If you want four more years of mayhem, vote for Trump

I think Kate Day’s analogy casting liberals as having a spoiled-child-temper-tantrum is an absurd attempt to scare folks into voting for Trump (If Biden is elected, there is far more to fear than violence, 9/13). This election is not about conservatives versus liberals.

Trump is not a conservative and not a Republican. Republicans don’t condone abuse of power, solicit campaign assistance from foreigners, tread on democratic institutions, cast doubt on the legitimacy of elections, put innocent toddlers in cages, and don’t encourage violence toward minorities. Conservatives pay down debt in a healthy economy — they don’t foolishly run up the national debt to the highest level since World War II.

But Trump’s most egregious folly is his race to destroy the prospects for organized human life. His policy to expand fossil fuels is equivalent to genocide. The Republicans I know face challenges head-on, including climate disruption which is undoubtedly already here. The Green New Deal will put Americans to work on the most important infrastructure project in history.

Joe Biden is more conservative than Trump will ever be. If you want four more years of mayhem, the collapse of free elections and a path toward self-destruction, Trump is the guy that will make it happen.

Kerry Castonguay
Leominster

Teachers should examine the facts of the potential dangers of Covid-19 in the classroom

Teachers are among the most important and least appreciated members of our work force. Strides have been made regarding increases in their salaries and emphasis on their professional status in recent years and thank heaven for that.

Anyone who doesn’t appreciate what teaching is should try one day of substitute teaching; middle school would perhaps offer the most informative trial run. Such a day will be guaranteed to raise the appreciation level appreciably.

That said, I am very disappointed in those teachers and their unions in this time of Covid 19, who have resisted or been reluctant reopen schools.

Are they not essential workers as are grocery store staff, bus drivers, custodial staff, medical personnel, etc., who keep basic structures moving and report to work daily?

If apprehensive teachers have underlying conditions and/or are a certain age their reluctance is entirely understandable. But otherwise what is their focus of concern? Are we not to believe the Gov. Baker’s insistence on the safety evidenced in the low positive rates and mortality in the towns other than hot spots?

Is the  teachers’ focus of concern the elderly and /or nursing home residents who are the overwhelmingly the most numerous of Covid’s victims or the unknowing asymptomatic spreaders?  In other words, do they fear that schools with hundreds of thousands of young students gathered together will set off a new wave of the virus that will ultimately land, as has been seen, on the vulnerable old?

I respect them for that — if such is their fear despite the governors assurances.

I hope the governor and his advisers are right and I also hope that the teachers’ focus is where it should be –with likely victims — and that they look at the numbers which do not lie as the scholar in them must know..

But if their fear is just diffused fear, I am very disappointed in them.

Joan Pendleton
N. Andover