Jeff Benay in VTDigger: Remember the idea of holding two opposing thoughts, and still being able to think?

In a letter to the editor, Jeff Benay examines the “atmosphere [at UVM] where Vermont’s own Abenaki students on campus are already afraid to share their heritage because of the vitriol aimed at them; where these students are having to confront daily taunts they are “fakes” and are “appropriating“ the Odanak Abenaki culture from southern Quebec; where professors, once proud to say they stood with the Vermont Abenaki, now dare say nothing in fear of retribution from colleagues and students; the UVM campus is reduced to rigid ideological camps, where one side claims “purity,” and the other “silence” in fear of being ridiculed. 

Read the full letter here.