NEWFANE — If you wonder about the state of our state, the recent pro-Trump rally at Pliny Park in Brattleboro should tell you everything you need to know. Conservatives, Republicans, and independents are not allowed a voice. They will be silenced.
The rally was duly scheduled and permitted that Saturday. But the participants were overrun and out-shouted by the Black Lives Matter/Antifa crowd.
They were passive-aggressive, shoving signs in our faces, in front of our cameras, butting shoulders, stepping on feet, knee-bumping from behind our people. They shoved, then slapped a sign and the U.S. flag from the hand of an 85-year-old gentleman, knocking him back. Then they stomped on his American flag.
This is far from peaceable!
They followed a woman as she walked away from the rally, yelling, screaming threats, banging on pots and pans inches from her ears and face, screaming foul words and threats. They terrorized her until she needed to call a police officer to escort her to her car in the parking lot on Flat Street.
This is not peaceful protesting! It is terrorizing us into silence.
It will not work!
We stood tall! We stood proud! And we stood united in our pride in our flag, our president, our country, our Constitution, and The Bill of Rights. And, yes, still, in our pride in our state of Vermont.
It is apparent that there can only be one set of opinions. How sad in a free and open society that some of us can allow and accept only one set of views. How sad in a free and open society we can't do the hard work to find common ground. How very sad that we have devolved into a society that bends over backwards for the unruly, rude, and uneducated tyrants.
What happened to the state that prided itself on rugged independence and tolerance that it no longer respects anyone with different views? What happened to the state that embraced alternative lifestyles? Or is it only some that are allowed?
There are many conservatives quietly living here. They have been effectively silenced by the belittling and arrogance of the liberals. But they have reached a melting point and are starting to rise up. They will demand to be heard.
Fellow Vermonters, stand up with us, and be counted.