The Bernie Buzz

Winter is around the corner and I know many of you are worried about your heating bills. The good news is that assistance is available to help you and your family stay safe and warm through this winter season.

Each Veterans Day, we pause to honor and remember the brave Vermonters, and our brothers and sisters across the country, who put on the uniform to keep our communities, our families, and our nation safe and protected. Vermont has a long and proud history of military service throughout U.S. history, dating all the way back to the Green Mountain Boys during the American Revolution. On Friday, we came together in St. Albans to commemorate that legacy and the extraordinary sacrifice of our veterans and their families.

But what many people don’t know is that in 1939, Rockwell moved to Arlington, Vermont with his wife Mary and their three sons. They were a part of the Arlington community for more than a decade, and it is there that Rockwell painted some of his best-known paintings, including his “Four Freedoms” and the majority of his “Main Street America” works. More than 200 local Vermonters modeled for and inspired Rockwell’s paintings during that time.

Since its construction at the turn of the 20th century, the Haskell Free Library and Opera House has prided itself in being a resource and community center for both communities on either side of our northern border. It provides books, shows, education resources, and a variety of programs in both English and French. It is a place where our Vermonters and their Canadian neighbors can connect and share culture and experiences with one another.

What can we learn from Finland? What can Finland learn from Vermont? I hope you’ll join me next week for a town meeting as we welcome Finland’s Ambassador to the U.S., Mikko Hautala, to Vermont.

Public libraries play an enormously important role in our communities and we should all be proud that Vermont has 183 of them – more, per capita, than any other state in the country. As Youth Services Librarian Sam Maskell put it when speaking about the Rockingham Free Public Library, “The library is the community’s living room.” I couldn’t agree more and I believe we see that reality all across Vermont.