This Vermonter Is 100% Angry

This Vermonter Is 100% Angry

I feel that I must respond to the rambling article that was written by Sen. Richard McCormack as to why the Civil Union or gay marriage bill became law.

First he says ours is a system in which the majority rules, and that the government is forever accountable to the people.

He then goes on to say that town meeting votes are binding on matters of town government, but advisory only on State matters. He continues with the statement that every legislator received hundreds of communications, and he also states that the town meeting straw votes are an unreliable indication of public will. I would like to know why their hundreds of communications are any more reliable that the town meeting straw vote.

He then says that the opponents of the civil union bill have shifted their rhetoric from the merits of the new law, if there is any, to the complaint, that legislators ignored the majority and voted for a select minority. This is just what you did. Maybe you like the jokes; like having our state called the Gay Mountain State and the bumper stickers. In talking with a person from Chittenden, a person from out of state asked him, "Is it true that 80% of Vermont’s population is gay?"

Maybe you like this ridicule, but as a sixth generation Vermonter I resent very much what is being said about my state.

Then the Senator goes on to say that a recent poll shows that the majority of the people oppose the Civil union bill, but not the thundering voice of We The People. Why then does it have to be a thundering voice if the majority rules?

This makes two sessions in a row that you people have passed, with very little consideration, bills that have torn over little state apart, Act 60 is one, and the other this gay marriage thing.

So yes you were arrogant and yes, you voted your consciences. It’s true you had a duty to a class of people with court-verified grievance, but you also had a duty to the majority who didn’t want either of these bills posted. So no, in the light of that, you did not do your duty.

I am sure that we who live in Vermont are not 80% gay—but I am sure we are 80% angry with you and Montpelier politics in general.

We want our state back, so if the majority rules, and you say it does, I just hope that the thundering voice you have been waiting to hear is what those of you who voted for this very unnecessary legislation will hear in November.

I believe it was Prime Minister Winston Churchill who said, after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, "I think Japan has just awakened the Sleeping Giant."

John Barrows

Pittsfield

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