Vermont No Longer Beckoning  
By Deborah T. Bucknam

During the 1960s, Vermont launched a highly successful promotional campaign called "Vermont: The Beckoning Country." It was, I confess, one reason we decided to investigate Vermont as a place to live and bring up our family.

Vermont's welcoming gesture has turned into a closed fist (to paraphrase President Obama) to many across the country who dare to disagree with the political and cultural regime that rules our state.

In 2007, the General Assembly wasted weeks on deciding whether to impeach President Bush. The spectacle featured Cindy Sheehan, whose hate speech was applauded by the political establishment in Montpelier and in many towns in Vermont where she took her hate-speech tour. Twenty-three Vermont towns voted on impeachment of the president that year as well. The national press extensively covered those events. Last year, Brattleboro voted on whether to arrest President Bush and Vice President Cheney, its supporters calling them "war criminals," garnering more national publicity for our tourist-dependent state.

Several weeks ago, our junior senator, Bernie Sanders, crowed that President Bush had never been to Vermont. He called it a "Badge of Honor." The only dissenting voice heard in response to those churlish remarks was from Rob Roper, chairman of the Vermont Republican Party. Neither the governor, the Department of Travel and Tourism, the Vermont Chamber of Commerce nor the Vermont Democratic Party rebuked the senator.

Now we learn that Ben Stein, a mild-mannered economist and lawyer, whose views do not fit the tenets of Vermont's ruling elite, has been disinvited as UVM's commencement speaker. Howard Dean, a raconteur of hate speech, has been asked to speak in his place, and will be given an honorary degree.

The message is clear: Vermont is no longer the Beckoning Country. Those who do not subscribe to a leftist political and cultural view are not welcome. Unfortunately, those messages are not just heard by the people who are the targets of the Democrats in the General Assembly, Bernie Sanders, and President Fogel. The messages are heard by the millions of Americans who support former President Bush and Vice President Cheney, and those whose opinions are not correct enough for Vermont's political and cultural establishment.

Vermont is a wonderful state with much to offer visitors. But tourists come to a place where they feel welcome. Vermont's political and cultural elite are so insular and their views so uniform that they are blind and deaf to the impact of their public loathing of those who disagree with them. In this time of economic recession, Vermont should celebrate and welcome diversity of all kinds, and let the rest of the nation and world know that it is once again the Beckoning Country.
 

Deborah T. Bucknam lives in Walden.