www.95436.com

Howard Dean in Vermont, pt. 3

The last of three parts.

By David Chase

Frankly, the only disagreement I've had with Howard Dean is his refusal to allow some test crops of industrial hemp to be grown in Vermont. I have no direct interest in this issue, but I think I understand the differences between the fiber crop and the marijuana crop.

A struggling Vermont farm which relies on milk checks from some conglomerate or the fickleness of the apple harvest might find life a little easier if there were a market for industrial hemp as well.

So there you have it. I can't say I know Howard Dean but he comes well recommended from people I know and respect.

Incidentally, when you register to vote in Vermont, you are required to sign the Freeman's Oath (although in 1994 they amended the language to make it gender neutral - it's now the Voter's Oath).

I solemnly swear (or affirm) that whenever I am called upon to give my vote or suffrage, touching any matter that concerns the State of Vermont, I will do it so as in my conscience I shall judge will most conduce to the best good of the same, as established by the Constitution, without fear or favor of any person.

I had to sign that when I registered to vote in Vermont and did so proudly.

Howard Dean in Vermont, pt. 2

[Editor's note: David Chase and his wife moved to Forestville four years ago after spending 20+ years in Vermont, a large portion of that time when Howard Dean was governor. I asked David, a Dean supporter, to tell us about life in Vermont under Dean.] -- Roger Karraker

The second of three parts.

By David Chase

At one point in Howard Dean's reign, there were some fairly open and disturbing incidents of (for lack of a better term) gay bashing in some of the high schools. Howard Dean went around the state to the high schools and told them it was to stop. One student challenged him and began to reference the Bible.

Dean let him speak and then explained that he certainly had a right to his beliefs. No one would deny him that. What no one had was the right to act on those beliefs in a way that will harm someone else. One of the great freedoms in Vermont is the right to live life as you choose without threat or censure. Eventually, of course, Howard Dean supported and signed the Civil Union law which gives same sex couples the same rights, privileges, and obligations as traditional marriage gives to straight couples. In his literature he says this was not one of his issues It was simply the right thing to do and I think he was right.

Personally, I've always been rather proud that Vermont took that step. It wasn't taken without some considerable political risk, however. I have a good friend who was a state senator who supported that law and she said she began to receive some of the nastiest mail she'd ever seen in her life - vile, hateful stuff. She was not alone. Others who voted for the bill got the same treatment.

A great wave of opposition rose up against Howard Dean but he was re-elected anyway. Whatever else you say about the Civil Union law it acknowledges and recognizes a relationship between two people, whatever that is. I've thought sometimes that when Susan and I go back for a visit we might have a Civil Union ceremony ourselves. Why not? A lot of our gay friends have - why should they be the only ones?

A friend of mine is head of the Vermont Housing Agency, a woman who has worked for years in the field of housing for the aging and then for the State of Vermont. She told us recently that Howard Dean had always been open and available and helpful in any of her work. She considers him an ally and a friend.

One weekend some years ago, a few panels from the AIDS quilt were going to be displayed in a hall in Randolph, Vermont, about an hour or so from Brattleboro. Susan and I drove up to see it - I never had - and while we were there Gov. Dean showed up, alone, save for his State Police driver. No ceremony, no brass bands, no story in the paper the next day. He simply came to see the quilt panels for himself and take away whatever he found there.

Gov. Dean often came to Brattleboro for parades. Brattleboro loves parades and politicians love them, too. Mrs. Dean stayed home, however. You have to respect a man's wife who believes she has a higher purpose in this world than to function as arm candy in political events. The fact that he hasn't insisted that she disrupt her medical practice and get made over for the cameras and get coaching for her public appearances says a great deal about their relationship and the respect they have for each other.

Tomorrow: Part 3 of David Chase's story of Vermont under Howard Dean.

Howard Dean in Vermont, pt. 1

[Editor's note: David Chase and his wife moved to Forestville four years ago after spending 20+ years in Vermont, a large portion of that time when Howard Dean was governor. I asked David, a Dean supporter, to tell us about life in Vermont under Dean.] -- Roger Karraker

The first of three parts.

By David Chase

I lived in Brattleboro, Vermont, most of my life. Brattleboro is a small town, about 12,000 people, and it's the third largest municipality in Vermont. Only Burlington and Rutland are larger. I mention this to give you some background not only about me but about the State of Vermont and why I think things work there as they do.

Vermont historically has been an agricultural state although there have been pockets of industry along some of the bigger rivers where the energy could be harnessed to run the mills. Vermonters tend to be independent and even private. On the other hand, they cherish the annual town meeting were the town and school officials are elected and the budgets are passed and everyone of age has a chance to say his piece. True democracy, you might say.

Brattleboro devised a representative town meeting which removed some of that democracy by one step but the town reps are a broad cross section of the community from lawyers and doctors to folks in subsidized housing. The advantage is that the town reps are much better informed on the issues at hand than people who simply come in once a year for the baked beans.

I was a town rep for several years. One year I ran for the board of Selectmen (read "supervisors" or "town council") but I lost. A month or so later I was appointed to the Town Planning Commission where I served 10 years, five of those years I was chairman. During that time we did a townwide survey about where people wanted the town to go, rewrote the Town Plan, the Zoning regulations, and the Subdivision Regulations, and adopted Flood Plain Zoning.

I must say that government didn't seem all that political to me in those days. There were the diehard Democrats and the diehard Republicans, of course, but it always seemed as if they agreed to disagree. It was all very civil. Perhaps it was underground and I never knew about it, but I never seemed to be part of it.

Government seemed accessible to me, too, especially after I was on the Planning Commission. One time I drove to Montpelier, the capital, and dropped in on Tim O'Connor, the Speaker of the Vermont House. He took me to lunch along with the Lieutenant Governor. Tim O'Connor was also from Brattleboro and he and his wife, Martha, were both town meeting reps. We enjoyed watching them cancel each other's votes at town meeting.

In Vermont, the Governor and Lieutenant Governor run independently. It's a common thing for one to be a Democrat and the other a Republican. This was the case with then Governor Richard Snelling, a dug in Republican, and Howard Dean, a Democrat, who was elected as his Lieutenant Governor. I have no idea how they got along privately, but in public there was a sense that each acknowledged the other and accepted that and both did their best for the people of Vermont.

Richard Snelling collapsed and died at home while he was cleaning his pool. Vermont has no Governor's mansion. The Governor may be given a housing allowance if his home is in a town of some distance, but that's it. Snelling and Dean both lived about half an hour from Montpelier. You can bet Howard Dean will never forget the day the State Trooper showed up at Dr. Dean's office while he was seeing patients to give him the news.

During the next couple months Howard Dean had to shut down his practice and not only fulfill the commitments he'd taken on as Lieutenant Governor, but also the ones obligated by Snelling.

The next election, Barbara Snelling, Gov. Snelling's widow ran on the Republican ticket. Howard Dean won hands down. In all he won five terms as the Governor of Vermont, so he must have been doing something right. I don't remember who his lieutenant governors were.

Nor did I hear much about Mrs. Dean. She had her medical practice and he was the Governor. It made perfect sense to us.

Tomorrow: Part two of David Chase's story of Vermont under Howard Dean.

At the Dean Meetup

Wednesday night, fresh from my Monday visit to the Clark "Meetup,", I went to two Dean "meetups". Even the Clark supporters admit that Dean has more vocal supporers right now in Sonoma County. That was certainly in evidence: there were reportedly five Dean meetups Wednesday.

The Santa Rosa meetup,at the Round Table Pizza at Marlow and Guerneville Roads, had 62 persons in a room with a "aximum capacity 50 persons" sign. My wife and I left that meeting early so we could count noses at the Sebastopol meeting at Mary's Pizza on Highway 116. We got there just as the meeting was breaking up, but still counted 28 persons in a too-tiny room. (Next month the meeting moves to the O'Reilly complex farther north on Hwy. 116).

The Santa Rosa Dean group was markedly different from the Clark folks two nights before. Where two-thirds of the Clark people appeared to be 55+, only one-third to one-half of the Dean group appeared so. Where the Clark people were two-thirds men, more than one-half of the Dean people were women.

There were no teenagers and only a few 20-somethings at both meetings. One 45-ish woman, like us new to a "meetup" said she was shocked. "From all the newspaper coverage of Dean I thought I'd be the oldest one here by 20 years. She wasn't; she was right in the middle of the pack. The majority of the Dean people appeared to be 30-55: a significantly younger group than the Clark supporters.

To be fair, the Sebastopol "meetup" was indeed older. Only a few of the 28+ appeared to be under 50.

While there's no doubt that both groups are fervent in support of their candidate, the Dean folks were more energetic, applauding at various times during a low-key "talking head" Dean video. The video was a single long take of Dean sitting at a kitchen table, speaking quietly to the camera. The video contrasted markedly with the Clark campaign video and its slick Hollywood production values.

In a future post I'll review the local websites for Clark and Dean. For the time being, here's a link to the Dean site to accompany the Clark link I provided Tuesday. North Bay Dean | Wine country is Dean country...

About the Clark meetup

I went to the Wesley Clark "meetup" last night at Finley Center in Santa Rosa. The meeting opened with 27 people present. In the next 15 minutes another 10 came in. Two-thirds appeared to be older than 55; two-thirds were men. Only two persons appeared to be under 30.

Perhaps one-third or so were at their first D Clark meetup. In adition to me, two persons were from Forestville, Keith Hall, from the Scenic Drive area and another man who works in Forestville but doesn't live here. I mention all this because the Dean supporters are reputed to be younger. I'll do a count at the Dean meeting tomorrow night and we'll see how they compare.

The agenda was mundane: showing the Clark bio video; introductions/testimonials; imparting the latest news concerning time-honored campaign tactics -- information tables, phone banks, letter-writing, bumper stickers and so on.

I learned that the monthly Meetup gatherings are introductory in nature. Most of the planning and work, we were told, is at another meeting. The next one of those is to be held at 7 p.m., Monday, Jan. 12, again at Finley Community Center.

Meetup: Organizing local interest groups.

This site is going to be predominately about Forestville. But we do live in a wider world and in 2004 that means some important elections. So there will be occasional posts, such as this one, about the elections.

I confess to being fascinated by what the Howard Dean campaign is apparently doing in organizing through the Internet. I have a sense that there is something "there" there. We shall see.

Dean, Wesley Clark and Dennis Kucinich have all profited from organizing via a Web outfit called Meetup: Organizing local interest groups. If you click on that link you can learn about Meetup, which offers to electronically "connect" like-minded folks on tons of subjects. The Dean, Clark and Kucinich "meetups" are the most popular outfits among the politicians -- that is, the most sign-ups.

I've signed up for both the Clark meetup, tomorrow (Monday, Jan. 5, 7 p.m., Finley Community Center in Santa Rosa) and the Dean meetup, which is Wednesday, Jan. 7, 7 p.m. There are two Dean locations: the Round Table Pizza at Marlow and Guerneville Roads in Santa Rosa and another at Mary's Pizza on Hwy. 116 in Sebastopol.

If I actually get to either of the meetings I'll report back here. And if anyone who sees this attends the Kucinich meetup, please email a report of it.