old age  for those who either will not or cannot choose to simply move away.

Gone for good is the tradition that advanced age brings wisdom and a valued place at the table.  Having stayed on this earth well beyond their “use-by” date, the elderly grow accustomed to being the butt of the joke in a world where youth and beauty are currency.

Having myself reached that age of permanent embarrassment, I feel well-qualified to propose a statewide Council on Senior Mobility to explore ways to make later life more meaningful and valuable to the community through innovative accessibility solutions.

Yes, there are buses and ride services available to those who require motorized transport; but a large and growing sector of the senior population would prefer to walk or cycle on their daily rounds, both for health and for convenience sake.

Take, for instance, St. Albans City, where I live.  A network of sidewalks link neighborhoods with shops, services and gathering places.  They are admittedly a burden to maintain and not always in top condition; but at least they are available to the determined pedestrian.

Sadly, that amenity disappears at the City boundaries where the Town takes over and there are no sidewalks whatsoever.  All of the large shopping centers and box retailers lie beyond city boundaries and therefore, beyond access by foot traffic.

Anyone choosing to walk or bike along Main St. to those bustling hives of retail commerce is at risk for his or her life.  No quarter is given by motorists for the hapless pedestrian who has invaded “their” roadway.

Priority #1 for the Council on Senior Mobility would be to incentivize Vermont towns and cities to build sidewalks and bikepaths. This would benefit, not just seniors, but all citizens.  Here “incentivize” means to provide generous funding and planning assistance.  Some towns will not see the value of building and maintaining pedestrian infrastructure no matter how it is explained, so there must be a long-term funding commitment by the state to maintenance as well as the initial build.

When local shoppers begin to leave their cars at home, the payoff will come in health benefits to the entire community and reduced costs from illness and accident.

Each community will have slightly different infrastructure needs to address its senior population, but all should plan to make local amenities accessible in all four seasons without the necessity of an automobile.

This means in winter, too.  Snow removal and ice mitigation should be obligatory for any municipality, and state assistance should be available as needed.  Nothing is worse than looking out at a new blanket of heavy snow, realizing you have no choice but to go out to the bank or the post office, and then attempting to guess at a viable pathway to do so.  If the sidewalk hasn’t been plowed, you take your life into your hands to walk down the middle of the street.  If ithe sidewalk has been plowed, you might be tempted down the path, only to slip and fall on the ice lying hidden just beneath the remaining snow.

The end result is that older adults may become winter shut-ins, missing the fresh air, daylight and society that a walk downtown might provide.

So, in Vermont, Priority #2 should be to adequately fund and maintain snow removal and ice mitigation so that any pedestrian of any age might safely use the sidewalks in winter.

Senior Mobility Priority #3 takes the pedestrian equation one step further, to providing and maintaining dedicated bike lanes of a sufficient width to allow a bicycle and an adult tricycle to safely pass one another.  Bike lanes should be signalized and provided with clear signage for maximum safety.

These first three priorities represent a fairly modest wish list, really; but they require a kind of investment Vermonters have been loathe to prioritize. We routinely pay for roads, parking lots and parking garages with only minor grumbling; and don’t imagine for a second that they don’t require even more maintenance investment than sidewalks do.

Priority #4 should be to make more affordable groceries available to the people who really need them;  not just to those with automobiles and living space to accommodate bulk buying.  This isn’t just a concern for seniors but for anyone of any age who has neither the means nor the space to do big box shopping. Thinking along the lines of food shelf organization, communities can make this happen by organizing non-profit group stores where box lots can be broken down for individual purchase, and the bulk savings shared among a pool of single and elderly neighbors.

Priority #5 is to think outside the box.  Mobility of the mind is just as important to senior health and well-being as physical exercise.

If we have to begin addressing our growing elderly demographic and declining youth population,  instead of bemoaning the shift as a loss, perhaps we should grow up and embrace it as an opportunity to explore a new market, adapting some of our old systems to fit that market.

If Vermont’s many small colleges are closing due to enrollment drops, how about opening them up again as Senior Living and Learning campuses?  

We are finding ways to live longer lives, why not make them better quality lives as well?  I would expect there might be quite a market out there among the growing population of people who are long on years but still full of vitality.

Not so very long ago, life was short and brutal, ending normally before age 50.  Now at age 50, there is every possibility that one might live an additional 50 years to age 100 or beyond.  That’s equal to a second lifetime!

Opportunity for the forward-looking state economy lies in identifying what people will want to do with that second lifetime, and what services they will require in order to get the most out of their additional years.  A progressive state like Vermont should see the value of investment in such an innovative economic model.

If we were smart, we would begin to examine Climate Change as an opportunity to positively rebrand Vermont’s four-season reputation.  A lot of people are growing weary of the scorching heat, water shortages and weather dramas that are playing out in America’s traditional retirement states.  

The cup is half-full, not half-empty.  Fill it to the brim with new ideas and innovative ambitions!

McAllister Loses One

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My confidence in Vermont jurisprudence has been somewhat bolstered by the news that Judge Michael Kupersmith has denied attorney Robert Katims’ motion on behalf of Norm McAllister to dismiss prostitution charges against him, “in the interest of justice.”  Pul-lease!

The disgraced ex-senator’s second trial on the same charges is expected to proceed in April.

You may recall that  three women accused him of sexual crimes ranging from soliciting for prostitution all the way to rape. All of his accusers were epically unlucky and poor. They had been forced by their circumstances to rely on McAllister, a landed farmer and politician, for housing or employment. One of his accusers died before her complaint could be heard.  

A second accuser, who was a teenager at the time of her alleged assault, was persuaded to come forward despite the fact that she was mortified by the prospect of testifying in public. After a grueling cross-examination in which she was further victimized, she perjured herself on an irrelevant detail which she feared would damage her relationship with her then boyfriend.

The state’s attorney dropped her complaint like a hot rock and she was allowed to sink back into the woodwork, alone with her humiliating memories.

The remaining complainant was herself put through the brutal experience of testimony and cross-examination, but the state was not allowed to share any of the other allegations against Mr. McAllister; nor even audio recordings, made under police supervision, of Mr. McAllister admitting he had engaged in coercive sexual behaviors with his accuser.

Without ever having to, himself, testify,  Mr. McAllister was convicted on only the least punitive of the prostitution related charges against him.  

Not content with that lenient outcome, McAllister insisted his attorney challenge the verdict on a technicality.  The attorney’s arguments were successful in getting the judge to void the conviction and tentatively schedule a new trial.  

Mr. McAllister’s next move was to request a full dismissal.  If all had gone as he had learned to expect from his prior experiences with the justice system, he was undoubtedly expecting to get off, scott-free.

Thank goodness Judge Kupersmith has a stronger instinct for justice than does Mr. McAllister:

“(McAllister) was a member of the Vermont Senate,” the judge wrote. “The Court must infer that he had a measure of political experience and power by reason of his attaining that office…It would significantly erode public confidence in the judicial system if the public could infer that the Court dismissed the charge as an act of political favor.”

A lot has happened in the interim since the first case against McAllister was brought to trial in 2016.  Donald Trump was elected, Bill Cosby was convicted and the “Me Too” movement elevated public awareness and indignation over sexual abuse which had, until recently, been enabled by misogynistic tropes and cultural apathy.

Here’s hoping Mr. McAllister will finally feel compelled to take the stand.  If he wants us to believe he is so blameless, let’s hear how he answers questions under cross-examination.

 

OneCare Vermont chafes under additional scrutiny

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The state legislature would like to have another pair of eyes cast over the books of Vermont’s fledgling all-payer, OneCare Vermont.   That collective pair of eyes belongs to Doug Hoffer and the state auditor’s office.  OneCare argues that this is unnecessary since the Green Mountain Care Board already regulates the organization.

Additional scrutiny may not be welcome at OneCare, but when you consider they’ve just been approved for a budget of $900 million public dollars, interest from the auditor’s office is not surprising. 

Even though OneCare Vermont is a private entity in the usual sense, the state of Vermont has a particular interest in determining the success or failure of managing healthcare costs through this all-payer model.  Healthcare costs represent a huge and growing public funding challenge; and all possible models are subject to debate. For that reason alone, an  audit of OneCare Vermont is a legitimate interest for the Auditor’s office.

Add to that, the fact that OneCare Vermont is a “freshman” enterprise and already being criticized for lack of transparency and for adding a new layer of bureaucracy to the system  rather than reducing it.  It can only benefit public confidence in OneCare Vermont’s management of their healthcare dollars to have the state’s own auditor take a look under the hood.

Auditor Hoffer is known for his political independence, investigative vigor and commitment to public service.  With everything that both the Green Mountain Care Board and the hospital partners have on their respective plates, they should welcome an assist in oversight from their state counterpart.

Bernie 2020

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Bernie is IN.

How could it be otherwise?  He owns the territory now and knows the terrain.

It was he who created the people-powered funding model in 2016.  

It was he who revived the spirit of democratic socialism that, in the past. has contributed popular programs like Social Security, Medicare and public education, our proudest and most humane domestic achievements. 

…And it was he who graciously and tirelessly supported the ultimate Democratic nominee without looking back.

Those aspirational ideas that are energizing youth and the Democratic base?  Bernie’s been pitching them for years.

Grouchy grandpa persona and all, the working-class core of America really responds to Bernie.

We can vouch for that here in Vermont, where the only prior election he ever lost was a mayoral race in his distant youth.

Before the Hillary folks start grousing that his candidacy cost her the election, they should remind themselves of what really happened: Russian interference and a thoroughly incongruous electoral college.

Those Bernie supporters who failed to get on the Hillary train as it left the station have plenty of soul-searching to do, for sure;  but Bernie is blameless when it comes to that,  and his continued participation in Democratic politics has served to energize and re-purpose the somewhat tired old party to a new, visionary model that appeals to youth and diversity, and recognizes the legitimate challenges Americans face in the twenty-first century if we want our democracy, and indeed our planet, to survive.

Sure he’s old.  So am I.  That doesn’t mean that either of us has nothing more of significance to contribute.  

Perhaps because Donald Trump is such a crazy old man, ageism isn’t getting the righteous attention that other prejudices do.  

The problem with Donald Trump isn’t geriatric dementia; it is a narcissistic dementia that has warped his entire life.  That a third of Americans still support him says more about cracks in the American psyche, regardless of age, than it does about old men in general.

Great experience in public service is a positive, not a handicap, for presidential potential. Look at what gross inexperience and ignorant vanity has cost us in just two years.

I’m going to get enthusiastically behind the nominee, whomever that may be. Without exception, they comprise the most promising field of Democratic hopefuls I can ever remember; an embarrassment of riches.  

It is my hope that before too long, they all come together in a private room to agree to some ground rules and an over-arching message of unity.  From there they can talk about what distinguishes their ideas and qualifications from the rest of the herd; but without descending into negative territory.   We don’t want to aid Donald Trump in his only campaign strategy.

Why does he get away with this stuff?

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Donald Trump wants freshman Congresswoman Ilhan Omer to resign over a single objectionable tweet?  Congresswoman Omer has apologized and accepted responsibility.

Decades older and holding the highest office in the land, Donald Trump, on the other hand,  has made countless far more offensive comments . He has never apologized for any of them, so we must assume that he stands by those comments, violating social norms in so many directions.

He has called for Hillary Clinton to be “locked-up,” but after lengthy investigation by the Republican Congress and the FBI, it was concluded that she was not guilty of any crime.  

Donald Trump, on the other hand behaves like a racketeer.  He has packed his campaign and his administration with a  cast of shady characters who might easily populate a spy or crime novel; has displayed a conspicuous bias toward Putin while disparaging US intelligence bodies; has shared sensitive information about Israel with a Russian official in the oval office; and has boasted to the Russian that he fired James Comey in order to relieve himself of the collusion investigation.  

He has lied at an ever accelerating rate, about everything from the trivial to the monumental, throughout the first two years of his administration, so that the number of lies is now over 8,000 and counting. 

Corruption in the Trump administration exceeds that of any administration in living memory.  Apart from that, aspects of his businesses, his administration, his campaign  and his personal finance  are under investigation by at least three different bodies, which have already resulted in multiple inditements of individuals acting on his behalf.

And that’s just the short list.

If we are pressuring elected officials to resign for racial insensitivity, the racial insensitivity and all-out race-baiting  of Donald Trump is certainly equal to if not greater than that of any of the others.  If we are demanding resignations from elected officials for past allegations of sexual assault, there are even more unresolved allegations against Donald Trump, whose credibility is reinforced by the witness of his own words on the “Access Hollywood” tape.

How can we hold anyone else accountable for these misdeeds unless the President himself, our chief executive, is held accountable in the same way?

Never mind impeachment, if the Republican Party re-nominates Donald Trump for a second term, Democrats should demand that every one of their congressional members resign.

While we are on the subject of enabling, let’s not forget the role the mainstream media (most especially CNN) played in electing Donald Trump in the first place.

CNN seems guilty of short-term memory loss.  They’re doing a fine job now of fact-checking Trump; but throughout the campaign, they gave him unlimited airtime to propagate mistruths with only the weakest attempts to reign him in. 

There is one thing the mainstream media can now do to address Donald Trump’s worsening habit of demonizing them: don’t cover his rallies.

Having a corral of press, ringside at these carnivals of self-indulgence, only provides Trump with a handy target and foil for his vitriol.  He LOVES press coverage and will become apoplectic if he is denied their attention.

If the mainstream media doesn’t show up, he will be left with the likes of Fox News and Breitbart, outlets that receive little respect and credibility beyond the base that already attends his rallies in dwindling numbers.  

Once having moved freely between the Democratic and Republican parties as a “harmless” business buffoon, Trump now finds himself, on the whole, socially isolated.  Still, he continues to crave and court approval (from his dead father?) and, to that end, seeks every opportunity to make a spectacle of himself.

Like a child starved for attention, the 73-year old refuses to do his homework, lies prodigiously, and is devoid of any strategy other than bullying.   “Look at me!” he seems to be saying, “Ain’t I something?!”

It’s not as if we learn anything new about Trump from analysis of his rally footage.  It’s always the same appalling intolerance, misogyny and misinformation.  

If nothing he has said or done so far has provoked the GOP to reject him in defense of their constitutional obligations, there is no earthly excuse for providing his lies with a mainstream media platform.

It diminishes us as a nation to indulge his appetite for sensation; and, as the attack on the BBC cameraman clearly illustrates, it is building to a dangerous place.

 

Leave Elizabeth Warren’s family myth alone.

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I truly wish that Democrats were a little less inclined to eat their young.

I don’t just identify with Elizabeth Warren because of her politics.  We are both midwest girls, born about six months apart, and raised in that economic grey zone that could only aspire to middle class.

Being something of a romantic in my adolescence, I longed to have a more compelling origin story.  I expect that is why I readily accepted the family myth that, through my great- grandmother whose surname was “James,” we could claim the legendary Jesse James as a distant cousin.  Even though, as years went by, I came to understand that the connection was purely apocryphal, the story remained so much a part of my personal fabric that when my son came along, I named him “Jesse” in fond tribute to the myth, if not the man.

I was finally told by my aunt that  it was nothing more than a tall family tale, constructed by an unreliable cousin; before then, if I had been required to complete some boring form and came across a question where I might write in answer that I was a distant cousin to Jesse James, I surely would have done so without hesitation.

We all want a little romance in our lives.  When we were very young and had no story of our own, we pestered our parents to tell us about our family history.  “Irish, English, Pennsylvania Dutch and Scottish,” we proudly repeated to our far more interesting friends.  “Pennsylvania Dutch” isn’t even a nationality, but that’s what we were told and that’s what we believed.  Jesse James was just the icing on the cake of our constructed identity.

I imagine Elizabeth Warren feels a little foolish about the whole thing; but now that the cat is out of the bag she will spend the rest of her public career apologizing and trying to change the subject.  

The only people who might have a right to an opinion on the matter are members of the Cherokee nation, and even they should recognize that what she did wasn’t exploitation.  It was tribute; the ultimate compliment.

If fancying herself Native American is the worst charge against her, she’s an authentic angel by Capitol Hill standards.

So I say to the braying mob, “Snap out of it!” We’ve got far bigger fish to fry!

Kakewalk of Shame?

local/regional, National, Uncategorized,

Who knew that the good people of  the Commonwealth of Virginia had so much blackface in their all too recent past? 

Before we northerners get to feeling all superior, maybe we ought to check our own closets.  I’ll bet more than a few contain yearbooks and programs from UVM that date back before 1969.

That’s the year in which the Green Mountain State’s most respected University ended its tradition of the “Kakewalk:” an annual event dating  from 1893, in which costumed students in blackface strutted and high-kicked their way through some semblance of a minstrel show.

Even though the offensive nature of the event was remarked upon in print as early as the 1950”s, it took that esteemed institution until the height of the Civil Rights movement (1969) to finally kill it dead.

I would guess that more than a few 70+ year old alumni who performed in the Kakewalk shows will feel an urgent need to burn rubbish this weekend.view