The questions that shaped my life so far.
2023-12-24
Dear friend,
I'm bored of politicians who put out "statements."
Yawn.
Sure -- statements are useful for conveying key facts, like a safety alert or the time and place of the Governor's press conference or how to buy a Vermont Strong '23 license plate to benefit flood survivors.
But when an elected leader "issues a statement" on something important or controversial, why does it always seem to leave more questions than answers? And statements just sit there on the screen -- no one to follow up with. Statements are dead ends.
Questions are what get my blood flowing.
As an infant, I said, "Waaaaaah?!"
As a toddler, I asked "Why?"
As a kid growing up on a farm, I asked, "How does it work?"
Watching my dad build our house or my mom grow our vegetables, I asked, "Can you show me how to help?"
May 1971 -- the farmhouse in upstate N.Y. purchased by my dad and his two brothers, which they all fixed up and lived in together before my parents built their house across the road.
In 7th grade Drama Club we played acting games starting with, "What if...?"
I started making friends by asking, "How about we....?"
Those times when I've ran to save someone's bacon, I asked, "How can I get there now?"
Those times I've saved my own bacon, I asked, "How can I get out of here now?"
From my first job to now, I've never stopped either delighting or infuriating the boss with questions like, "What's stopping us from....?"
When I bought my first home in Brattleboro (for $27,000), I asked, "How can I make the most of this?"
My first Vermont home on Elliot Street, Brattleboro in summer 2002. (I cleaned it out for a full week before I let my parents come and visit.)
Every naptime I asked my baby son, "Shall we go for a walk in the woods?"
Now when we hike together we like to ask, "What's around that bend?"
When taking a leap of faith I ask, "What's the worst that could happen?"
When I'm talking to a State employee, the question I'm most likely to ask is, "How can I support you in doing your job?"
What I'm getting at is not that I have unstoppable curiosity that's gotten me fired twice. (worth it)
What I'm getting at is that I have an unquenchable thirst to ask questions. Questions are the key to the imagination, and the imagination is the key to discovery and innovation.
Humanity's thirst for discovery may have led us to subdue every edge of the Earth with our crap, but our full story isn't written just yet.
Is the world ending? Here's what I have seen in three decades of professional experience and now one in Vermont's Legislature. America and Vermont might celebrate ideas like education, innovation, cooperation, and competition -- but we don't execute on them very well across the board. And that's a problem. There's a lot in Vermont that's working fine, but as I said the other day in Thank you for giving a ___, there's a lot that's not working.
Sometimes the stuff that's not working can bring me to the edge of despair. Not the literal location but more how I felt after walking through the Quality Inn at Exit 3 in Brattleboro last month on patrol with a Brattleboro Police officer.
Boots on the carpeted corridor of the Quality Inn, Brattleboro - Nov. 27
The Monday after Thanksgiving, I went for an early-evening "ride-along" with the Brattleboro Police Department. The first place we went after roll-call was the Quality Inn up Putney Road, which is regularly patrolled due to known criminal activity. We walked all the corridors of the building and conversed with a couple residents who were out-and-about.
My two strongest impressions were how it felt that things had gotten eerily quiet when the cruiser pulled up, with hardly a mouse making a squeak while we walked the corridors. And that the smells emanating from some rooms were sickening. More than just "rotting food," as the Reformer headline emphasized when the Quality Inn was cited for numerous health and safety violations in December. (If you have ever wondered what conditions are like in some of Vermont's motels where those receiving General Assistance Housing aid are living, Bob Audette's article offers solid reporting.)
Brattleboro Reformer, Dec. 7 2023
In addition to the despair, though, I felt hope and optimism after the ride-along to that and other locations in Brattleboro.
In addition to seeing Vermonters struggling, and seeing locations where public safety and wellbeing is compromised, I saw lots of homes and businesses and motels that are well-run, where people are working hard and making ends meet and contributing to the community. That told me that in the places where things are bad, you could change a few variables and they should improve. Which variables?
I often ask, "How can I catch people doing the right thing and help them with that?"
That question has sparked a lot of conversations since, both in the district and further afield.
One of several dozen examples this month was getting tax policy advice from Governor John Carney of Delaware at the Council of State Governments (CSG) national conference in Raleigh, N.C.
Gov. John Carney (Delaware) and Rep. Tristan Roberts
I shared with Gov. Carney concerns I hear every day from constituents about rising taxes, amid big hikes in everything from rent to healthcare premiums.
I'm concerned about some of the trends in Vermont's education funding system. For example, what does it mean not only locally but at an aggregate level when Halifax and Twin Valley taxpayers don't get more benefit in reduced taxes when the School Board does the hard work of keeping expenses in check?
"How do you do things in Delaware?" I asked Gov. Carney.
He described to me the benefits of how Delaware pays for schools out of the General Fund.
I don't know if Vermont would ever go that way, but I do know Vermont can always look around at the other 49 state laboratories and learn something.
As I consider the future of the G.A. Housing benefit (it's not a "program") in the Legislature this session, I will be asking, "What has been the human benefit and what have been the human costs of the State's largely unsupervised $2.3 million of patronage in the Quality Inn?"
Some other questions that I'm asking at the start of the session on January 3, 2024 will be:
What's the best site for new women's correctional facility in Vermont?
Why is there still no cell service in huge parts of our district, and on major roads like Rte. 112 and Rte. 9?
Can I get the House Commerce committee intrigued in my bill to establish Vermont as a hub in the data economy?
Will the Agency of Natural Resources give Whitingham a two-year extension on its wastewater permit as requested by the Selectboard?
One of the thing that's cool about our government is when elected leaders ask citizens questions, as we do in committees in the Legislature. What puzzles me about our government is why it's not a lot easier for citizens to ask questions of our elected leaders.
I'm with Sen. John McCain on this. He pledged in 2008 that if elected President (spoiler: he wasn't), he would make himself available to Congress for a "question time" like they have in the British parliament, and a ton of other places.
McCain got a few things really right, and this is one of them.
I endorse that at every level.
I love "Hearing of Visitors" on Halifax Selectboard, and Rep. Roberts office hours have been a lot of fun. I've already got my calendar marked to take your questions on the session on Tuesday, March 5, 2024, at Halifax, Whitingham and Wilmington Town Meetings.
Please write and let me know how you're doing. Your stories and the questions they raise put the gas in my tank to Montpelier.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Happy all celebrations.
May there be peace on Earth in our time.
Love,
Rep. Tristan Roberts
Halifax, Vermont
P.S. Last Q -- why did I give my pet reindeer more cymbals for Christmas?
A: More bang for my buck!
P.P.S. Please be a mindful driver out there in winter weather -- not only for your safety but for the safety of our road crews, like Ben Barnett of Halifax, seen here repairing Green River Road last week.
