Dear Editor:

We have today a revealing moment, wherein the Republican Party (not the voters, but the vast majority of the elected officials) has become the line of police standing on the Edmund Pettus Bridge to stop minorities from voting. Heading toward that bridge, in the spirit of the late, great John Lewis, are the vast majority of the people of this nation. This confrontation will reveal where everyone stands on the issue of equal rights and the very core of our democracy; the right to vote. Every elected Republican is going to have to take a side on voter suppression. Susan Collins is going to have to either support HR1 / SR1, or not. Silence is complicity with the greatest voter suppression movement since Jim Crow.

What’s it going to be, Senator Collins? Where do you stand? We are all waiting for your answer, and silence will not hide your position, but rather confirm it. Will you vote in support of SR1, or are you a member of the southern strategy coalition in favor of draining the pool and closing the schools rather than sharing this nation with us all?

Dwight and Karen Swisher

Boothbay