BRATTLEBORO-I am writing to express my strong opposition to the candidacy of Tim Wessel for Brattleboro Selectboard. His actions and statements make it clear that he is not the right person to represent a town that values justice, inclusivity, and compassion.
At last year's Representative Town Meeting, Wessel opposed a resolution calling for an end to U.S. military aid to Israel, arguing that it "sends a message to Jews in this country that the one country where they should be safe and have self-determination" should have a right to "defend itself."
This statement is deeply troubling. It assumes that American Jews should feel a special allegiance to Israel rather than be free to live and thrive wherever they are. Many Jewish Americans in Brattleboro and around the country oppose Israel's behavior. Wessel's message is that their safety depends on a state engaging in genocide and occupation.
Wessel's paternalism and hubris were also evident in 2022, two years after George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police, a time when many in this country were struggling to disaggregate deep-seated and systemic biases.
As he prepared to run for a seat in the state Legislature, Wessel suggested in an interview with the Reformer that Brattleboro had successfully resolved racism on his watch.
"Everything exploded with the George Floyd stuff [...] and all the difficult conversations when I was chair," he recalled. "I'm very proud of the outcome of all the conversations. It was productive. We landed in a good place. Instead of the community tearing itself apart, we actually made it through."
Beyond his words, Wessel's behavior at protests in support of Palestinian human rights is disqualifying. During a solemn moment of silence for child victims of violence in Gaza, he laughed audibly - an act of extraordinary disrespect and cruelty.
He walked with counter-protesters who were carrying a hybrid U.S.-Israel flag and heckling the group, an obvious attempt to provoke and undermine the message of the demonstration. At a time when people in Brattleboro and around the world are mourning unimaginable loss and advocating for an end to bloodshed, Wessel chose to mock and disrupt rather than engage in respectful discourse.
In an op-ed in The Commons, Wessel questioned "the moral compass" of those of us who choose to stand against genocide. Statements like this fuel what has grown into a dangerous well-organized and funded national campaign to criminalize protests against U.S. support for Israel's inhuman treatment of Palestinians and crack down on free speech on U.S. campuses.
Wessel would do well to entertain the words of Jonah Rubin of Jewish Voice for Peace: "The worst thing people can do to combat antisemitism is to pretend that human rights activism and people trying to stop a genocide are antisemitic."
The U.S. spent $18 billion in weapons and aid to prop up Israel's land theft, ethnic cleansing, and apartheid in just the past 16 months. As Brattleboro preps for sobering budget cuts and a debilitating tax increase on its residents, does Wessel as a self-described fiscal conservative see the disconnect between the sheer cost of this foreign policy and the challenges we face here at home, including housing, addiction, and economic insecurity?
Brattleboro needs leaders with empathy and a commitment to finding constructive, creative, and cooperative solutions. Wessel's track record of words and deeds shows that he is more interested in aggrandizing his own privilege and antagonizing those with whom he disagrees than in fostering community and solving problems.
We need leaders who bring people together, not those who sow division with inflammatory rhetoric and disrespectful actions.
Brattleboro needs representatives who embody the values of compassion, justice, and inclusivity. Wessel has repeatedly shown that he does not.
Kate Casa
Brattleboro
This letter to the editor was submitted to The Commons.
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