Town Meeting 2023 – Part 2

Posted on February 28, 2024 by George Putnam

As we approach the 2024 town meeting in my town of Cambridge, Vermont, it may be useful to reflect on last year’s town meeting.

See Town Meeting 2023 – Part 1 for the series of Front Porch Forum posts that I published last year in the weeks leading up to the 2023 town meeting. This post is a summary of the 2023 town meeting.

There is a 3-page summary of last year’s town meeting in the 2023 town report. That is a condensed version of the 10-page minutes of the meeting on the town’s website (here).

The following is adapted from an article that I wrote for the Mountain Gazette on March 16, 2023.

The annual Cambridge Town Meeting was held on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, in the Cambridge Memorial Gymnasium. The meeting got underway shortly after the scheduled start time of 10:00 AM following the Cambridge Town School District Meeting. While the Town School District Meeting wrapped up in about 45 minutes with little discussion, the Town Meeting lasted several hours, adjourning shortly before 4:00 PM.

Two topics in the Town Meeting were of particular interest to voters: the election of two selectboard members and Article 11 about the possible acquisition by the town of the Cambridge Community Center.

Selectboard elections were held early in the meeting, following the reports of town officers and before lunch. Two new selectboard members were elected: Peter Ingvoldstad and Charlie Guyette. There were surprises in both elections.

Selectboard Member George Putnam had previously announced that he was not seeking re-election for his 3-year position. He served two terms, six years. Don Lange nominated Charlie Guyette for this open position. Joel Page nominated Peter Ingvoldstad. Charlie currently serves on the Board of Trustees for the Village of Jeffersonville and ran unsuccessfully for selectboard in 2022. Peter previously served as a school board director.

Charlie announced on March 5 (Facebook) and March 6 (Front Porch Forum) that he was seeking this position. Peter had not previously announced. He said in his remarks from the floor that he made up his mind that he would run about 1 AM on Town Meeting Day (March 7).

Peter won the paper ballot election by a vote of 127 to 98 (total of 225 ballots cast).

Selectboard Member Larry Wyckoff has previously expressed uncertainty about whether he was running for re-election for his 2-year position. He had served three 3-year terms and one 2-year term for a total of 11 years. Jeff Coslett nominated Larry. Sally May nominated Charlie Guyette. Kathy Johnson nominated Chris Bolen, who had announced in the March 2nd issue of the News & Citizen that he was running for selectboard. Chris previously served on the Cambridge Planning Commission.

In the middle of his remarks from the floor, Larry Wyckoff declined his nomination and endorsed Charlie Guyette. Charlie won the paper ballot election 179 to 37 with 1 ballot spoiled (total of 217 ballots cast).

The Cambridge Selectboard is a five-member board. The other three Selectboard Members are: Courtney Leitz (a 3-year position expiring in 2024); Cody Marsh (a 2-year position expiring in 2024); and Jeff Coslett (a 3-year position expiring in 2025).

Discussion of Article 11 about the Cambridge Community Center began well after lunch, around 2:25 PM. As printed in the warning, the article read: “Should the Town of Cambridge acquire the Cambridge Community Center? [Non-binding, advisory article.]” This was amended from the floor to read: “Should the Town of Cambridge investigate the purchase of the Cambridge Community Center? [Non-binding, advisory article.]”

Voters spoke both for and against the article. Dr. John Dunn, one of the owners of the Cambridge Community Center, spoke. Phil Rogers spoke about the role of Cambridge 360, a nonprofit organization. At about 3:00 PM, the article was approved in a voice vote with a substantial majority.

Two procedural votes prior to the discussion of Article 11 suggested the mood of the voters. Both votes were about suspending the rules to do something in the meeting other than what was printed in the warning. This can be done (within limits) with a 2/3 vote.

The first situation was before lunch and involved Rep. Lucy Boyden and Sen. Rich Westman. The town’s representatives in the legislature are expected to attend town meeting at some point during the day to speak to voters and answer questions. This is not in the warning, so when they are present it is normal to suspend the rules at a convenient break in the meeting for this purpose.

The moderator allowed Rep. Boyden and Sen. Westman to speak during the counting of the ballots in the second selectboard election. That time in the meeting is a downtime. The meeting stops until the results of the election are announced.

After the results of the second selectboard election were announced, the moderator asked if the voters wished to suspend the rules and continue the discussion with Rep. Boyden and Sen. Westman. In a decisive voice vote, the voters said “no.”

The second situation was after lunch following Article 6. There was a motion from the floor to suspend the rules and take up Article 11 next. A voice vote was inconclusive. The moderator called for a show of hands. The justices of the peace struggled to count the raised hands. The requisite number of people (7) called for a paper ballot. There was time for several “public service announcements” while the ballots were counted. The result was 97 votes in favor of suspending the rules and taking up Article 11 next vs. 43 votes opposed (total of 140 ballots cast). More than 2/3 were in favor and the motion passed.

Both procedural votes seemed to reflect the fact that, once the selectboard elections were completed, a significant number of voters were more interested in Article 11 than in anything else that might be discussed – even the budget.

All other articles in the warning, including the budget article, were passed after discussion. The following town officers were elected without opposition:

  • Town Moderator – Jerry Cole
  • Auditor – Donna Hutchins
  • Lister – Suzanne Girouard
  • First Constable – Mark Schwartz
  • Collector of Delinquent Taxes – Dana Warren
  • Library Trustee for 5 years – Teelah Hall
  • Library Trustee for 4 years – Lesley Nace
  • Library Trustee for 2 years – Liv Perry
  • Library Trustee for 1 year – Eva Rosberg
  • Trustee for Public Money – Elise Raymond
  • Cemetery Commissioner for 5 years – Cathy Cleary
  • Cemetery Commissioner for 2 years – Angela Pratt

During the reports of town officers (Article 2), Selectboard Member Courtney Leitz presented awards of appreciation to Donna Hutchins and Bonnie Hitchcock for their many years of service as town auditors. Donna was first elected 50 years earlier (1973) and Bonnie was first elected 45 years earlier (1978).

One exchange with Rep. Boyden and Sen. Westman before lunch is worth noting. A taxpayer asked: “Can you explain to me the “affordable” part of the Affordable Heat Act?” (S.5 was passed by the Vermont Senate on March 3.) Sen. Westman noted that he voted against the bill. Rep. Boyden said that the bill would now come to the House for action, and she was studying it.

Topics raised by voters under “other business” (the last article) included how the town was spending the money it received under the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Equity Vision Statement that the selectboard adopted in June 2022.

Lunch was provided by the Cambridge Elementary School Parent Teacher Association (CES PTA) and the 6th grade Junior Iron Chef teams.

The Cambridge Town Meeting on March 7, 2023, was livestreamed and the recording can be watched here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyBxTy2P-cQ. The first part is the Town School District Meeting. The Town Meeting begins shortly after the 1-hour 9-minute mark.

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Town Meeting 2023 – Part 1

Posted on February 27, 2024 by George Putnam

As we approach the 2024 town meeting in my town of Cambridge, Vermont, it may be useful to reflect on last year’s town meeting.

This post is about a series of Front Porch Forum posts that I published last year in the weeks leading up to the 2023 town meeting.

Click here for a PDF file containing all 11 Front Porch Forum posts that I published in the period February 1 – March 4, 2023.

The links below go directly to the individual posts on the Front Porch Forum platform. These links will work only for someone who is a member of the Cambridge [Vermont] Front Porch Forum.

Town Meeting 2023 – Part 2 is a summary of last year’s town meeting.

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Posted on December 10, 2023 by George Putnam

Today is the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations General Assembly.

Eleanor Roosevelt (pictured) chaired the committee that drafted this important document.

In the Wall Street Journal, Mary Ann Glendon writes:

There’s Life Yet in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

From its adoption in 1948 to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989:

The Universal Declaration became the most prominent symbol of the great grassroots movements that hastened the demise of colonialism, brought down apartheid in South Africa, and helped topple the seemingly indestructible totalitarian regimes in Eastern Europe.

Might the principles in the Universal Declaration guide us in today’s troubled world? Ms. Glendon, a professor of law emerita at Harvard Law School, thinks so. The subhead on the article is:

In the face of war and atrocities, the principles of the 75-year-old document remain sound.

Ms. Glendon cites the following hopeful development in the world outside the United States:

The Center for Shared Civilizational Values, founded by the Indonesia-based Nahdlatul Ulama, wants to build a movement to strengthen a rules-based international order grounded in universal principles. Joining in that endeavor is the world’s largest network of political parties, Centrist Democrat International, composed mostly of European and Latin American political parties. In 2020 both organizations called for renewed global support of the human-rights principles in the Universal Declaration.

Nahdlatul Ulama is Islamic. Centrist Democrat International is Christian.

Mary Ann Glendon did not mention Eleanor Roosevelt in her commentary about the Universal Declaration, but it would not have been adopted in its current form without Ms. Roosevelt’s leadership. I wrote about that in Legacy of the Four Freedoms. The “Four Freedoms” were promoted by President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. He died shortly before the war ended in 1945, but Eleanor, his widow, ensured that the Four Freedoms were incorporated into the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

Here is another scholar writing today, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of its adoption, about the importance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Though not legally binding, the UDHR would become a transformational document and the conceptual North Star for the modern human-rights movement.

Source: When the United Nations Actually Stood for Something Good

This article does mention the critical role of Eleanor Roosevelt – and the evolution of her views about the Soviet Union, a partner in winning World War II, based on its behavior following the end of the war:

Speaking at the Sorbonne in Paris in September 1948, Mrs. Roosevelt admitted that Moscow’s failure to respect human rights had become a major obstacle to world peace.

I believe there is a lesson here for today’s world: The key to wider adoption of the principles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is to resist authoritarianism.

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Cambridge Flag Project

Posted on November 11, 2023 by George Putnam

American Legion Post 35 in Cambridge celebrated Veterans Day with a dedication of the Cambridge Flag Project. Citizens sponsored 52 flags in honor or memory of local veterans and first responders. The flags were placed in the field next to the painted silos in Jeffersonville (a village in the town of Cambridge):

Following the presentation of colors, Charlie Guyette, commander of Post 35, and 1st Lieutenant Jillian Stein of the Vermont National Guard made short speeches.

Click here for Charlie Guyette’s speech. He spoke about the Cambridge Flag Project and the debt we owe to veterans. He also spoke about the recent renovation of the Soldiers Monument in Jeffersonville and noted that today is the 100th anniversary of the dedication of that monument.

Attached to each flag in the Cambridge Flag Project is a card showing the name of the veteran or first responder on the front, and the sponsor on the back. Scout Theron Desroches built a directory of the flags for his Eagle Scout project:

The flags will be displayed each year for Memorial Day, July 4th, and Veterans Day.

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The Bell in the Town Hall

Posted on November 21, 2022 by George Putnam

There is a 151-year-old bell in the tower of the Cambridge Town Hall that few knew about until this year. It had been hidden and silent for decades. This is the story of bringing that bell back to life and ringing it on Veterans Day.

This story begins with the 3rd grade at Cambridge Elementary School:

Each year, CES 3rd graders spend several months learning about the history of our town. … This year [spring 2022], students studied the history of the village of Jeffersonville.

(source)

Retired schoolteacher Audrey Cota helps with the 3rd grade local history unit each year. One of the things the students learned from Ms. Cota this year was about the bell hidden in the tower of the Cambridge Town Hall. (The Cambridge Town Hall is in Jeffersonville, a village in the town of Cambridge.)

The 3rd graders wrote a letter to the Cambridge Selectboard asking that the bell be brought back to life!

Dear Selectboard Members,
Imagine seeing a bell that hasn’t been seen in over 40 years! Picture how it would bring a smile to everyone’s face to see and hear such an important part of our town’s history. … We were so amazed to learn that a 900 pound bell was hidden in the top of the building! Most people don’t know that the bell even exists. … Please help us bring the bell back, you are the only people who can help our community do this!

Read the complete letter by the students. The Selectboard discussed this letter in our meeting on June 21, 2022 (minutes).

Indeed, the bell had been largely forgotten. No one currently serving on the Cambridge Selectboard, including me, knew that the bell existed. Coincidentally, we were already talking about engaging an architect to look at various aspects of the town hall including structural integrity, internal layout, HVAC systems, and the elevator. We agreed to make the bell part of that review, too.

Brief history: The Cambridge Town Hall, originally a church and later a theater, became unused in the 1970s and fell into disrepair. A group of concerned citizens, the Town Hall Committee, rescued the building through volunteer efforts, donations and grants. The building and the bell were both restored in the early 1980s. Only $1 of taxpayer money was involved in the initial restoration, when the town acquired the building in 1980. The bell was featured in the Fourth of July parade in 1982 before being put back into the tower, out of sight and eventually out of mind. The last time anyone remembers ringing the bell was in 1996 when the U.S. Post Office signed a lease for the first floor.

On September 29, 2022, Architect Keith Gross and Town Administrator Jonathan DeLaBruere rang the bell to show that it could be done. Watch the video and listen to the bell:

It makes a lovely sound!

There was no plan to ring the bell further until the Selectboard received a request sent to many local towns, churches, and synagogues to ring their bells (if they have one) at 11:00 AM on Veterans Day for world peace. We agreed to that request in our Selectboard meeting on November 1 (minutes).

Selectboard Member Courtney Leitz (a 6th grade teacher at CES) coordinated with the now 4th grade students. The students and their teacher from last year, Molly Spillane, came to the town office on the morning of Veterans Day. The students read a statement about the meaning of Veterans Day, originally Armistice Day, and the significance of ringing the bell:

On this Veterans Day, we come to ring the bell in honor of our service men and women and our veterans and to promote peace. We understand that they have made great sacrifices for the common good. We honor their patriotism and are grateful for all they have done. We ring this bell today with the hopes that there may be peace throughout the world, ensuring the safety of our service members, our people, and our world.

Read the complete statement by the students.

The photo below shows the students lining up in the hallway to pull the rope to ring the bell. The rope is hanging down through the ceiling where the ladder is positioned:

Each student and Ms. Spillane rang the bell beginning at 11:00 AM. The students were excited when they pulled the rope and heard the bell ring!

Many people gathered outside in the parking lot to hear the town bell. At the same time, the Second Congregational Church across the street also rang its bell. Watch the video and listen to the bells:

It was a magical moment!

Thanks to Architect Keith Gross for both videos in this post.

The bell itself remains hidden from public view. Jeremy LaClair, the CES Technology Coordinator, climbed the several ladders to reach the bell in the tower of the town hall and took the following photo just prior to it being rung by the students:

The inscription on the bell reads:

Troy Bell Foundry
Jones & Company
Troy, N.Y.
1871

The CES 3rd grade learned about more local history than just the bell in the town hall.

They showcased their knowledge through a musical performance, by creating a TV newscast, and by virtually recreating Jeffersonville in Minecraft (the popular computer game).

That quote, and their work, is here:

https://ces.lnsd.org/students/cambridge-history/cambridge-history-2022

Among other things, they learned how the village changed its name from Cambridge Center to Jeffersonville after Thomas Jefferson died. That story, as well as the story of the bell in the town hall, is in the 3rd of three newscasts at the link above.

Audrey Cota wrote the lyrics for the song “This Town Is Your Town,” the musical performance at the link above.

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Why I Am Supporting Rebecca Pitre

Posted on October 30, 2022 by George Putnam

See my earlier post Supporting Rebecca Pitre.

This post is to further explain to my friends and fellow citizens why I am supporting her.

I spent yesterday morning at the Cambridge transfer station with Rebecca and her campaign for Vermont State Representative. It was her first time back at the transfer station since the incident on August 27th. Many people stopped by her table to say that they support her candidacy, and that they are glad she has returned to campaign at the transfer station.

I met a man from Fletcher who moved to Vermont in 2019. Being from Fletcher, he can’t vote for Rebecca, but he has been watching this election. We visited a long time. He seemed intelligent and reasonable, with considerable life experience about people. His observation was that some people are suffering from “Pitre Derangement Syndrome.” Oh my, I had to laugh!

That phrase brings to mind Donald Trump, of course, because of this reference. And, sure enough, I recall that there was a recent letter to the editor in the News & Citizen that likened Rebecca Pitre to Donald Trump. If people are voting against Rebecca because they think she is like Donald Trump, they are deeply misinformed. I have gotten to know Rebecca over the last five months, and I can assure you that she is nothing like Donald Trump.

As I wrote in Supporting Rebecca Pitre:

I find that Rebecca brings common sense, compassion, wisdom, and perspective born of life experience to whatever she does. She is a good listener and a good thinker. She will be a valuable and effective representative in Montpelier for the people of Waterville and Cambridge.

I will add that I find Rebecca to be curious, courageous, and caring. She cares deeply about issues that affect local residents. For example, see her recent posts in Front Porch Forum about the opioid crisis (10/26) and energy issues (10/28). See Rebecca Pitre’s website where she has been posting about local issues since she announced her candidacy in May, most recently about the housing crisis.

To my fellow citizens in Cambridge and Waterville:

Go ahead and vote for the Democratic candidate if you wish. That is your right, and Lucy Boyden is a good person. For myself, I believe that the Democratic Party in Vermont has too much power, and that they use that power to pursue bad policies. Just one example is the Global Warming Solutions Act which the legislature enacted over the governor’s veto, as I wrote about in Front Porch Forum on 10/20.

I am voting for the Republican/Libertarian candidate, Rebecca Pitre.

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Not seeking re-election

Posted on September 21, 2022 by George Putnam

I have been elected to two 3-year-terms on the Cambridge selectboard. My second term ends at town meeting in March 2023. I am not seeking re-election.

When I retired from a career in business at the end of 2016, I had no intention of being involved in town government. But I was asked in February 2017 if I would be interested in running for an open seat on the selectboard, and I decided to give it a go. I was elected at town meeting in March 2017 and re-elected in March 2020 at the last town meeting before the pandemic lockdown.

Local government is more important than I had realized. There is much that goes on in local government that I didn’t know about before. Being on the selectboard has been a great adventure! Some of my journey into local government is recorded on this blog. For example, after I had been a selectboard member for about 16 months, I started a series of posts on Learning about town government.

Following are reflections on my two terms on the selectboard.

Continue reading →
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Supporting Rebecca Pitre

Posted on September 7, 2022 by George Putnam
Rebecca Pitre (in blue jacket), candidate for the Vermont House of Representatives, with supporters

Rebecca Pitre is campaigning to represent my town of Cambridge in the Vermont House of Representatives. I support her candidacy.

Rebecca lives in the adjacent town of Waterville. She is running in the Lamoille-3 House District which consists of Cambridge and Waterville.

Rebecca’s campaign website explains her main issues: strengthen families, support rural communities, and combat despair. Her approach is grassroots, community based. This resonates with me. Too often our political leaders think the answer to every problem is more laws, more regulations, and more programs administered by Montpelier and Washington when often it is top-down government itself that is a major part of the problem.

Rebecca and her husband Tom Pitre moved to Vermont from Maryland. They first visited Vermont in 2005 after one of their children moved here. The next year they bought property in Belvidere, and in 2012 they purchased their current property in Waterville. Now two of their three children live in Vermont, and Rebecca and Tom have been living full-time in Waterville since 2018. Tom and Rebecca operated a construction business in Maryland, and they continue to find all the work they want in Vermont.

I took the photo at the top of this post outside the primary election polls in Jeffersonville on August 9th. (Jeffersonville is a village in the town of Cambridge.) Rebecca Pitre is on the right, in the blue jacket.

Dannie McFarland (on the left) and her young family moved to Cambridge from Virginia in 2019. Dannie works at Smugglers Notch Resort. Her husband (not in the photo) is in the Army National Guard.

Irving Payne grew up in New Jersey and lived in New York City and upstate New York before moving to Vermont in 1996. He has lived in this area since 2003. Irving and Lauri Paradis (next to him in the photo) bought their current home in Jeffersonville in 2018. Lauri, originally from St. Albans, works for a contractor for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Irving has worked for the Cambridge Community Center since it opened in 2016. He also does freelance video work and operates Modaja Communications.

Like me, Dannie and Irving and Lauri support Rebecca’s candidacy.

Like Rebecca, Dannie and Irving moved to Vermont from somewhere else. I am glad that they all chose to live here.

People who moved here from somewhere else sometimes tell me that they acutely feel their “outsider” status. As a member of a family that has been in Cambridge for generations, this bothers me. We should judge people as individuals on their merits, not by how long they have lived here. (And, in the first place, we should judge people as little as possible.)

Especially since becoming a selectboard member in 2017, I have tried to meet more people who moved here from somewhere else. It has been a pleasure to get to know Irving and Lauri, Dannie, and Rebecca and Tom.

I find that Rebecca brings common sense, compassion, wisdom, and perspective born of life experience to whatever she does. She is a good listener and a good thinker. She will be a valuable and effective representative in Montpelier for the people of Waterville and Cambridge.

Please join me in getting to know Rebecca Pitre and supporting her campaign: Rebecca for the House.

Update: More discussion in Why I Am Supporting Rebecca Pitre posted 10/30.

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Alternative for VLCT

Posted on November 23, 2021 by George Putnam

This post is part of a series of posts on Questioning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Please see the link for an introduction, a disclaimer, and a list of the initial posts in this series.

DEI is a focus area for the Vermont League of Cities and Towns (VLCT) where I serve on the board of directors. The VLCT created an Equity Committee in November 2020. This committee recently adopted a charter which states that a core value of the committee is that: “Diversity, equity and inclusion should be embedded in all aspects of local government.” The charter instructs committee members to: “Use a DEI lens when making all decisions related to the work of the Equity Committee.”

The “DEI lens” is not the only way to look at the world. In fact, it may not be a particularly good way to look at the world. See Problems with DEI and Alternative to DEI. Yet the VLCT is advocating that DEI “should be embedded in all aspects of local government.” I think this is a mistake. In this post, I propose a different approach for the VLCT.

The VLCT should be a resource to municipalities who are dealing with DEI issues, but the VLCT should not promote DEI to the exclusion of other views. The VLCT should help its member municipalities understand and use Vermont’s superpower.

“Vermont’s superpower” is “the ability to practice local democracy” even in turbulent times. Vermont has nearly 250 years of experience in practicing local democracy through such turmoil as the Second Great Awakening, the Civil War, and the Civil Rights Movement. The DEI movement raises important issues that warrant broad discussion. The issues are emotional, and discussions can be heated. With the VLCT’s help, Vermont municipalities can work through these discussions and make needed changes.

Part of Vermont’s “ability to practice local democracy” comes from the tradition of town meeting. The VLCT is the expert resource for how to conduct town meeting. An important official at town meeting is the town moderator. The VLCT conducts annual training sessions for town moderators. The magic of local democracy is in that room, which includes VLCT staff, representatives from the Vermont Secretary of State’s office, and veteran town moderators from across Vermont. There is also humor in that room, as newbie town moderators begin to understand what they got themselves into.

Town meetings can be emotional and heated. They can also be healing. We can especially appreciate the role of town meeting this year because in March 2021 most towns in Vermont gave up their traditional town meeting due to the pandemic. Susan Clark, the town moderator in Middlesex, wrote about what that meant for local democracy in the commentary that I linked above: Vermont’s superpower, revealed: The ability to practice local democracy.

One of the dangers of democracy is the “tyranny of the majority.” Town meeting is intentional about making room for minority views – something the DEI movement seeks. Meg Mott, the town moderator in Putney, explains how that works in this news article: Keep seeking dissent.

The key to making progress on contentious issues is discussion. Towns and cities that have moved away from traditional town meeting to deciding issues only at the ballot box may have forgotten the importance of discussion. The role of the VLCT should be to remind municipalities of the importance of discussion, and to provide resources to municipalities about how to conduct productive discussions. Voting should be the last thing to do, only after much discussion aimed at finding common ground.

Some municipalities may form committees to study DEI issues and make recommendations for change. The VLCT is the expert resource on how to form committees and hold effective and legal meetings.

In some communities, citizen workgroups may self-organize and “petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” (The quote is from the 1st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.) There is a bright line between being part of government, such as a municipal committee, and not being part of government, such as a self-organized citizen workgroup. For example, municipal committees must follow Vermont’s Open Meeting Law while self-organized citizen workgroups need not. Again, the VLCT is the expert resource for municipalities about how this distinction works.

The VLCT is already the recognized expert resource on all the topics mentioned above. Is there a role for outside consultants? Yes. Consultants can help us understand the constantly changing language of DEI. As I noted in the second post in this series (What is DEI?), a decade ago the movement was about “diversity and inclusion.” Now it’s about “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Why this change in language? What is the intent of those words? Consultants can help answer those questions.

To sum up this post: I believe that the VLCT should not promote DEI to the exclusion of other views. A better alternative for the VLCT is to be an expert resource for municipalities on how to conduct productive discussions of contentious issues and how to form effective committees, bringing in outside consultants to help with the language of DEI as needed.

Optional extra reading:

Three recent items that have come to my attention about the constantly changing language of DEI:

  • New York Times 9/21/2021: Woke Words With John McWhorter, a Times Virtual Event (John McWhorter, a professor of linguistics, discusses four words: master, slave, powwow, and Negro. This stimulating “evening of conversation and song” also features Jane Coaston and an opera!)
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Alternative to DEI

Posted on November 23, 2021 by George Putnam

This post is part of a series of posts on Questioning DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion). Please see the link for an introduction, a disclaimer, and a list of the initial posts in this series.

The previous post discussed Problems with DEI. Is there a better way? Yes! I believe we can find a better way for our country by recalling our founding principles.

The Declaration of Independence states:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal…

This noble vision has been with us since 1776. We know that our country was imperfect at its founding because slavery existed in the southern states. Our country is still far from perfect, as evidenced by our current state of unrest. Nothing human will ever be perfect, but we can and should strive for continuous improvement. Indeed, there has been significant progress toward reaching the goal of equality.

It is useful to think of the development of our country in terms of “three foundings”:

  • The first founding was the American Revolution. This founding is encapsulated in the Declaration of Independence of 1776 and the Constitution of 1787-88.
  • The second founding was the Civil War and the Reconstruction Amendments to the Constitution. The spirit of this founding is captured in the Gettysburg Address.
  • The third founding was the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous speech “I Have a Dream” is the essence of this founding.

(For more discussion of the concept of these “three foundings” see Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century by the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, a project of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.)

Hamilton: An American Musical (2015) tells the story of the first founding of our country through the eyes of Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers:

The widely acclaimed musical that draws from the breadth of America’s culture and shows its audience what we share doesn’t just dramatize Hamilton’s revolution: It continues it.

“What we share” are the ideals of the Declaration of Independence and the practical government created by the Constitution, the first of its kind in human history.

“The widely acclaimed musical” continues the spirit of “Hamilton’s revolution” because it demonstrates through its mostly non-white cast that:

American history can be told and retold, claimed and reclaimed, even by people who don’t look like George Washington and Betsy Ross.

The two quotes above are from the book Hamilton: The Revolution by Lin-Manuel Miranda and Jeremy McCarter, published in 2016 to tell the story of making the musical.

Each of the three foundings described above represents a move to a better society. How can we continue to move forward? How can we make further progress on realizing Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream?

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.”
…
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

(Martin Luther King, Jr. had two daughters and two sons, so he is implicitly acknowledging that the original ideal of “all men are created equal” has been expanded to include both sexes. At the time of the “I Have a Dream” speech, the 19th Amendment had been in effect for more than 40 years. That was another step in the progress of our country.)

One step we could take to make further progress would be to remove all preferences based on group identity from the domains of government contracting, public education, and employment. The State of California did exactly that, with respect to state government, with Proposition 209 of 1996 and Proposition 16 of 2020. See the link for further information and discussion. The country would do well to follow California’s example in this regard.

There are many organizations that can help our country make further progress toward the goal of equality. One organization that I recommend for consideration is the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR): “a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding and humanity.” In the previous post, I mentioned John McWhorter and Zaid Jilani. Both are on FAIR’s Board of Advisors.

To sum up this post: I believe that a better alternative to DEI is to continue striving to reach the ideals expressed in our founding principles. A good summary of those principles is the traditional motto of the United States – E pluribus unum – Latin for “Out of many, one.”

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