These days I feel our democracy is vulnerable, that we are in a pivotal moment both politically and culturally. To understand our tangled world, I need to ask questions that focus on central issues.
What does the gap between the rich and poor mean for our society?
The market may not be rigged as President Donald Trump suspects, but it is clearly the servant of the wealthy and an indifferent servant of the poor. Growing markedly for some 30 years, the gap between rich and poor undermines the solidarity that democratic citizenship requires. As inequality deepens, rich and poor live increasingly separate lives.
How can we make immigration humane?
Nativism runs deep among Trump’s most ardent supporters. This administration is bent on building a wall, arresting and deporting undocumented workers, and permanently cutting the number of immigrants who can enter the U.S. These practices are morally reprehensible. Don’t we, as a rich country, have a moral obligation to help poor families suffering from domestic distress by admitting them as legal immigrants? Evidence shows that immigration materially benefits the United States by creating new jobs and complementing the skills of the existing U.S. workforce.
What are the effects of technological change on workers?
The technological capabilities of modern societies are constantly increasing; they present challenges that our institutions find difficult to manage. As a result, individuals often feel powerless, overwhelmed by the impersonality of the work process and the control of large corporations.
What is a just society and how might we achieve it?
Our society is wracked by divisiveness. Trump thrives on this as he continuously refers to a rigged system, fake press and subversive plots against his administration.
In his book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do?, Michael Sandel, the American political philosopher and Harvard University professor, proposes a contrasting view of a just society. He states, “To achieve a just society we have to reason together about the meaning of the good life, and to create a public culture hospitable to the disagreements that will inevitably arise.”
Bob Scobie
Lebanon
Have a Conversation, Save a Life
School shootings have been a huge issue for the U.S. There have been different ideas on what we should do to help prevent them, such as stricter gun control, focusing on reducing weapons on school grounds, and training on what to do when someone says they want to kill others.
Let’s start with students. Almost all attackers (95 percent) were current students at the school, according to Campus Safety Magazine, and 71 percent felt persecuted, bullied, threatened or injured by others before to the incident. “In several cases that harassment was described as long-standing and severe,” the magazine said.
I think every kid in a school should see a counselor. If you are a kid reading this, then I bet you’re rolling your eyes right now. I know seeing a counselor is something most kids don’t like doing. I know I don’t. But when I was thinking of ways we could help prevent school shootings, seeing a counselor is an option. I thought to myself, this is something I definitely wouldn’t want to do. Why waste my time and talk with a counselor when I know there is nothing wrong with me? Then I thought about my mom. She asked me how I would feel if our school went on strike for a couple of months until something is done about school shootings. The first thing I said was, “That’s stupid. That means we have to stay in school a couple of months longer.” She sat there and said I was being selfish. She wasn’t wrong. I remember her saying to me, “You would be more worried about spending a couple of extra months in school than saving kids’ lives, Sylvie?”
So when I was thinking about kids seeing a counselor and how that wouldn’t work because I wouldn’t want to see one, I was being selfish. A conversation lasting five minutes or less could really help save a kid’s life, or 2,000 kids lives.
Sylvie Coltey
Bethel
What is so hard to understand here? You don’t make a crime legal by changing the name of it. An illegal alien in 1996 is today’s undocumented refugee.
Here is another sad but true fact: Washington and Hollywood don’t care about anything other than their hatred of President Donald Trump. You want to see how they truly feel about the border, look at their priorities so far. First, they tried blaming the Russians for their loss in the election. (The ironic part of this was, they rigged their own primary so Hillary Clinton would win.) When that didn’t work, a porn star became their savior. They cheered and hoped Iran would teach Trump a lesson (I’m still waiting on that). Then they hoped North Korea would cause a nuclear strike, but alas that failed and a peace deal was reached.
The left has dug, cried, pointed fingers, all while losing ground. Now they are using kids and lies to try to promote their “We Hate Trump” agenda, but alas, this is destined to fail. Trump will take action on his own again, and those on the left, who embraced all this illegal-aliens-go-home-policy for so long, will once again be exposed for the frauds they actually are.
At this point the cycle will start all over again on some other subject — probably Russia or global warming. Just a heads up so you can be prepared for the next “major” reason to be mad, while President Trump continues to Make America Great Again.
Jon Foote
Wentworth, N.H.
With Patrick Little’s recent win in the California Senate primary, the Republican Party has reached a new low, if that can be considered possible. My father fought in the European Theatre during World War II to dispose of the anti-Semetic “values” this Republican represents. However, it seems that the Nazis won.
I proudly served in the U.S. Army with a Republican, Richard Nixon, as my commander in chief. I’m certain President Nixon wouldn’t go for this new soiled crop of Republicans. The GOP can count on me never voting Republican again.
Daniel Moore
Grafton
I would like Vermont to remember my son: MacAdam Lee Mason. He was killed in Thetford on June 20, 2012. Lee (MacAdam) was a wonderful son and artist; he was loved and is missed by so many.
Because of his death a bill was introduced and then signed into law to define the use of Tasers and to provide excessive-force training and mental health awareness for all law enforcement in Vermont.
Rhonda Lynne Taylor
Lancaster, N.H.