PUTNEY — Please go to the polls on or before Aug. 14 and support Brenda Siegel in the Vermont Democratic gubernatorial primary.
So many issues in Vermont require fresh, younger, more progressive leadership than we see from the other candidates in the primary or from the current governor.
Brenda is the only candidate running for governor with a solid record of working for social and political change. She volunteered tirelessly for Bernie Sanders' campaign, and she has participated enthusiastically in the many issues facing the citizens of Windham County and of the state of Vermont through activism with many local and statewide organizations. She has written many eloquent and moving essays for statewide media.
I have known Brenda for most of her life, and I have seen a person who has grown into a powerful woman who has what it takes to bring out Vermont's potential to be a leader in education, health care, drug policy, and economic and environmental justice.
We need a governor who understands what so many citizens of the state want from our government:
• affordable, Medicare-for-all-style health care.
• a non-punitive “harm reduction” model of treatment for those impacted by the drug crisis.
• vocal and proud support of our high-quality public schools and our hard-working teachers.
• support for the arts and making arts accessible to all.
• a clean, livable environment, including aggressively moving toward zero use of fossil fuels.
• working for greater income equality in our state as the country continues to move toward greater poverty for the poor and ever greater wealth at the top.
• protecting the rights of women, people of color, immigrants, and asylum seekers, all of whom are under ever-greater assault from a racist and cruel Trump administration.
We can support Brenda by encouraging our friends to vote, volunteering for her campaign, and sending her personal donations. Most importantly, primaries are won by those who vote.
We are in a dire, terrifying political time - our state needs a leader who will support all Vermonters by standing up to the challenges facing us from a hostile federal government, accelerating climate change, and the opioid crisis.