Editor’s note: This commentary is by state Sen. Joe Benning, a Republican who represents the Caledonia-Orange District in the Vermont Senate.
[O]n one of the last days of the legislative session I was honored to be at a press conference put on by the Racial Justice Reform Coalition. They were celebrating H.308, a bill crafted as an historical attempt to address racial justice reform in Vermont. The event was held in the Cedar Creek Room at the Statehouse, a room dominated by the huge Julian Scott painting depicting Vermonters in the war racial justice reform ignited. It has been a long, frustratingly slow process. But as Rep. Kevin “Coach” Christie remarked, “If anybody can bring about racial justice reform, Vermonters can.”
As I stood among Vermonters of varying skin tones, feeling the frustrations of those still disenfranchised after more than 150 years, it occurred to me that Vermont is indeed a good place to bring about cultural reform. We’ve done it before. I’d left my hotel room that morning watching Julie Kelley anchoring the news on television. I turned off lights powered by Green Mountain Power, whose CEO is Mary Powell. At the Statehouse I was greeted by Sergeant-at-Arms Janet Miller. In the hall I passed Mitzi Johnson, speaker of Vermont’s House of Representatives.
The Senate calendar that day featured the three money bills. The state’s budget bill would be explained by Appropriations Committee Chair Jane Kitchel, whose sister, Kitty Toll, is her counterpart in the House. The fee bill would be explained by Finance Committee Chair Ann Cummings, whose counterpart in the House is Janet Ancel. The capital bill would be explained by Institutions Committee Chair Peg Flory, whose counterpart in the House is Alice Emmons.
In Vermont, gender equality is now accepted norm, making gender justice easier to obtain. That happened because Vermonters consciously began judging women not by the makeup of their physical anatomy, but rather by the content of their character.
I received an email that day from Jen Botzojorn, superintendent of the Caledonia North Supervisory Union. She interacts regularly with my local school board Chair Nancy Blankenship, and works in the same building as my Town Clerk Dawn Dwyer. In Lyndon we are anxiously waiting to see how Lyndon State College and Johnson State College are melded into one university under President Dr. Elaine Collins.
The previous evening’s television anchor, Jennifer Gilman, introduced a segment on the swearing-in ceremony for Karen Carroll, Vermont’s newest Supreme Court justice, marking the first time that males were a minority on Vermont’s Supreme Court. Weather guru Sharon Meyer warned me what to wear the next day. I then read Seven Days, Vermont’s prominent weekly newspaper, owned by Paula Routy and Pamela Rolston. Online I turned to Vermont’s premier digital news site, VTDigger, founded and edited by Anne Galloway, and read several stories from Statehouse reporters Erin Mansfield, Tiffany Danitz Pache and Elizabeth Hewitt.
It was not so long ago that, even here in Vermont, none of the positions above were occupied by the female of our species. In Vermont, gender equality is now accepted norm, making gender justice easier to obtain. That happened because Vermonters consciously began judging women not by the makeup of their physical anatomy, but rather by the content of their character. What if we decided to do that with race, as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once dreamed?
As an experiment, I looked around at that sea of multi-colored faces in the press conference and decided to ignore color. I focused instead on each person’s accomplishments. I saw politicians of all political stripes, lawyers, reporters, students, teachers, parents, preachers and the myriad of labels that individually make up what Vermont is all about. The room suddenly looked much different — less divisive and with great potential.
That cultural change in view is the key to racial justice reform. Each of us must reset our point of view by acknowledging, and then setting aside, the personal biases we all know we have. Color, like gender, must become irrelevant. Content of character must instead become our common denominator. Racial justice reform will naturally follow, since it stems from the universally recognized desire to be treated fairly. Dr. King’s dream for his children, indeed for all children, can finally be realized. And as Coach Christie noted, if anybody can do it, Vermonters can.
