For a very long time, I have worked a job where I interact with the community daily. I use my hands, and my back and my heart. I serve food and drink, laugh with people, hold the door, hold their children. Then, I clean up after them and tell them to have a good night.

Some of them voted for a man who threatened to annihilate an “entire civilization.” It is hard to not be sad or angry when I watch the suffering that his power causes. It is hard not to blame the ones who gave him that power. Did my neighbors vote for “a whole civilization to die”? Do they shudder at the thought of tens of millions of people living in deathly fear? Do they wonder whose child’s lights will be extinguished? Do they have any regret?

Are the rest of us meant to just keep cleaning up after them?

Anne Rutherford
Falmouth