#MiddleburyCT #LetterToTheEditor
Dear Editor:
“We have something precious here.” I’ve heard that phrase again and again – always from those who know this town deeply, who give their time, raise their families, walk the quiet paths, and wave to neighbors by name. And always, the word precious comes with a quiet fear: What if we lose it?
In Middlebury, we still have a version of Connecticut that many towns no longer recognize. We have history you can touch. Civic life that still works. Landscapes that still breathe. And people who still show up – at the library, at the Historical Society, on committees, with garden gloves or a camera or a casserole. This is not just charm – it’s community, rooted and real.
But let’s be honest: it doesn’t take much to erode it.
- A widened road here,
- An ill-fitting development there,
- A strip mall in place of a wooded hill,
- A shrug when someone says, “We don’t have the volunteers anymore.”
And suddenly, what was precious is no longer visible. The texture is gone. The rhythm breaks. The soul thins out.
As someone who has lived a long life and watched this process unfold in other places, I can tell you plainly: once these things vanish, they rarely return. No ordinance can revive them. No grant can regrow them. They live only where we protect them – deliberately, locally, and together.
Middlebury’s charm is not an accident. It is the result of decades of careful choices, generous hearts, and a shared sense of scale and identity. That is what’s precious – and it’s ours to keep or to lose.
Terry McAuliffe
Middlebury
