Vermont town wanted to burn house to force out residents (a blast from the past)

Here's another slice of fairly recent history that shows just how heartless our overlords are.

A few years ago, officials in the town of Arlington, Vermont, planned to ask the fire department to burn down a historic town-owned house to drive out a family that had lived there for years. The family included 6 people, including an elderly widow and a visually impaired man. Three of the 6 were deaf. Two of the 6 were small children.

But the town called the family "squatters." As we all know, that's one of those words that gets thrown around so much that it's lost all meaning.

It turned out that the town wanted to demolish the house just so the property could be turned over to a well-connected developer. The town practically admitted as much, as officials said clearing the property would be a good way to attract buyers.

When I was about 4, I used to think the purpose of a fire department was to burn down houses – not put out fires. But that was before I ever heard of gentrification.