To the editor: Stand up for the Land of the Free
The Chester Telegraph | Oct 15, 2025 | Comments 1
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
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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.