All our lives, until January of this year, we have been very proud to be Americans. That has all changed in the last month. How can anyone be proud of a country that:

• threatens our former closest friends and allies with tariffs and lack of backing and mocks their leaders.
• tries to rewrite and misrepresent history, including the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the attack on our Capitol by thugs, Black history, etc.
• hunts down and deports not only the few aliens who have committed crimes but the many hard-working individuals and families who fled unimaginable hardships.
• cuts whole programs that provided much needed aid to countries around the world for less than 1% of our budget.
• fires thousands of federal employees with no regard for them, the work they were doing or their previous evaluations.
• refuses to challenge a president (dictator?) who is ruling by dictates rather than enacted laws and threatens anyone who doesn’t comply.

We thank those who have acted, trying to restore some semblance of order to our democracy, and urge our elected officials and judges to act to restore our democracy before it is totally gone.

Bob Lyman and Caroline Thorne-Lyman
Freeport