By Angelo Lynn
If you’re worried that Trump’s proposed cuts to the administration of Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security will negatively affect the benefits you or a member of your family may receive, you should speak out.
If you’re worried that privatizing the U.S. Postal Service will reduce rural delivery to your mailbox, negatively impact your business, and destroy what has been a mainstay of civic life since Benjamin Franklin was first appointed U.S. Postmaster General in 1775, speak out.
If you’re upset Trump is offending our democratic allies in Canada, Europe, and throughout the world while cozying up to dictators like Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and the consequences to America’s national and economic security will be dire, speak out.
If you’re concerned Trump is unjustly attacking the courts, defying court orders and threatening the justice system by targeting specific law firms, speak out.
If you’re concerned Trump and Republicans in power in states like Texas are threatening the health of the planet with a radical turn not just toward using more fossil fuels but also hindering the development of renewable energy, speak out.
If you’re a local farmer or parent of a child in school upset Trump canceled programs that helped local farmers provide healthy food to schoolchildren, speak out.
If you’re opposed to Trump cutting funds to small, rural libraries and museums, reducing benefits and raising costs for those enrolled in Obamacare (the Affordable Care Act), cutting funding for Covid vaccines at home, and cutting out funding for all vaccines abroad (which will increase the likelihood of infections spreading globally), speak out.
Because if you don’t speak out now, this Republican-led Congress will believe Americans don’t care about the damage Trump is doing to the country and is, in fact, on the right track.
The key to change is to ensure Republicans in Congress start to fear voters’ reactions more than Trump’s retribution. Only then will they start to exercise their rightful role as a counter to Trump’s often illegal power grab and vote for the good of the country —not for the benefit of one man.
One way to express your objections is to be part of area protests dedicated to showing that dissatisfaction. On Saturday, April 5, a rally called Hands Off is a non-violent demonstration against many of the Trump policies that are undermining critical services Americans need. One rally will be held in Montpelier from noon to 3 p.m., at 115 State St.; a closer rally will be held in Brandon from noon to 2 p.m.
Organizers promote the event as a “mass mobilization day” that is sending a “message to the world that we do not consent to the destruction of our government and our economy for the benefit of Trump and his billionaire allies. Alongside Americans across the country, we are marching, rallying, and protesting to demand a stop to the chaos and build an opposition movement against the looting of our country.”
“Hands Off” refers to Trump’s efforts to undermine “Medicaid, Medicare, Social Security, Our Jobs, Fair Elections, Personal Data, Public Lands, Veteran Services, Cancer Research, NATO, Consumer Protections, Clean Air, Clean Energy, Schools, Free Speech, Libraries, and more.”
For more information, go to handsoff2025.com. More importantly, make this a day to join other Americans on Saturday, April 5 who are also concerned about the direction the country is headed. Mass actions like this not only show Republican congressmen and women what they are apparently afraid to hear at town meetings but also give other Americans the courage to speak out and the confidence that something within their power can be done to stop the reduction and deterioration of services so many Americans need.
