By Keith Whitcomb Jr.
TIMES-ARGUS
CLARENDON, Vt. — After a lengthy discussion on Monday about how inclusive the word “all” is, the Select Board voted to create an ad hoc committee to draft a declaration of inclusion that will satisfy most people.
A month ago, a group of residents came to the board with a declaration of inclusion that it wished the town to adopt. Many towns across the state — as well as Gov. Phil Scott — have adopted such statements, after being urged to do so by local activists inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Clarendon board opted to table the matter for a few meetings so it could solicit feedback on the statement and draft one of its own that hopefully would be acceptable.
Board member Robert Congdon read the board’s version out loud.
“The Town of Clarendon formally condemns discrimination in all of its forms and welcomes all people who want to live and work and bring richness to our town. Clarendon calls upon all residents to denounce prejudice, to openly acknowledge and address our own implicit bias and welcome and celebrate all people and continue to work together to ensure every individual can live freely, equitably and express their opinions,” he said.
Select Board Chair Mike Klopchin said the statement mirrors the one the governor issued in May 2021.
The board’s version doesn’t specifically list any historically marginalized group, which the folks who proposed the declaration took issue with, and was the subject of most of the meeting’s debate. By the end, the board agreed to create an ad hoc committee of seven people, which includes two board members, to draft a statement of inclusion to present at the first board meeting in June.
Clarendon resident John McKenna said the statement needs to mention race, color, religion, national origin, sex, gender identity or expression, age, and disability.
“I didn’t want to list groups because you’re going to leave somebody out,” said board member Art Menard. “I can tell you right now, nobody mentions anything about topography on there. When I moved to Vermont I heard ‘flatlander’ I don’t know how many times. I don’t see anything in there about that kind of discrimination … it was disparaging to me. Yeah, I’m a flatlander, I’ll admit that I am. So I didn’t want to leave anything out, so if we just call on all people, you’re not naming any groups, we’re not leaving any groups out, we’re including all groups. That’s why I kind of like leaving it out.”
Menard said he doesn’t wish to have people coming to the board later on and saying they were left out and asking to be added.
Town resident Madison Aiken wondered what the problem with that would be, and added that this statement isn’t related to insults such as “flatlander.”
Clarendon resident Marjorie Southard said she favors the board’s version of the statement.
“Actually, by saying race and by saying gender you are actually putting out there a problem that does not exist in this town,” she said. “We have never excluded anyone in this town.”
Ryn Gluckman said she’s lived in Clarendon for 43 years, grew up here and doesn’t agree that there’s no bigotry.
“And I just want to say that homophobia is a problem in Clarendon, that I experience it on a regular basis in this community, and I’m here because I still love being here and because I wanted to come back and raise my son here,” she said. “So there are things that are particular, racism is a problem here, homophobia is a problem here, and that’s why those things are named, because historically, I can tell you, I needed this statement 38 years ago.”
She said the governor’s statement named identity groups because those groups have had to be protected by law.
“And that doesn’t exclude Clarendon,” she said. “We’ve discriminated against those classes here. So I guess I’m not entirely sure what the concern is, but I guess if it’s that everybody is going to want to jump on the bandwagon and put their identity into the inclusion statement then perhaps we should reach out to towns that have included those identities to see if that’s really been a problem, because I bet it hasn’t. I bet those towns are not getting phone calls every day asking for other folks to be included in their statements. Why don’t we call them and find out if that’s really the concern?”
Klopchin said that regardless of what other governments have said or done in the past, when the town says “all” it means everyone.
“I think historically, Michael, all has not really meant all, and there’s a problem for me trusting that,” said Gluckman. “In political documents when people said “all men are created equal” they didn’t mean all men. And so that’s why we call out those identities because I don’t trust it anymore.”
keith.whitcomb @rutlandherald.com
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