Last spring, with great sadness, Peace Corps volunteers worldwide were required to end their service prematurely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The good news is that the Peace Corps plans to begin redeploying volunteers in January in Asia and the Caribbean. All 60 countries where volunteers were serving prior to the pandemic have expressed interest in having them return. With vaccines and other health protections, the prospects for significant redeployment in 2021 are on the rise.
U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., is once again going to be a critical voice in the next two weeks concerning the future of the Peace Corps. Congress is negotiating a final spending package. While the House of Representatives proposes stable funding for the Peace Corps, the Senate Appropriations Committee is calling for a $51 million cut.
As the minority leader of the Appropriations Committee, Leahy is a significant voice in the final negotiations leading up to the Dec. 11 deadline. He has been a strong supporter of Peace Corps in the past. Once again, his leadership is needed to make sure Congress approves the House’s proposed level of $410 million for the agency.
This stable funding will ensure the Peace Corps’ redeployment will move forward safely and deliberately, and allow for necessary funds to allow the agency to innovate and grow in this post-pandemic world. Please contact Sen. Leahy and urge him to support the $410 million appropriation for the Peace Corps.
As the Peace Corps prepares to mark its 60th anniversary in 2021, the United States can recommit to an organization whose impact in the years ahead will be even broader and more profound. It is important that the Peace Corps re-engages in the world.
RICHARD M. RODERICK
Wells River
The writer served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Jamaica from 1974-77.
We signed up for ECFiber service in 2018, and in 2019 were notified the company is building in our town. In late February or March, ECFiber contractors ran cable along the poles on our road and installed the cable box. We emailed in July inquiring of the status of completing the install so we can remotely attend school and work from home. The response was: “We are still diligently working on our 2019 build. When the fiber service area is ready you will be contacted to schedule the service installation. Please bear with us as we continue to work towards getting our system built and tested to bring service to everyone.” Now we are being told the install will be in January or February.
What is really confusing is that the Valley News reported that ECFiber received $1.12 million in grants that would be dedicated to bringing high-speed, fiber-optic internet to 400 locations (“VTel, ECFiber get build-out grants,” Aug. 26). Then we read the article “ECFiber plans 2021 rollout in 5 towns” (Oct. 25) including Bradford, Corinth, Fairlee, West Fairlee and Windsor. We were just floored, and that much more confused. Are all member towns fully connected to the network? South Royalton isn’t.
We are disappointed in ECFiber as it has not completed the work for those who have signed up. Secondary homes, camps and residential homes that are very remote have ECFiber service, but not us, who are in their hometown.
I was taught to finish what you started before starting a new project. Maybe ECFiber should heed that advice, as well.
LEANNA ZICK
South Royalton
For William A. Wittik to blame the fires that have been ravaging the West Coast on a group of people who have been persecuted for who they love — and based on the “logic” in this Forum letter, still are — takes absurdity to a whole new level. (“Violence is done to the natural order,” Nov. 28),
It is not much of a stretch to use “Mother Earth” and “anger” together to describe what is happening to our climate: 2020 saw a record number of named storms in the North Atlantic, a record number of acres burned in California, loss of ice in the Arctic and Greenland, and a growing number of global climate refugees, to name just a few. The “anger” of these climate events is nothing compared to what our children and grandchildren will have toward us if we don’t act to start respecting science and reducing greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible.
I would suggest the Old Testament be kept where it belongs — as a metaphor for a weekly reminder — and not for scientific decision-making, lest the Rapture visit us sooner than later, and not everyone should be looking forward to that.
BART GUETTI
West Lebanon