Barbara Jatkola, Jaffrey
As we approach our nation’s 250th birthday, this is what I know about the people waving to you from the bridges and lining the roadsides in support of our democracy:
1. We love our country.
2. We believe in the tenets laid out in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution: that all people are created equal and are equally protected under the rule of law.
3. We support freedom of speech, freedom of religion (or no religion), freedom of the press, and freedom from the rule of tyrants and kings.
4. We value diversity and view inclusion as a vital and necessary element of a healthy democracy.
5. We endorse voting rights for all Americans who are eligible to vote and decry the U.S. Supreme Court’s evisceration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
6. We embrace equal opportunity for women and non-white men, gay and transgender people, and reject the current administration’s efforts to prevent them from advancing in the military, the civil service, and society in general.
7. We are outraged by the lawless and heartless treatment of immigrants, both those who may be undocumented and those who are in this country legally and may even be U.S. citizens.
8. We are saddened by the purging of historical facts from National Park Service sites, government websites, and school textbooks that contradict Donald Trump’s warped racist and misogynist view of history.
9. We are infuriated by Trump’s openly corrupt financial dealings, cynical appointment of individuals who are utterly without qualifications for their jobs, and sinister pursuit of personal vendettas against individuals, universities, law firms, the media, and even entire states.
10. We are terrified as we watch the social safety net, the protection of citizens’ private financial and personal information, and the integrity of the U.S. justice system disintegrate before our eyes.
11. And finally, we are flabbergasted by senators’ and congressional representatives’ refusal to assert their power and rein in the administration’s unlawful actions, as well as their abject disregard for the people who elected them.
Flip us off if you will, but you will not discourage or deter us. We love our country, and we mean to preserve our democracy for another 250 years.