The Vermont Chamber has said it, in startlingly emphatic, hey wake-up because it is frightening close to too bloody late challenge, that if listened to, and acted on, could save the Green Mountain State.

The title of the Chamber’s missive which has been printed on various news sites is: “Vermont is in Trouble.” They follow it up with explanations that, if you love this beautiful state you will panic. Which is absolutely the correct reaction. But it is only the correct reaction if you are willing to help do something to solve the myriad pile of problems facing us.

The chamber states the issue this way: “We are aging, shrinking, and pricing out our own children, workers, and entrepreneurs. Schools face consolidation, taxes are climbing, and employers struggle to fill jobs. We’re too dependent on federal funding to support state spending. A housing shortage is driving up prices, slowing economic growth, and leaves young people feeling forced out. Staying the course is not a viable option. It only gets worse from here if nothing changes.”

They suggest some solutions:

Regulatory Modernization: Move from a culture of “permission” to a culture of “production.”

Fiscal Stewardship: Align our budget with economic reality.

Intentional Growth: Actively recruit and retain a diverse, working-age population.

Accountability: Ensure enacted policies achieve their goals.

Each of these is elaborated on by the Chamber. They also go on to say: “Vermont has experienced the nation’s largest percent decrease in population last year, becoming the only state losing population to both natural changes and net migration… Let’s choose abundance because Vermonters can no longer afford to choose scarcity.”

It is a Cri du Coeur that should be heard by every legislator, selectboard or city council, every business owner, civic organization, in the state. This isn’t a project for next year. This is a problem that demands immediate action!

In March I wrote a column remembering Governor Phil Hoff’s Vermont marketing campaign known as “Vermont the Becking Country.” The campaign brought thousands of people to the state. The same slogan might well, with an attractive invitation advertising campaign might get noticed by people and companies on the lookout for new opportunities. Newcomers should be happily welcomed. But missionaries from afar won’t solve our problems. This is a job for Vermonters.

The chamber mentions the crying need for new housing and laments that, “For decades, Vermont has treated growth as a threat to mitigate… True equity requires expanding supply rather than fighting over the crumbs of a shrinking economy.”

Their words need to be heeded. Immediately. We have dug ourselves a very deep hole. We aren’t going to climb out of it in a year or two. It is going to take years of constant hard work and a sizable fortune to get Vermont back to growing rather than shrinking. But if our children and grandchildren are going to have Vermont as a viable choice where to live and work, we need to begin making Vermont viable again immediately.

The Vermont Chamber is correct. They have stated the problem in bold words. They have challenged the government, the business community, the education system, the news media, and every single one of us to step up and begin the hard work of making the Vermont the Beckoning Country once again!

When the legislature returns to Montpelier in the fall, they need to get to work and Governor Scott can’t sit back and wait for the lawmakers to craft a long series of brilliant remedies to fix what is broken. Governor Scott needs to roll up his sleeves and work closely with those writing the bills. He also should gather members from the business world and those from not-for-profit organizations. Getting Vermont back on track is going to take an “All hands-on deck” attitude.

Time is running out for Vermont. The Green Mountain State is too precious to all it to wither away.

Eric Peterson has been contributing columns to various publications for decades. Opinions expressed by columnists do not necessarily reflect the views of Vermont News & Media.

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This story by Liberty Darr was first published in the Shelburne News on June 25, 2026.

“In New York, the models I’ve had to depend on are all washed-out and unhealthy. Up here, I not only encounter practically every type of American I’ll ever have to use, but they look healthy!”

The quote by iconic illustrator Norman Rockwell helps to understand the new Shelburne Museum exhibit “Norman Rockwell: At Home in Vermont.”

The exhibit examines how the beloved American illustrator shaped an enduring vision of Vermont — one with real people — during his years living and working in Arlington from 1939 to 1953. But Arlington wasn’t just a place for him to find refuge from city life in New Rochelle, New York. He was truly woven into the community. He attended the local swing dances and the PTA meetings, judged many art fairs and even crowned a carnival queen, according to Carolyn Bauer, curator at Shelburne Museum.

He knew the local firemen, the doctor and the young children down the street. And he used them to inform his work of painting a picture of true, American life — one that represented not only the values Vermonters hold dear, but also what the country was yearning for at that time.

“Take a step back and think about what is happening in America during those 14 years too,” Bauer said. “We’re coming out of the Great Depression, World War II and the postwar era. How is the country changing its identity? And vis-a-vis, how is Vermont becoming part of the collective national imagination?”

Rockwell was not the only artist of that time finding relief from city life in the quaint town of Arlington in the Green Mountain State. The way Bauer puts it, Rockwell was not creating in a vacuum. The town’s strong artist circle had already taken root with the likes of Mead Schaeffer, John Atherton and Gene Pelham — who would all play a key role in Rockwell’s creations throughout that time.

While in Vermont, Rockwell created 175 covers for The Saturday Evening Post, Bauer said, and at the time, there were more Saturday Evening Post illustrators per capita in Arlington than anywhere else in the nation.

“They were also really looking to distill into their imagery and inspiration these values that were found in Vermont that couldn’t be found elsewhere at that moment,” Baur said, noting virtues like self-reliance, neighborliness, civic duty — things the country was looking for especially during periods of crisis.

Author Dorothy Canfield Fisher, whose legacy has since been tarnished by her alleged ties to the eugenics movement, captured the idea particularly well in 1942, portraying Vermont as a stronghold of democratic spirit and cultural integrity.

“Much of what we call ‘Vermontism,’” she wrote, “is nothing but good ‘old-Americanism’ surviving in an out-of-the-main-current community, which has not been so beaten upon as communities elsewhere by the storms of modern life.”

While the exhibit is separate from the museum’s “America 250” exhibition, it is, at its core, a celebration of Americana.

It’s nearly impossible to talk about Rockwell without talking about patriotism, Bauer said. She pointed to his well-known works in the “Four Freedoms” series — “Freedom of Speech,” “Freedom of Worship,” “Freedom from Want” and “Freedom from Fear” — painted during World War II, with inspiration taken from American ideals spelled out by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The first, “Freedom of Speech,” depicts a man standing up at what appears to be a traditional Vermont town meeting, a copy of the town’s annual report in hand.

“Not everyone understands that level of civic duty that is instilled to us here in Vermont,” Bauer said.

The exhibit features 40 of the 175 covers Rockwell created for The Saturday Evening Post in addition to large-scale original favorites like “The Tattoo Artist” and “The Young Lady with the Shiner.”

The exhibit, roughly a year in the making — which is record time for a museum — was largely inspired by the museum’s recent acquisition of three Rockwell paintings that, at one point, were commissioned by Rock of Ages in Barre for the company’s national advertising campaign in 1955.

The museum last year was given “Kneeling Girl” and “The Craftsman” — both the final product and also a sketch. Both of them, Bauer said, are important hallmarks of Vermont industry and craftsmanship.

Bauer hopes that those who visit the exhibition — which is on view through Oct. 25 — walk away with not only an understanding of the broader context of the work, but a knowledge of how deeply personal these works were to the artists on display.

“We know Rockwell as this individual genius, but again, he wasn’t working alone, he was working in collaboration with these other Arlington artists, but also the community, the models, the people down the street,” she said. “He knew these people intimately, this town, the American people at large. He was an incredibly empathetic person, and you could read that in each of his works.”