PUTNEY — I was shocked to read Liam Madden's letter. I was shocked that VTDigger chose to exclude him from the recent debate that they hosted between candidates for Vermont's seat in the U.S. Congress, and that no one involved with the debate would talk to him about it.
I am very anti-war, so veterans don't earn any extra points with me. And I think the whole climate change conversation is bonkers, characterized by a lot of the same kind of highly questionable and mostly bad science that we were all forced to consume over the last two years. So I wasn't thinking about voting for Liam, to be honest. But now, I can't imagine voting for anyone else.
For politicians to invalidate an ex-Marine...! The people who regularly fabricate wars, who bow down before the likes of Raytheon and Lockheed-Martin, who blithely send young people off to destroy and be destroyed.
For a group of institutional candidates - any one of whom I am willing to bet right now, should they end up in “War-shington,” will jump on the current World War III bandwagon with gusto - to essentially send to Liam Madden the message “You are invalid; you have nothing to add to our conversation; yes, we view you only as cannon fodder” is utterly despicable.
Everyone involved with that debate, every politician in the state of Vermont should apologize personally to Liam Madden, look him in the eye, and tell him exactly why his original willingness to be cannon fodder for corporate America makes him unfit to serve this country in far-greater capacity.