Recent comments in /f/vermont

ChocolateDiligent t1_jdy3set wrote

Reply to Do you all think Town Meeting Days are good? by splishysplash123

Unpopular opinion, I honestly think a lot of the solutions and ideas shared in these meetings that are just not good ideas and come from bad intentions. People complain about spending and rather than focus on larger solutions and resort to regressive, tax cutting measures as a first course of action because most of the rural communities are struggling and people who have the time to attend are mostly retired. You also find the handful townie business folks that act in a similar fashion, if it benefits them they’re interested, otherwise the same regressive shoot down ideas attitude. Civics overwhelming have been lost, where people actually care about the well being of the community at large and engage with this top of mind rather than looking out for number one. But I guess, bad discussion is better than none at all.

0

Mission_Phrase_5133 t1_jdy3nr9 wrote

Reply to comment by KITTYONFYRE in Former governor Jim Douglas sues Middlebury College over chapel name removal by flounder19

https://sos.vermont.gov/media/y4wfu1lu/mead1912.pdf full text here folks. In case you are unfamiliar with the concept of a search engine, you use your internet browser to go to a website such as www.google.com, www.yahoo.com, or if you're feeling nostalgic, www.askjeeves.com. You then enter keywords such as "Vermont" "John Mead" and "1912 address" to find information you are looking for out on the good ol' world wide web.

5

Mission_Phrase_5133 t1_jdy3fxm wrote

Reply to comment by MontEcola in Former governor Jim Douglas sues Middlebury College over chapel name removal by flounder19

Well, the article says exactly what Jim Douglas told the Bennington Banner, so yeah, reading the article would have given you the impression that this was no biggie, bruh. Have you read the full address though? https://sos.vermont.gov/media/y4wfu1lu/mead1912.pdf

"The heads of our criminal institutions tell us that among the inmates there is always a considerable class that are termed “degenerates” or “defectives,” by which is meant a class of individuals in whose mental or nervous construction there is something lacking. Alienists, criminalogists and physicians tell us that individuals of this unfortunate class tend to marry those cursed with similar defects, and that this class is increasing out of all proportion to the normal growth of the population, and that most of the insane, the epileptics, the imbeciles, the idiots, the sexual perverts, together with many of the confirmed inebriates, prostitutes, tramps and criminals that fill our penitentiaries, jails, asylums and poor farms are the results of these intermarriages or the natural offspring of defective parents. In the cases of these unfortunates there is little or no hope of permanent recovery, and the great question that is now being considered by the lawmakers in many of our states is how best to restrain this defective class and how best to restrict the propagation of defective children."

Mead decides that "segregation of defectives" would be too drastic a method because, in his exact words, it might "result in life-imprisonment of unfortunates" who "might, in some small way, be of some use in the world."

He proposes the more, um, humanitarian (?) options of forcible vasectomies for people with "hereditary taints and diseases" and also legislature restricting marriage licenses for people convicted of certain crimes as well as people with various physical and mental health conditions.

6

DaddyBobMN t1_jdy3fh1 wrote

Reply to Any tips for a possible future Vermonter? by _ivantheterrible__

Bear in mind that the one big city in Vermont, Burlington, is a very small city by most American standards. There's a lot to do in comparison to the rest of Vermont but it's still pretty quiet by City standards. Similar with town size, big and busy in Vermont context is small and sleepy compared to most anywhere else in America save the remote West, deep in Appalachia, or Alaska.

If that's what you want and expect, you'll be fine, but to really understand Vermont (and a lot of the answers you'll get from born and bred Vermonters) you need to bear that subjective size and scope.

3

jafarinajar t1_jdxz3gh wrote

Reply to Former governor Jim Douglas sues Middlebury College over chapel name removal by flounder19

For those acting like this was a knee-jerk reaction by the college based on some tenuous connection between a dude who thought vasectomies sounded neat and forced sterilization programs, I encourage you to read the variety of historical sources that the college considered in depth when arriving at the decision (discussed in the campus newspaper article). I’ve excerpted a relevant section discussing Mead below, from an article published by the Vermont Historical Society titled “Segregation or Sterilization”: Eugenics in the 1912 Vermont State Legislative Session:

By the end of the 1910s, Vermont’s government was sufficiently well versed in the issues of “degeneracy” to officially consider a eugenical solution. Governor Mead went above and beyond in crafting his official call to action, having “endeavored during the last two years to inform [himself] thoroughly” by gathering information from the “most progressive states” and Vermont’s own institutions. Prior to becoming governor, Mead worked as a doctor and served as the state’s surgeon general under Governor Redfield Proctor (1878–1880). This background gave him a solid academic grounding to under- stand eugenics, if not an introduction to the field itself.

Mead confidently informed the joint assembly of the legislature that state research confirmed that the degenerate class was “increasing out of all proportion to the normal class of the population.” He presented the growth as the result of tainted intermarriage: It was a “fact that if a defective marry a defective, as is very often the case, the offspring will inherit the taints of both parents.” Indeed, “many of the confirmed inebriates, prostitutes, tramps, and criminals that [filled Vermont’s] penitentiaries, jails, asylums, and poor farms are the results of these defective parents,” with “little or no hope of permanent recovery.” The only question that now remained was “how best to restrain this defective class and how best to restrict the propagation of defective children.”

The governor proposed three eugenical solutions for the legislature that drew from existing public policies and institutional practices. In addressing the assembly, he said:

Let us consider this matter upon these facts:

  1. The fact of the great number of public charges recruited from the defective classes.
  2. The fact that defects, physical and mental, are transmitted to the offspring.
  3. The fact that if a defective marry a defective, as is very often the case, the offspring will inherit the taints of both parents. That this class is prolific, knowing no law of self-restraint, and consequently defectives are increasing in numbers and are of a more pronounced type. What can be done to protect society from these unfortunates and what to protect them from themselves?
  4. Restrictive legislation in regard to marriages.
  5. Segregation of defectives.
  6. A surgical operation known as vasectomy.
17

General_Skin_2125 t1_jdxxe38 wrote

Reply to A little vacation advice by Nightlight174

It's not going to stop you, but you really shouldn't hike during mud season. The trails are mostly muddy, and people who walk around the mud, opposed to through it erode the trail and damage to ecosystem.

I know you really don't care, but that's the truth.

7

Historical-Run-1511 t1_jdxwo83 wrote

Reply to Any tips for a possible future Vermonter? by _ivantheterrible__

The obvious answer is Burlington, it's the biggest city and very walkable, lots of restaurants but lots of people with money to eat in them it seems. Might put Brandon or Middlebury on the list--they're much smaller but very cute downtowns. Middlebury has a college which probably helps as well. Good luck!

3