Listen to rural Vermont before you vote

This commentary is by Loralee Tester, executive director of the Northeast Kingdom Chamber of Commerce.

A few days ago I was out walking with my son, and he asked: How does a society decide what’s right and what’s wrong?

It’s a fair question. Look back through history, and you’ll see that what counts as right or wrong changes depending on where and when you’re born. It shifts in politics, in religion, in how men and women are expected to live. And so much of it comes down to power: who has it, and who gets to decide.

I’ve raised my boys with a pretty simple rule: Do no harm. And I’ve told them that just because you feel strongly about something doesn’t mean you’re right. Very little in this world is black and white. I’ve also told them that most people aren’t trying to be bad. But any of us can pursue our own interests at someone else’s expense, and sometimes we don’t even notice we’re doing it.

I see that playing out in our country. And I see it playing out here in Vermont, which disappoints me, because Vermont is small enough that we still know each other, and that means we can still do things differently.

Recently, a YouTuber from North Carolina asked me what makes the Northeast Kingdom special. I told him: Our people are resilient, independent, resourceful and community minded. When disaster strikes, nobody asks about your politics or your race before showing up to help. That’s who we are when it counts. People like that know what their communities need. Yet too often, the decisions that shape our lives are made in Montpelier without us.

What works in South Burlington might not be what’s needed by towns like Canaan or St. Johnsbury. That doesn’t make one right and the other wrong. It means they’re different places, and they deserve policies that fit.

Rural Vermont deserves to be considered before a law changes what we can do with our own land, not two years after it passes. We deserve to be heard when a rule assumes a town has staff, money and infrastructure that it doesn’t have. We deserve leaders who come to the Kingdom and listen before they decide.

Just because one town has a more powerful voice doesn’t mean the town next door deserves to be heard any less. And just because one person’s way of caring for the land works for them doesn’t mean their neighbor’s way is wrong. Every decision made in Montpelier should be viewed through a rural lens before a vote takes place. And when a law isn’t working, someone should have the courage to go back and fix it.

We’re not asking to win at someone else’s expense. We’re asking to stop being the ones who lose. Let’s start from abundance instead of scarcity. This is not a zero-sum game, and one community doing well doesn’t require another to lose.

Vote this fall like rural Vermont matters, because it does. Ask every candidate who knocks on your door one question: Will you listen to rural Vermont before you decide? And to everyone who gets elected, I’m asking you to change how you think, from “I must win” to “How can we all win?”

Rural Vermont isn’t rising against anyone. We’re rising to be heard.

Read the story on VTDigger here: Listen to rural Vermont before you vote.