Senator Aiken of Vermont

In South Strafford, VT., where I used to live, there is a lovely recreation area. Tennis courts, basketball hoops, soccer field - all right next to a tiny gymnasium and a stream. It is perfect. With the local school down the street and the local store at the other end of town, you are looking at a healthy community. The recreation area was designed and built with funds from something called the Land and Water Conservation Fund. There is a sign that says so.

That fund is a federal program that takes fees from various sources, packages them together, and gives out grants to rural communities to build recreation parks for its citizens all over the country.

Congress created the fund in 1963. The bill's co-sponsor? Senator George D. Aiken of Vermont.

As you walk and drive around the Green Mountain State - if you look closely - you begin to understand that Vermont looks the way it does and occupies a special place in the American imagination in part because of George Aiken.

I knew a bit about Aiken - that he was the senator who said we should declare victory in Vietnam and get out. Upon his retirement in 1974, he was replaced by Sen. Patrick Leahy, who still serves today into his 80s as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee and President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

But thanks to a small paperback by Stephen C. Terry, we now have a more detailed understanding of Aiken. What fascinates me is the imprint that Aiken had on the state of Vermont.

It is important to say that Aiken was a product of the white male power structure that excluded women and people of color. His attitudes and the legislation he championed were born in the 1930s and sometimes look out of step today. But back then, they were progressive.

First, Aiken was from Putney in southern Vermont - grew up selling vegetables with his father in town. He grew plants and flowers and wrote a book about it. But he had the political itch. Served on the Putney school board, the Vermont House of Representatives in 1930, and was the Vermont Speaker of the House in 1933 for two years and then Lt. Governor for the next two years; finally making his way to become the governor of Vermont for four years. For the rest of his life, he preferred being called "Governor".

In 1940, he was the U.S. Senator for Vermont and served in Washington for 35 years.

When you go down the Aiken list of legislative accomplishments, you begin to understand why Vermont looks and feels the way it does. It is small, rural, beautiful, and real. A friend compared it favorably to California, saying, "In California, they smile at you but won't help you in a crisis. Here they may not smile at you, but they will pull you out of the ditch and save you from a burning house."

Aiken spent his career fighting entrenched corporate power. He helped deliver rural electrification to Vermont via electric co-operatives when private utilities refused. I get my renewable electric power from a co-op today, all thanks to Senator Aiken. It is like the delivery of Internet service to rural areas. Comcast and the big corporates can't justify the expense. So "union districts," governed by local citizens, are preparing to deliver Internet service in their communities. Aiken would like that.

When you buy cheddar cheese from the Cabot Co-Operative Creamery, think of George Aiken.

Aiken sponsored the bill that led to the St. Lawrence Seaway, which accelerated shipping into the Great Lakes and would generate hydroelectric power. The railroads opposed the competition.

Aiken proposed what would become the school lunch program, the modern farm price support program, sponsored a medical insurance bill to get health care to poor people, and sponsored the federal inspection of meat and poultry.

Aiken served on a somewhat secret committee that helped draft the 1964 Civil Rights bill with the Kennedy administration and in 1964 authored a report which questioned our involvement in Vietnam.

He introduced and passed legislation to regulate pesticides and pay for water and sewer projects.

Aiken's work is everywhere. A flood-control dam, a rec field, an electric co-op, or a sewer treatment plant.

The Burlington waterfront and its miles of walking/bike paths are thanks to Aiken (and Bernie Sanders). You can get your power from a local co-op where you can attend the annual meeting and complain about your bill. You can play ball at a rec field that otherwise might not be there.

Outside of Vermont, east of the Mississippi River, you can think of George Aiken when you are hiking. He sponsored the Eastern Wild Areas bill, which protected 16 wilderness areas for public use.

But perhaps Aiken's most significant contribution to Vermont and why Vermont feels different than the rest of the country is his opposition to consolidated corporate power.

There are not many signs or memorials to Aiken around Vermont recognizing him for his contributions. But according to Terry's book, Aiken was the consummate Vermonter - modest, flinty, self-effacing, and sometimes a little ornery. They called him the "wise owl" and he consistently opposed the corporate "old guard" - banks, utilities, railroads, and insurance companies.

Whenever Aiken was in Washington, he ate breakfast in the Senate cafeteria with Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield of Montana. They were often joined by Aiken's assistant and later wife - Lola.

In the end, Aiken was partly responsible - along with dozens of others - for what Vermont has become. And it's worth remembering his contribution via Steve Terry's book.

It's also worth remembering that George D. Aiken - progressive, anti-corporate activist, war skeptic, and bi-partisan sage - was a Republican.