Column: In Vermont’s bubble, watching the whirlwind
Will Lange. Copyright (c) Valley News. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Send requests to permission@vnews.com.
Modified: 12/15/2020 10:10:16 PM
Many of us remember the Kingston Trio’s rendition, back in the late ’50s, of
Merry Minuet, whose lyrics began, “They’re rioting in Africa, they’re starving in Spain; there’s hurricanes in Florida, and Texas needs rain.” Who can read or hear those words today without a strong sense of
déja vu? The locations may have changed, but nothing else seems different.
My wife and I lived a whole cycle of life marriage, children, work, retirement, and death between the introduction of that song and now, and during that time, life for millions of people has grown only worse. We still exist with the threat of nuclear annihilation, but added to it is what appears to be a growing divide between the affluent and the poverty-stricken, as well as between the