Dear Editor,
Watching the evening news with my mom in the 1960s, we saw the daily body count from Vietnam — mostly young working-class men, drafted and placed in harm’s way to fight a war without clear objectives. They were too young to buy a beer legally, but old enough to die in the jungle half a world away. We watched the assassinations of a sitting president, a promising presidential candidate, and a civil rights leader who preached peaceful protest. We saw peaceful demonstrations turned into street battles by police, unarmed protesters shot by National Guard troops, a river so polluted that it caught fire, and a residential neighborhood poisoned by corporate toxic waste.
I was too young to understand it all fully. I was not too young to appreciate what changed when “The People” took to the streets. The draft ended. Troops came home from Vietnam. The Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act became law. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. Meaningful changes, every one — driven by The People saying enough is enough. Our government learned not to go too far; I thought we’d all be OK, and we were — for a time.
Fast forward to 2026. We’re embroiled in another war — against Iran — that most Americans oppose. Environmental safeguards have been stripped away. People of color are being arrested indiscriminately in our city streets. Americans who stood up in protest have been gunned down without consequence. Our 238-year-old Constitution is under attack by a rogue administration while a Republican-controlled Congress stands by in silence.
So once again, it falls to the peace-loving, justice-centered people to take to the streets. Most of us are reluctant activists. We’d rather spend weekends with family, resting up after a full work week. But the stakes are too high for silence — higher, even, than in the tumultuous ’60s and early ’70s. It’s the very principles our nation was founded upon that we’re fighting to reclaim. And we will not stop -– we cannot stop -– until we have righted the ship once again.
Tim Roper
Chester, Vt.
