The Windsor Selectboard plans to vote on whether to continue saying the pledge of allegiance at the beginning of its meetings. In her recent Forum letter, Lori Moeykens wrote that she wants us all to stand before our flag and pledge our allegiance (“Stand with the flag and the pledge,” July 12).
I stand up for my freedom and my right, and the right of all other Americans, not to say the pledge and not to be judged un-American. Sadly, liberty and justice are not available for all Americans. As a supporter of the First Amendment to the Constitution, I object that the pledge does not separate state and religion. Does that also make me un-American? Is there only one way to be a United States citizen?
Moeykens wrote: “Freedom is not free. If you do not stand up for it, you just might lose it.” I totally agree with her. That is why I exercise my right to stand or not to stand, to embrace or not to embrace, and to pledge or not to pledge. Yes, you have the freedom to judge me, and I have the freedom to judge you. This is the United States of America.
REBECCA LEAKE
Norwich
I am just an old man. Been on this Earth, above ground, for 77 years, but have always believed that all lives matter. I guess that I am really in a minority. Keep seeing all of these Black Lives Matter groups rising. What about the rest of us? Don’t our lives matter? I guess not.
What is our country becoming? A country of “no one else matters unless you are Black”? We want to regress and believe that we suppressed Black people. Our country became great because of slavery. We want to eradicate all semblance of slavery. Change history. Slavery has existed since all of known history. The Jews were Egyptian slaves. The Greeks had slaves. The Romans had slaves. The Mongolians had slaves. Slavery has existed throughout human history. Is it acceptable? No. But it has been human nature for thousands of years.
The enslaved people who came to America were captured from other African tribes. Yes, Black people enslaving Black people for profit. Yet, although there are Black people killing and shooting Black people by the near hundreds every weekend in this country, we are raising the idea of Black lives matter over the real fact that all lives matter. Where are we going as a nation? Maybe we just need to tear down more of our real history to feel better or rewrite our past.
BRUCE ST. PETER
Grantham
It is inconceivable to me that those in our government who are responsible for our immigration policies pertaining to foreign students in the U.S. should be so completely short-sighted.
The obvious reason for the proposed changes, which the Trump administration is now backing away from, is to put pressure on colleges to reopen. To reopen without having the COVID-19 pandemic under control in most parts of the country and without adequate guidelines for safety is madness.
To say that students may remain here only if they are attending in-person classes was a capricious rule and, in most cases, would have been counter to the social-distancing protocol advised by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and would have posed a real threat of increased infection.
Making one policy in March, by which time thousands of students had made their plans for the remainder of the year, only to rescind it four months later — and then change the rules once again — is unfair, cruel and needlessly costly.
It should be noted that not only do foreign students add immeasurably to the intellectual life on the campuses of our nation, they also account for $45 billion in revenue for our colleges, schools and their communities annually.
SUSAN SPADEMAN
Wilder
Plastic pollution is an existential threat and a clear and present danger. It is poisoning our planet at a rate most people cannot conceive of. Plastic particulate is already in our water and our food, killing wildlife, littering pristine habitat and defiling the beauty of our planet.
It is time to pass laws implementing extended producer responsibility. We should all support the Break Free From Plastic Pollution Act, S.3263, sponsored by Sen. Tom Udall, D-N.M. This requires the companies that produce plastics to take a significant part in the cleanup.
MICHAEL WARD
Barnard