BRATTLEBORO-I write in response to statements made by Aly Richards, candidate for governor, and Ryan McLaren, candidate for lieutenant governor, about the Vermont Defend the Guard Act, during the Vermont Public debates on July 23 and July 21, respectively.
Ms. Richards said “we have to be really strategic together as we are fighting against [the] attack on democracy.” She also said this bill would put a big target on the back of the Vermont National Guard. Mr. McLaren said he’s heard no support for the bill from Guard members.
I agree that we need to be strategic. Part of that strategy is the need for this act.
A letter to Gov. Scott and state legislators is circulating from Vermont National Guard veterans, their family members, and other Vermont veterans of the U.S. military. They request a proper hearing and passage of the Vermont Defend the Guard Act and give their reasons.
Indiscriminate wars of vanity puts a target on the backs of the Vermont Guard — not this statewide effort to protect them, their integrity, and their families. Standing aside while the administration illegally proclaims a war and sends Vermonters or any military into any unauthorized conflict puts a target on their backs.
When the majority of the U. S. Congress doesn’t even have the scruples, the ethics, or the cojones to consider, discuss, and vote on any matter of war, as the Constitution mandates, that deficiency can’t be answered with our silence.
A growing bipartisan movement across the United States is advancing this legislation. We need our Vermont legislators to support our state’s troops by holding Congress accountable: Our troops are not to be deployed to overseas conflict without a vote by the people’s elected representatives.
Rolling over for any imaginable potential threat is not the way residents of our brave little state work. We owe our troops at least the call for legal backing on these decisions, because it’s hazardous for them to raise their own voices. Guard members in other states agree and speak out anonymously.
We can’t dishonor the personal and family service and sacrifice by ignoring the manipulation and disregard for their actual lives evidenced by Congress.
MaryDiane Baker
Brattleboro
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