Let Brooke Bennett rest

My daughter Brooke was taken away from me almost 17 years ago by someone who was labeled as a success story by the Vermont probation system. This horrific event affected everyone who knew her and many people from near and far who did not. This situation is something no parent should ever have to endure. The aforementioned situation brought to light issues and eventually changes in the Vermont judicial system.

In the years since, multiple people have used or tried to use her name and/or the situation for financial benefit or to gain recognition and/or sympathy for themselves through social media and the press. I have remained silent far too long. The reason for this letter is to request that everyone stop bringing her into their drama and let her rest in peace. It is hard enough to deal with her absence without her name being brought up in social media and the press whenever someone thinks it will gain them something. Thank you for your cooperation.

Jim Bennett

Braintree, Vt.

Time to stand up

The time has come for major institutions in the United States to stop playing patsy to the autocrat in the White House. Get together ye presidents, senior partners, board chairs, and responsible leaders, and, collectively, fight back. Stand alone and you are sitting ducks. Stand together and you can do what’s right for the nation. Collectively you are vastly more powerful. He will crumble in the face of your united opposition to tyranny, I promise you.

Steven C. Swett

Hanover

Trump’s wins, our losses

To review: on April 2, President Trump announced massive tariffs on all nations (including some sparsely and uninhabited islands). The next day, the stock markets tanked about 5% (on top of the 10% from the previous month) resulting in major hits to the retirement accounts of working people and retirees. Then, after saying he was not worried about the stock markets, Trump jetted off to Mar a Lago to play golf (as he has just about every weekend). Previously he had said that he “could care less” if automobile prices increased as a result of his tariffs. Is this what his supporters last fall were looking forward to?

During this first 100 day “honeymoon,” we have witnessed Trump’s assault on fundamental rights enshrined in the Constitution: due process, right to legal representation, free speech. We have also seen multiple examples of untethered cruelty: chain-saw firing of thousands of federal employees “for cause” (meaning they can’t access unemployment benefits); cutting of funding for the first responder survivors of the 9/11 attack; eliminating critical food and medicine distributed world-wide by USAID (which both harms American farmers and weakens national security).

Now we can look forward to his enablers making permanent the 2017 tax cuts that were a windfall for corporations and wealthy people with a few crumbs for the less fortunate, not to mention adding trillions to the national debt. This does not feel like “winning” to me.

Stephen Jordan

Sunapee

A simple test

A good way to determine whether or not you agree with something that the president is doing (and whether you should speak out against it) is to ask yourself: “How would I feel if someone in the other party was in charge, and they did this?” Because, sooner or later, that is exactly what will happen.

Barry Wenig

Lebanon