PUTNEY — So many of us are distressed about the daily piling on of terrible news, the bizarre words and actions from Donald Trump, and the complete and total moral capitulation of the Republican party.
I'm a white, straight business owner, and my busy bookstore actually benefits from people being home, from so many children being educated by their families, and from the many people who need visible yard signs, pins, and stickers to express their views.
I personally am actually doing well, although the fear of COVID-19 is always a niggling presence in my consciousness.
But how I am doing personally is inseparable from the terrible, violent, and cruel United States government and how it creates a complete two-tier system of justice: one for most of us, and the other for the criminals involved in the Trump administration and the violent white supremacists who support them.
This government is taking all our tax dollars and using them for catastrophic ends.
A few outrages include funding a stupid and useless wall on the southern border, establishing the first network of concentration camps for people who legally crossed the border to seek asylum, and creating a militarized force through Homeland Security accountable only to Trump.
The entire Trump debacle has been one huge monument to injustice, with the monstrous attorney general, Bill Barr, enabling the president in every illegal endeavor.
These same monsters are attempting to criminalize free expression of speech if it is not in support of racist, far-right ideology. The president has even come out on Oct. 9 and attacked Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, because she expressed outrage that a band of lowlife Trump supporters have been charged with plotting to kidnap her - or kill her.
No, Trump did not express any dismay at the action of his thug supporters.
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All my life, I have been obsessed with fairness. As a small child, I can remember observing any and all ways I or others were not treated fairly or how bullies treated me or others.
This obsession has extended to my entire adult life, so when I see poor treatment of people of color, of people who have a different sexual orientation, or of anyone who is not in the mainstream, it makes me angry and sad.
Dozens of times every day, someone asks another caring and compassionate person, “How are you today?”
How should we answer?
I am fine, but my heart is breaking for those who are suffering from COVID-19.
For those people of color being violated by a racist criminal-justice system and police force.
For those who have lost their jobs and have no hope of help, thanks to the greed and lack of morality of the rulers of this country.
For those children stuck at home with parents who have to work all the time to keep food on the table.
For those people in the Western states who have had a terrible fire season yet again.
And the list goes on.
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When we consider how to vote in the upcoming election, remember what being “pro-life” really means.
It has nothing to do with blocking women from having a choice about their reproductive rights, as the Republican party is trying to do.
It is not about prosecuting women and doctors for refusing to force a woman to carry a fetus with no brain activity to term.
A government that truly is “pro-life” would be about creating a structure that, as Sen. Bernie Sanders always says, works for all of us from the day our mothers get what should be great care in a birthing room to a compassionate end of life.
Republicans do not have that goal in mind.
Instead, they are trying to take away your health care in the Supreme Court.
They are coming for the regulations that help keep our water, air, and food from killing us.
They want to deny us money to support good schools, and they want to take away our right to freely protest these heinous policies.
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It is time for a change. We need to get the Trump people out of Washington. We also need to get Gov. Phil Scott out of Montpelier.
Vote for the Biden and Harris presidential ticket. Vote for David Zuckerman for governor.
And then, we can work together to create a sustainable, just country.