It no longer matters if we voted for Trump or Harris back in November, which flags flew from our porches, or what bumper stickers our cars still brandish. All of us across the political spectrum should expect a government that serves every American — respectfully, equally, effectively. Instead we are witnessing the undermining of this expectation by a hungry tsunami of autocratic destruction. Not a scalpel. A tsunami.

Our veterans will have to navigate their own medical appointments, counseling and prescription coverage. Fishermen, farmers, utility companies and residents of Tornado Alley must now learn to read the skies, because there will be no one to forecast potentially dangerous weather systems for them. Retirees and Medicare recipients are also on their own. Parents, farmers and school nutrition specialists will lose partnerships for fresh produce at neighborhood schools. No more needed medical research and breakthroughs for cancer patients and those suffering from chronic illness.

Americans might hope that each citizen’s history will be recorded and celebrated in our national records, our monuments and our archives: The Navajo Code Breakers, the Tuskegee Airmen, the gay senator and the women on the front lines in battle. Not so much, pals.

Before our entire country is dismantled and reclaimed for the white, the male and the wealthy; before our elected representatives and courts are further neutered and disempowered; before our world-class tradition of journalism craters even further, we must speak up and speak out. This is not normal. Our party affiliations amount to nothing in the face of this.

Craig Kesselheim
Southwest Harbor