Letter: Project 2025 is bigger than Dobbs

Letter to the Editor07:00PM / Saturday, June 22, 2024Print Story | Email Story

To the Editor:

Please join Greylock Together and Indivisible chapters all across the country (13 in Massachusetts alone) on Sunday from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Field Park in Williamstown on the two-year anniversary of the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Bring signs, hear speakers, leave with actions to take.

The Dobbs decision two years ago was the tip of the iceberg. Since then, 14 states have banned abortion entirely and many more have restricted access. MAGA Republicans have made clear this is only the beginning. Trump and his enablers winning in 2025 means those things can go national. As outlined in Project 2025, produced by The Heritage Foundation and a coalition of 100 right-wing organizations, they plan for a "post-constitutional" federal government. This plan threatens the very roots of democracy and the rights and freedoms upon which it is based. You can read it here: project2025.org.

The plan includes:

• Placing the entire federal government under direct presidential oversight, essentially abolishing the independence of key agencies like the Justice Department, Federal Communications Commission, Federal Trade Commission and others.

• Reclassifying thousands of federal workers as "at will" so that those who don't follow extremist policies can be fired and replaced with those who do.

• Restricting reproductive freedom, including abortion access, contraception and surrogacy by restructuring Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act and invoking the Comstock Act to track and limit "mail order" abortions.

• Eliminating agencies crucial for energy transition, abolishing the environmental justice department of the EPA, shutting down any offices or departments connected to the Paris Climate Agreement, reopening the Arctic for drilling and boosting fossil fuel use.

• Curbing immigration by mass deportation, dismantling the DREAM Act and restricting the DACA program.

• Eliminating protections for transgender people by undoing antidiscrimination laws, denying medical benefits and prohibiting research.

• Undermining public education by dismantling the Department of Education, supporting school vouchers, doing away with diversity initiatives and eliminating the National Education Association's congressional charter, which allows for the existence of teachers' unions.

• Maintaining a "biblically based, social science-reinforced definition of marriage."

• Enforcing the death penalty "where applicable and appropriate."

The election in November isn't really about Biden vs. Trump. It's a referendum on if the vision for a democratic, pluralistic, multiracial society should be continued or abolished altogether.

Stand up. Show up. Speak out.

Wendy J Penner
Pam Wax
Williamstown, Mass.

The writers are members of Greylock Together and the organizers of the event scheduled for Sunday.

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Letter: We Have Great Political Leaders, Let's Keep 'em

Letter to the Editor03:00PM / Thursday, August 20, 2026

To the Editor:

We are very lucky in Berkshire County. Our political leaders are the envy of voters around the nation and respected by their peers — and because of their experience, knowledge, and seniority they get stuff done for us.

Sen. Ed Markey once again faces a challenger whose entire campaign is founded on age. As WBUR in Boston observed, Moulton is running on age, but what else? Joe Kennedy had the same platform — and Massachusetts voters rejected him.

It seems to me a candidate's age is irrelevant if he's doing the job, and Ed Markey is doing his job — very well, in fact. He's no stranger to the Berkshires, and he's fighting Trump's fascist policies every single day.
He is also the Senate author of the Green New Deal legislation.

Congressman Richie Neal is in a similar fight. I've asked friends who oppose him to name one vote he's taken they disagree with, and they cannot. Remember, the great Nancy Pelosi trusted Richie and made him chair of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, which benefits us in the Berkshires as well as the nation. Richie is a powerful advocate for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, West-East Rail, and local investment. His opponent would be a back-bencher with zero clout.

The same arguments could — and should — be made for the rest of our Democratic contingent in Boston: Gov. Maura Healey's opponent is likely to be a Boston-centric MAGA billionaire. Do you think he cares about us? Our state Sen. Paul Mark and state Reps. John Barrett, Trish Farley-Bouvier, and Leigh Davis are all tried and true progressive Beacon Hill veterans who also know how to get stuff done. And Tara Jacobs, our representative on the Governor's Council, provides a Berkshire voice on that body that has been absent since the 1950s.

This is a nation on the brink. We have serious problems, and we need serious people to deal with them. Our Democratic contingent is made up of very serious people. That's why they all have my vote. I hope they have yours, too.

Lee Harrison
Williamstown, Mass.

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