I have favorite candidates for every office on the ballot, but the two for whom I feel greatest enthusiasm are David Schoales for Windham County Senator, and Mollie Burke, Brattleboro District 2 Representative.
For years while the Clark-Canal Summer Program was going, as a volunteer, Mollie Burke taught art to neighborhood children. Hardly anyone knew about this: She did it solely because she is a good neighbor with love in her heart. Mollie talks with neighborhood people all the time, not just when electioneering. She is approachable, intelligent, responsive. We are fortunate to have an effective representative in the State House, and it is going to a pleasure to vote for her.
I got to know David Schoales, when I asked him to help the Clark-Canal Community Association get permission from the Schoolboard to install playground equipment in the lower area of the Canal Street School. After 30+ years, we were disbanding, and wanted to use the $12,000 in our treasury (which we had painstakingly scrimped and penny-pinched over the years) to leave a lasting benefit to our town and community. David was easy to talk to. Collaboration comes so naturally to David, that getting the Schoolbooboard’s enthusiastic support seemed easy.
People entrusted with leadership positions can become seduced by the sense of being “an important person.” At a couple of public meetings with incumbent Jeanette White, I saw that she talked down to “ordinary” people. She seemed to have forgotten that she is our servant, not our overseer. Frankly, I would love to see a change.
