Dear Governor Scott,

First, I’d like to tell you I am a moderate independent voter and voted for you in the last couple of elections. Though I always don’t agree with your stance on issues, I appreciate your leadership during some tough times and your ability try to find solutions to difficult problems here in Vermont.

I am writing you with regard to the protests in Waitsfield and Warren during Vice President Vance and his family’s ski vacation at Sugarbush this weekend. I know you called on Vermonters to respect the privacy of the vice president and his family so they could enjoy their time skiing together. I wish for the same for Mr. Vance’s family.

However, I also think it is the civic and patriotic duty of Americans to call out their elected officials when they blatantly lie about our allies and then berate and attempt to humiliate our allies’ heads of state in public. How can Vermonters not protest when the day before Mr. Vance came to ski in our state, he perpetuated the administration’s lie that Ukraine started the war against Russia? When he and President Trump displayed the most appalling lack of respect for President Zelenskyy before the world? I think the Vermonters (including myself) who showed up to demonstrate were saying loud and clearly that this behavior is unacceptable.

My father fought in the invasion of Normandy at Utah Beach. He was a Republican, but I suspect he was rolling in his grave during the presidential press conference with the Ukrainian president. My son and daughter-in-law serve in the Army and have done multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. They are apoplectic.

I hope Vice President Vance saw the protesters and heard our message loud and clear. Maybe his children will ask, why? And he will pause to think about his actions and his children’s future.

Sally Baldwin

Lincoln