I've been coming to Vermont as often as possible for about fifteen years. I've been around a bit, and I won't hesitate to say that it is the most beautiful place I've seen. But something is happening, something totally foreign to the Vermont I've come to know. Green fields are planted with a crop of hatred. The signs of ignorance are popping up around the State. What a bitter harvest they will produce if they grow too big. What fear they signal! Do you think Gays around the country are packing their bags for the move to Vermont? San Francisco a ghost town? Key West vacant? The West Village empty? Get serious! These are your sons and daughters, your neighbors, your co-workers. You don't want to pay for benefits for partners? They probably don't want to pay school taxes for your kids. But they do. I've seen gay friends lose their partners to AIDS. I've seen the committment through the illness, I've seen the love, I've seen the tears. I've also seen them return to work, only to have their co-workers refuse to acknowledge their loss, without even a card. What does your god say about that? These people don't want to convert you, they're not interested in your kids and, really, they'd rather not be (if you'll pardon a pun) in your face. But they're here and, yeah, they're queer, so you might as well get used to it because they're not going away. They just want what you want: to live together in peace. And frankly, Vermont, you're better than this. People look to Vermont not only as a place of great natural beauty, but as a place where wisdom, wit and peacefulness reside. If only you could see what all this looks like from the outside. The sun is shining a little less brightly on your mountains. Your lakes have taken on a paler blue. You seem almost, gasp, common! Must you really come down to meet the rest of us? Can't you help to lift us up? Say it isn't so, Vermont. Kevin Tighe