To the editor: Stand up for the Land of the Free
The Chester Telegraph | Oct 15, 2025 | Comments 5
Our national anthem ends with a question: “Oh say does that star spangled banner yet wave o’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?”
Are we still the land of the free when the president can deploy federal troops to states that do not want them under the phony pretext that citizens exercising their constitutional right to peaceably protest are engaged in an insurrection?
Are we the land of the free when masked ICE agents can pepper spray peaceful demonstrators and detain members of the press; when the president can illegally withhold funds Congress has appropriated and allow a billionaire buddy to summarily fire thousands of federal workers; when he openly weaponizes the DOJ and the FBI to harass and indict his political enemies?
Are we still the home of the brave when congressional Republicans supinely allow this to happen; when law firms, universities and huge corporations knuckle under to Trump’s threats and allow themselves to be bullied; when major tv networks and social media platforms do not challenge even his most obvious lies and disinformation?
Over 2,000 No Kings demonstrations are planned for Saturday, Oct. 18, in cities and towns throughout the nation, including Chester, Manchester, Rutland, Bellows Falls and Brattleboro.
I urge you to participate in one of these peaceful protests. The patriots who stood on Lexington Green, fought bravely at Hubbardton and Bennington, and endured winter at Valley Forge refused to be ruled by an autocratic monarch. Now it’s our turn to resist Trump’s burgeoning tyranny and show that America is still the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Bill Dunkel
Windham
Filed Under: Commentary • Letters to the Editor
I have to say president Trump does not handle himself in what I feel is presidential at times. I am a independent at heart an independent from age 18 and voted for all 3 parties over time.I have never seen such of a divide between Democrats and Republicans as we are all facing now.that said from 2020 I have voted and supported Republicans and what they are trying to achieve. Big problems our nation has been facing, our government and it’s spending was out of control. Someone needed to rain it in. Our border was a mess with our entrance being a free for all. We had a system in place to welcome immigrants and migrant workers,the right way.
Yes it was out dated and needed to be streamlined and made quicker. But opening the flood gates without vetting millions was just wrong! So I do not agree with how our president may do things but do agree in what he is achieving. I care about all people but until our country gets in a better place it would cause us great pain to save the world. Our nation owes 38 trillion and rapidly growing. To pay that off every man wowan and child and baby in the USA would have to pay $110,000. If you had just the people paying taxes pay it would be $336,000 per person. How will our kids ever find a way to pay for our poor spending habits? Things need to change and brought under control. The president and Republicans are trying to do this like it or not. Last Democrats and Republicans both do not want a king! We are happy with our term presidents. Our politicians need to all understand and work together. Everything is expensive and we have to slow down our spending as a nation. Yes it is going to hurt but the alternative is dumping this on our kids we all love and want better for the. Right?
I do believe years ago it was determined that a spy satellite could read my license plate while roaming the hills of Vermont at high speed? Does the Nied not realize that is being done on the narco-terrorists high speed boats to prove they are carrying lethal drugs to kill Americans before the missiles are triggered? Trump is NOT a bleeding heart like YOU! He is taking care of our Decades of Drugs killing our kids, our adults, by eliminating the root of the cause at one of the supply routes…NO DAMN QUESTIONS ASKED!! Thank God for Trump and pass the ammo…..!!!
What is it the left can’t comprehend? we didn’t see extraordinary deportation action in his first term and was on line with both Obama and Clinton but things changed. Biden decided that anyone could come in unvetted and we saw the results. and the left is so critical of crime being reduced, the only people not upset with it is the ones having to deal with it daily. Bill fails to mention that the democrat mayor of DC praised the reduction in crime.
as for his criticism of the media he left out that the Biden administration worked with media especially social media to censor free speech that disagreed with them.
finally let’s not forget that Biden had government employees fired for exercising their rights to not be subjected to an experimental vaccine which has been shown to be neither safe or effective.
The above author is so full of BS….and, apparently on the 18th the full Effect of Dumbing Down America will be strutting their sorrowful existence on the grass and pavement of my Home Town! Talking about the Deployment of Federal Troops into our Blue City’s? What about your favorite Buffoon Biden Deploying Thousand’s of Illegal Criminals into this Country! What a dumb person you are, Tyranny under your love-Bug Biden is being evaporated…thank God! Tell me, has George Soros moved to Chester, yet? As after the 18th he might just do that! Sorry, maybe DamnBani will move into the town, instead? YOU have insulted my 3rd Great Grandfather who as a Minute Man out of Lincoln, Massachusetts fought at Concord and Lexington, Breed’s Hill, and after serving Eight Years in the Continental Army was discharged at West Point under the Signature of General Knox! His first Company Commander was Capt William Smith a brother to Abigail Adams. Trump took a bullet through the Ear for your sorry ass, and I can think of so many of your ILK in so-called leadership who also could use a Wake-Up Whiz by both EARS! In TRUE PATRIOTISM not phony hypocrisy, I am Nathan Adams formerly of Chester, Vermont.
No one should tolerate an abusive relationship. Our current president is conducting extrajudicial killings on the high seas, turning the military against the public, attacking human rights and deny help to the most vulnerable amongst us. He is doing it all in our name as Americans and abusing the dignity, integrity and decency of us all in the process. We must resist, we must call out the abuse, and we must not let this become the normal state of our country. We must stand up and speak out on October 18th and every day there after until the abuse ends.