Living

The view from our hotel room in Warsaw, Poland overlooks some of the remaining pieces of the brick walls from the Warsaw ghetto. As I grow closer to the end than to the beginning of my life, I have become more curious about where I have come from than where I am going. I don’t know if it is a universal phenomenon, but the feeling has been compelling for me.

As a second-generation American Jew I know that I should be more aware of where my family came from. Sadly, when I had the chance to talk to living relatives and hear their history, I never asked questions. It turns out that my cousins were equally as ignorant, and now the generation that lived our history have all passed on.

Too many event these days seem improbable and ridiculous. That is because of the influence of one person. It is no secret that our system of government has been trampled on and reconfigured in ways that would have seemed impossible a few years ago. One of the biggest threats to democracy that we now face is the assault on our system of voting.

In the words of the Brennan Center for Justice, “Since day one of his second term, the Trump administration has attempted to rewrite election rules to burden voters and usurp control of election systems, targeted and threatened election officials and others who keep elections free and fair, supported people who undermine election administration, and retreated from the federal government’s role of protecting voters and the electoral process.”

The Vermont Workers’ Center is hosting a rally and people’s fair in Brattleboro, as part of a national day of action coordinated by the Nonviolent Medicaid Army. It will take place on Saturday, Sept. 19, 2026 from 11 A.M. – 2 P.M., on the Centre Congregational Church lawn, 193 Main St., Brattleboro.

We’ll gather to share stories, food, and healthcare resources and to affirm that we deserve a healthcare system that benefits us all and keeps our rural hospitals open. This free gathering will include speakers from Brattleboro and around the state, a community meal, Medicaid and SNAP assistance, NARCAN training from the AIDS Project, basic health screenings, a communal art project, children’s activities, and singing. There will be opportunities to take action in support of universal healthcare and our hospitals, and a celebration of the victory in preserving the birthing center at Brattleboro Memorial Hospital.

There have been a number of small wars/military actions against the U.S. on U.S. soil. The largest war was when King George’s army tried to stop the colonists from breaking away from mother England. Since then, the American public has been mostly protected from the death and destruction that war brings. Of course. 9/11 stands alone, but it is only one incident on one day.

In the modern era, Americans have been protected from having to live with a war in our own towns and cities. For Americans, war has been an action without direct consequences. That is not to make light of the thousands of military people who have died trying to protect this country from afar.

Soldiers make up a small percentage of the American population, but they always are the ones who see what war is really like. They are our proxies and they have to be shipped off to foreign countries in order to fight wars that politicians create because they can’t solve disagreements politically.

Until the Trump era, Canada and the U.S. enjoyed an excellent relationship on many levels. When Trump suggested that Canada become the 51st state he insulted the entire country and the U.S. ended up losing a lot of money in the tourist trade. Things were starting to get a little better this summer until the orange maniac went after Canada again.

His new assault started with a warning to Canadian Prime Minster Mark Carney to stop sending smoke from wildfires to the U.S. That only reinforced Canadian perceptions that Trump is a candidate for involuntary committal to a mental health facility.