To the esteemed publisher of the Addison Independent (far more deserving of esteem, from my point of view, than the “esteemed journalist” you labelled as such and quoted in last week’s editorial — who described the results of last week’s Democratic primary race for governor as “intensity beating out competence,” and a “victory of change over credentials.”) My argument is not with you but with him.

While I voted for Janoo, this is in no way a defense of her solely: both she and Richards are mightily admirable, experienced in the trenches, extremely competent women and have an enormous amount of relevant credentials to be able to govern and govern well.

Running a state may be vastly different from creating and/or running assorted complex activist social organizations, but intelligent people who are able and willing to listen can learn a great deal very fast. To call Janoo “incompetent” is absurd. Having heard her speak several times at various local gatherings, I would also say that, personally, she’s the opposite of “intense,” She listens deeply, and long — I was amazed! “Disrupters” (again: the “esteemed journalist’s” term) don’t tend to work that way, if they listen at all, ever.

As for a “victory for change”: we’re living in a devastatingly perilous time. Challenging the status quo by suggesting that immensely wealthy people start paying immensely more tax SOON seems eminently and startlingly un-radical — indeed highly conservative. In five and half months of an obscene, insane and stupid war, the federal government has spent enough money to pay for everything the current U.S. Congress, just last year, told poor and low-income people we could no longer afford. Assorted billionaires and millionaires are doing their best, thanks to the glory of “trickle-down economics,” to siphon off another big chunk (sometimes via their various investments in the implements needed for that war).

Of course, if such a raised tax comes to be, Vermont will be forging only its own path. However, it’s interesting to observe — here and elsewhere — that one of the very few positive things which have occurred recently is the increasing focus on state’s rights — which used to be the purview of conservatives. In the face of utter disaster in Washington, it’s become of interest to activists and legislators across the political spectrum.

I’ve just read about a new book due out in September, by the scholar and activist Robert P. Jones: “Backslide: Reclaiming A Faith and a Nation After the Christian Turn Against Democracy.” In it, he’s coined the term “future regret.” May we not, in the future, profoundly, profoundly regret what we failed to dare to do now.

Marianne Lust
Lincoln