sarah
Remembering Jon Gailmor
To the Editor:
Jon Gailmor was my friend, as he was for so many others. He made each of his friends feel they were special, as they were. He gave more of himself and his personal energy to the children, adults, and communities in Vermont, and beyond, than anyone else I’ve ever known. I wrote this poem, see below, for and about him, in 1986, after attending one of his concerts with my family. I gave him a copy around that time. I also gave him a cassette tape of songs that I’d written for and sung to my family, and he gave me in trade a copy of his latest cassette tape, which was “Gonna Die with a Smile if it Kills Me” and “Dirt.” Both of those collections were on the same tape. He worked with our two children and their classmates at the Duxbury Corner School. Approximately 30 years later, our daughter hired him to teach her own students song-writing at Robinson Elementary School in Starksboro, Vermont. …The seasons they go round and round.
Thank goodness he recorded so many songs. Through them, he will be able to keep giving, forever, and we will never forget him.
Carol Johnson Collins and family, South Duxbury
FOR YOU, JON GAILMOR
(Or A Midsummer Night’s Scream)
As adults,
we usually quietly sit,
or write or type or cook
AND lecture our children to grow up.
YOU come
on a hot midsummer day.
Before we even know
we are not children,
you JOUST us from our comfy seats!
We fly up, raise one fist
and shout “Dirt”!
You shirtless Thing,
with arteries bulging,
you Son of a Wing,
with guitar blazing.
You Amazing Thing.
You wiggle your hips
and jump your lips,
and
make
us
SING!
July, 1986
Cohousing is About Community
To the Editor:
Thank you for publishing the article on cohousing. It is important to know about different living options. The article missed an essential part of the endeavor. Yes, “We don’t always get what we want,” but what do we get in return for that flexibility? We get community. We care for and about each other. We share tools and resources but all that is in service to the larger practice of sharing, of deepening our connections to each other, the land, the extended community, and the earth. This process is like many other practices: we learn, change, succeed, fail, try again with an ongoing shared commitment to work together. We live in a culture that stresses individuality, so it is important to balance the individual needs with the cohousing needs. Our cohousing process of consensus honors that process and leads to a deeper sense of community.
Carolyn Shapiro, Montpelier
Give to the Common Good, Boycott Plutocrats
To the Editor:
This holiday, let’s give to the common good rather than further empowering elites by buying their stuff, so much of which ends up in landfills or, in the case of plastics, our bloodstream. Giving to the commons strengthens our democracy and enhances our wellbeing, and it sends a clear message about our spiritual and political values in an eroding democracy.
This season, let’s limit spending to those who need help and buy the few necessary gifts from local resources that recirculate our dollars in the local economy. For those with limited travel capacity, local platforms like Myti enable online purchases and home deliveries, only from local crafts people, farms, and businesses.
Our democratic form of government is at grave risk. The “pollutocrats” have decided democracy no longer serves their needs, and so invest heavily in our elected representatives in Congress, lobbying (bribing?) them to reduce regulation and taxation that might enable a working-class renaissance, which is fundamental to any democracy. We consumers can and must exercise our one undiminished right, the right not to buy and further enrich the ownership class.
The National Retail Federation reports that this will be the first year where holiday consumer spending exceeds a trillion dollars. If we cut our spending by half, what would a $500 billion nosedive say to the captains of retail?
This season, let’s send the message and boycott the mass market plutocrats who control the international consumption supply chain: Amazon, Target, Apple, Home Depot, Walmart, each of which has a finger in the Trump administration’s pie.
If, as in many families, everyone has a surfeit of stuff, donate money on their behalf to food banks and pantries, shelters, open clinics, and nonprofit educational and vocational resources. We can rein in the Christmas chaos and send a message to our would-be leaders.
Bill Schubart, Hinesburg
Letters to the editor represent the opinions of the authors and do not reflect the opinions of The Bridge. Submit your letter by email to editor@montpelierbridge.com. Preference is given to submissions by those who live in central Vermont, should not exceed 300 words in length, and may be edited for brevity and accuracy.
