Three women who changed my mind

2024-03-21

Dear reader,

They say that your committee becomes like your family here. And it’s true that sitting face-to-face and shoulder-to-shoulder with 10 other Vermonters, spending hour after hour combing over issues within your jurisdiction, we can develop a camaraderie.

Then, like Thanksgiving across America, you get to some issue, some topic. Someone says something that grates on me, and my mind draws knives.

Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun of Westminster is not only a colleague in the House with me, but I have additional quality time with her in committee. And while I’m not proud to admit it, I felt an aversion to Rep. Bos-Lun’s mushroom bill to designate the Bear’s tooth head as Vermont’s official state mushroom. It reflected a broader frustration I can have with Michelle as my committee sister.

As well-meaning as Michelle’s ideas for correctional reform can be, I want her to be more practical. When she suggested that a fresh mural and some toys could make visitation spaces more family-friendly for dads incarcerated in our male correctional facilities, I felt that she was overlooking the operational need to prevent kids from being used to smuggle contraband. Improving quality time for families of incarcerated men is going to take staffing, casework, and dedicated space.

From left, Rep. Tristan Roberts, Rep. Michelle Bos-Lun, and Sen. Tanya Vyhovsky.

But it’s plain to see that Rep. Bos-Lun’s advocacy makes a difference. She put forward an idea and our committee bill, H.876, now tasks the Department of Corrections with studying possible family-visiting enhancements, accounting for both facility and operational factors. Her example gives me courage to put my own ideas out there.

“Ugh” is what I exhaled to myself when I first read about her bill in the Brattleboro Commons. She, a lone legislator, went to two small local schools, asked them for their opinion, and then introduced a bill. With all of Vermont’s big problems, she was asking the Legislature to take time on this?

Now, I’m seeing the flipside. Not everyone can do everything. Why not celebrate Vermont’s General Assembly as a place where individual, local work sugars off and gives us the best of Vermont? What we do in the Legislature is a collective expression of Vermont. Other than jealousy, why did it matter to me whose name was on the bill?

Rep. Bos-Lun had gone into the schools with a passion for mushroom hunting developed during COVID. While other states have gone with chanterelles as their state mushrooms, these young Vermonters wanted a unique choice, and they went with Hericium americanum. It’s edible (said to taste like crab cakes!), medicinal, and fairly common. Its clump of dangling spines might be creepy-looking but has no poisonous look-alikes.

I love seeing friends transformed by visits to our Halifax forest. What’s not to love about H.664? As Michelle told me, “Vermonters learning about mushrooms and foraging for them increases interest in our natural world which is good for everyone.”

This point hit me on the head unexpectedly. I was in Brattleboro touring the drop-in center run by Groundworks when I got into a conversation with Hannah Macon about her casework. Hannah had already impressed me with how closely she was following the fate of the “motel voucher” program by reading between the lines of news coverage. 

In passing, she mentioned Rep. Bos-Lun, a former Groundworks employee. In addition to Groundworks, Michelle has worked in the community in jobs including social service, housing, restorative justice and education—experience she often calls on in the Legislature. “Isn’t it cool what Michelle’s doing with designating a state mushroom?” said Hannah.

I came away from a recent visit to the Groundworks offices and drop-in center in Brattleboro inspired and changed by the women who work there—from left, Executive Director Libby Bennett, and Housing Case Managers Hannah Macon and Anne Rancourt. 

Hannah is a hard-working and caring woman whose day-to-day life is spent trying to keep a roof over the heads of Vermont families. She feels excited about a state mushroom? The only sensible option, as is often the case, was to stop being a killjoy and agree with the woman.

Another remarkable woman who helped me was Melany Kahn. She emailed myself and other legislators to advocate for H.664. “This is a mushroom that thrives in Vermont forests,” she wrote, “but can also be cultivated by home growers, has nutritional and medicinal qualities, doesn't have toxic look-alikes, it is very distinctive looking, and no other state has it (yet). The students chose well!”

Finding out that Kahn had unique expertise on the topic compelled me to read further. “With my foraging children's book on mushrooms, Mason Goes Mushrooming, written, printed and published here in VT,” Kahn continued, “I have been traveling the country sharing mushroom education for many years now in over 20 states. I can attest that when states adopt a mushroom, there is great fanfare, national media articles, a positive PR campaign, and enthusiastic response from the community of outdoor enthusiasts. It is win/win.” 

Melany landed the argument with me by appealing to the broader public. She concluded, “A surprising number of Vermonters love mushrooms and would value having one recognized as one of our state symbols.

And with that, I flip-flopped from a grudging “Yea—sure” to a “Hell yea.” Negativity be damned.

When I see someone achieving a result, I often critique their process. “Why didn’t they do it this way?” I grumble. At times that’s an opportunity to reflect on my values and how I would do it differently, and maybe better. At times, it feels like a cultural gravity I’m inflicting on myself and those around me. 

H.664 and the process that created it, like any other legislation, isn’t perfect. I respect every legislator’s vote, yea or nay. For myself, in this case, I choose to celebrate Michelle’s work wholeheartedly.

March is Women’s History Month, and March 8th was International Women's Day, a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural, and political achievements of women.

Rep. Bos-Lun (a unique last name created 35 wedding anniversaries ago—wow—by conjoining elements of her and Ron’s former names) is a world-traveler with ties from India to Taiwan. We are lucky to have her making history here in Vermont. This March, I celebrate Michelle and all of the history-making women in the Vermont Legislature, along with the female constituents whose wisdom I listen to.

Warmly,

Tristan Roberts

Quill Nook Farm