Dear Editor:

By the time this is published, perhaps a day this coming week, the sun will be shining again, and your readers will be going about their end-of summer days; grocery shopping at Hannaford; a walk at Ocean Point; out on the water to haul traps or to go for a sail. Kids will have started up school again, as always. It’s only natural.

On this same day, armed military will be patrolling the streets of a peaceful American city. In other places, masked, un-uniformed police will still be rounding up brown-skinned people, most non-criminal. Museums will start to be purged of historical material the leader does not like. Media companies will be bullied into compliance with news broadcasts the leader likes. Judges will be threatened because they take cases the leader does not like. People who dare to speak up against the ideas of the leader will be finding their homes raided. Or careers threatened. Free elections will be threatened. Public schools will have approved grants blocked. The national guard will be trained to counter “civil unrest,” and will be poised to enter more peaceful American cities.
Scientific enterprises including research on topics that include, to name only a few, energy transition; programs to increase the number of U.S. computer scientists, cybersecurity specialists, physicists and STEM teachers; and support for students with disabilities will be canceled.

Like most of your readers, on this day, I will go about go about my usual activities; I’ll make supper; we’ll watch TV. We’ll carry on, willfully pushing any concerns, so far, about the crumbling of these norms of our democracy, to the back of the mind.

Bruce MacDonald

Boothbay