LETTER: Why we had every right to protest Vance coming to Vt. for a family ski vacation
March 7, 2025To the Community:
On Saturday, March 1, an estimated 2,000 Vermonters gathered on both sides of Route 100 in Waitsfield to protest the visit of J.D. Vance to Vermont for a family ski vacation. Gov. Phil Scott issued a welcoming statement, saying, “The vice president is here on a family trip with his young children, and while we may not always agree, we should be respectful.”
Well, I respectfully disagree. Those of us who participated in Saturday's protest had every right to do so, even if it did “disrespect” the vice president and his family. Not only is our right to protest guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- namely, the “right of the people peaceably to assemble” -- but it is also abundantly called for in response to the extraordinary actions of this administration.
Many of us were shocked by the ambush and harsh treatment meted out the day before the protest by Trump and Vance to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine, whose only “crime” was to come cap in hand to the U.S. for aid in his country's war against a brutal invader and aggressor, Russia. If you are worried about the protest's impact on Vance's children, think about how Vladimir Putin, Russia's president who started the war on Ukraine, is wanted for arrest by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, including that he has ordered the forcible removal and separation of Ukrainian children from their country and families. Think about how Putin's army has bombed and targeted schools and hospitals thereby killing untold numbers of children and other innocents. Think about how it looks to the rest of the world, when we openly side with a child-killing and abducting dictator, over the people whom he is oppressing and who are trying desperately to resist his oppression.
Trump and Vance's dressing down of Zelensky was a shameful moment, one that will go down in infamy in the annals of American history. Saturday's protest in Vermont was a small but notable attempt to correct that mistake. It should be welcomed by all politicians, on both sides of the aisle, who should be standing with Ukraine, and thereby standing with freedom and democracy, against those who would crush it.
John Aberth
Roxbury