FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

When ICE agents in Minnesota killed Renee Goode, and then Alex Pretti, the Whately Selectboard decided to make a public statement regarding federal actions and their effects on us as a Town, and on residents of the United States.

However, as the weeks wore on, we realized we wanted to make a statement for our beliefs, rather than a statement against actions and activities that changed on a weekly, if not daily, basis.

Tonight, we make both: a statement against certain actions and activities, and a statement for our beliefs.

This week, the President of the United States openly threatened to annihilate a country and its people. He said, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

Although the news changed again last night (a theoretical cease-fire), the Whately Selectboard stands against making any such threats in the name of the United States -– threats and actions which are against international law — as well as against the normalization of vast corruption, the destruction of ideas of truth and reasonableness, and the dismantling of American ideals and practices which have nurtured this country and its people for many years.

We have never been perfect, this country, but we have at least had higher ideals to try to live up to.

Historian and writer Timothy Snyder says:

“As any historian of mass atrocity knows, there is no such thing as ‘only words.’ The notion of killing a whole civilization, once spoken, remains. It enables others to say similar things…

Whatever happens tonight, the president, by saying such things, has already changed the world for the worse, and made acts of mass violence more likely. If we are Americans, he has also changed our country. He has changed us, because he represents us; we voted for him, or we didn’t vote and allowed him to come to power, or we didn’t do enough to stop him. These words are America’s words, until and unless Americans reject them.”

The Whately Selectboard says:

Not in our name.

We reject this false vision of “America,” and we reject these threats.

It might seem that we as a Selectboard may be just a tiny David, speaking tiny words against Goliath. Although in truth, we are joining a collective voice of millions of people all across America, of all political persuasions, to say:

NOT IN OUR NAME.

Although some are pleased with the direction of the United States under this administration, a great many of us are dismayed to see what we thought of as American ideals and practices being dismantled, as the Administration has tried to pull funding from schools and universities, from healthcare, from childcare, from national parks and lands, from agriculture, from food safety, from environmental protection; and has tried to hamper freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion.

Although these actions are taken at a federal level, they affect each of us within our states, our counties, our communities, and our households. In Whately, we see the potential of ICE raids and increased fuel and fertilizer costs are impacting farmers, we see the effect of cuts in education and research on residents whose lives are tied to the colleges, we see the threats of further cuts to Medicare and Medicaid will impact seniors and people with disabilities, we see the impact of cuts to Veterans’ Services.

We are heartbroken and infuriated by the various types of devastation happening across the country, and across the world.

As the Whately Selectboard, no matter what is happening on a national level, we will continue to work to support our residents, to find ways to communicate with and understand each other, to work together for a better and more just future, and for a vision of America that supports equality, kindness, schools and universities, healthcare, access to healthy food, childcare, national parks and lands, environmental protection, and the unique right of each human being here to live freely, and with liberty and justice for all.