Lucy Boyden possesses right values for Vermont
Context. Character. Values.
As the former Republican representative from Cambridge, I’ve been asked to support both candidates for our shared House seat with Waterville. I choose Lucy Boyden and here’s why.
In a race where both candidates have only emerging policy or political experience, context, character and values matter most to me. Boyden shares so much with me of what I identify as those of Cambridge and Waterville. It’s through this shared story that her decisions will be informed.
She knows what it’s like to grow up on a multi-generation Lamoille County farm surrounded by family and community. She knows what it’s like to share a pew with these people and to listen to their coffee-hour talk about issues critical to life in rural Vermont. She knows the value of a dollar whether it goes into the collection plate, the bank account or to invest in the farm, a pony, an education or a business.
Having worked as a kid in not one, but two family agricultural businesses, Boyden knows about tough choices, not just in that sector of the economy but, by extension, how difficult running a business can be in Vermont, period.
Boyden also knows about helping a neighbor through both personal or congregational charity and through community effort. In this knowledge, she’s learned the limits of each, and that, sparingly as possible, it’s only through local, state and federal government efforts that broad equity is truly found and sustained.
She’s learned that only through discipline, efficiency and assay can small, low-margin, high-expense farming be passed from one generation to another, and that for government to be defensible it must also be shrewd with how it deploys its resources and from whom it takes those precious resources to begin with.
These few examples are but strands in the sweater weave of Vermont. When threaded together with her education, passion for her community and her interest in politics, I can’t think of a better person to represent us in Montpelier.
I hope you’ll join me in voting for Lucy Boyden on Nov. 8.
Adam Howard
Cambridge
