Faltering Economy Hits Vermont

Ray Bradbury’s Halloween tale spawned the ominous saying. “Something Wicked This Way Comes”. With the United States economy in a precarious situation and uncertain times ahead, that saying somehow seems eerily appropriate. On the Vermont local news reports, we’ve heard several times that the economic downturn hasn’t affected us yet. Maybe the Vermont news teams need to dig a little deeper because there is proof to the opposite.
After speaking with a number of people including a few innkeepers in northern Vermont, it seems that business is indeed on a severe decline. It is foliage season in Vermont, yet some inns and bed & breakfasts have little to no guests during a season that is nearly always sold out during a normal year.
I don’t have much faith in the presidential candidates either. I don’t believe that either one has the leadership qualities to dig us out of this quagmire.
Obama has a lot of aspirations and promises a lot but we’ve heard all that before. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.”
John McCain isn’t any better of a choice and doesn’t seem to have any answers. Neither does Sarah “deflector shield” Palin, who changes the subject whenever she’s asked even the simplest question and somehow spins it back to the subject of “hockey moms in Alaska”.
Yet during one of the most ominous and critical crises in America’s history, the two candidates are more concerned with pointing out each other’s weaknesses.
Leadership is lacking, the economy is tanking and the rich and corrupt are enjoying their golden parachutes. Meanwhile, the lights are going out within some country inns of Vermont because they can’t make a go of it. Small businesses get no bail out. I guess their parachutes aren’t golden enough.