At the January 14 meeting of the Senate Government Operations Committee, Senator Brian Collamore (R-Rutland) asked Vermont Director of Elections, Will Senning, about a woman arrested for election fraud in Texas.

In 1946 there appeared a poem written by Rev. Martin Niemoller titled “Then They Came For Me”. Niemoller was a clergyman in Germany who for several years was a strong supporter of Hitler and the Nazi movement.  At some point he realized the fallacy of his position and began to criticize the Nazis.  He was imprisoned at Dachau, but escaped the Holocaust. 

When Ben Franklin exited the room where the future of the United States was being decided, he was asked what kind of government we would have. He answered "a Republic, if you can keep it." More than 200 years later, Just days ago, we witnessed a challenge to that democratic Republic. Fascists, at the direction of Donald Trump, attempted to subvert our Republic by legislative process and by violence in the streets and in the halls of Congress. That coup was defeated.

Last Wednesday, Jan. 6, we saw a sharp contrast between legislative life in Vermont and in the Congress in Washington, D.C. This contrast couldn’t have been more stark — one: unusually quiet, orderly and historic but subdued, and the other: noisy, chaotic and shockingly violent. One affirming and one rocking our firm faith in the sanctity of our democratic process.

The following letter is a response by Wallingford resident Lynn Edmunds to a Jan. 8 letter by Sen. Joe Benning (R-Caledonia) in the Rutland Herald.

Supporters of the Presidential candidate who lost the election stormed into Washington D.C., destroying property, attacking and injuring police and causing major damage to buildings in the city. Vicious signs threatening the winner’s supporters were everywhere.

Thirty-three years ago, when my family and I settled in Vermont, we thought about residing in Burlington. In many ways, Burlington was a mini-Boston, only more beautiful with majestic views of the Adirondack and Green Mountains, endless vistas across Lake Champlain, and home to a half dozen colleges.

Congress should do its job.

It is with a heavy heart and very mixed thoughts and emotions that I share this message with friends, using the vehicle previously known as “Scribblings.”

We all know how awful 2020 was for Vermont and nationwide. But at least the right man won the presidency, newspaper publisher Angelo Lynn says.