To the Editor:

If you’ve driven through the Hilltowns lately, you’ve seen the lawn-sign conversation unfolding across fences and fields. One sign says, “No one voted for this. Stand up and speak out.” Another snaps back, “We voted for this. Now…Sit down and shut up.”

Most people don’t know where that first sign came from. It wasn’t a Democrat trying to shame Republicans. It wasn’t an attack or a taunt. It came from an Independent who was trying to open a door. The message underneath it was simple: We know you didn’t mean for things to turn out like this. It’s alright to say so. Let’s fix it together.

That matters, because almost no one in town, red or blue, understood the full depth of what Project 2025 would dismantle. People voted based on personality, promises, frustration, slogans, identity, or habit. Very few voters read the fine print. Now the fine print is becoming reality.

No one voted to strip away the agencies that inspect food, test water, manage forests, or keep schools functioning.

No one voted for local farmers to be crushed by tariffs.

No one voted for military families to go unpaid.

No one voted for hundreds of thousands of public workers to be furloughed or fired.

No one voted for scientific research to be halted or for environmental protections to be shredded.

No one voted for NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] to be gutted or for the Department of Education to be dismantled.

And no one voted for what is happening to public colleges. Across the country, funding cuts and political interference are pushing state universities to the edge, weakening programs, eliminating staff, and leaving students and professors under ideological pressure.

This isn’t about budgeting. It’s about control — shaping what young people learn by starving institutions until they either comply or collapse. A nation cannot claim to value its future while treating higher education as an enemy to be conquered.

One of the most alarming losses is the hollowing out of the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]. That agency protects Americans from Ebola, measles outbreaks, tuberculosis, avian flu, and emerging viruses most people never hear about until it is too late. Diseases do not stop existing just because a government decides it does not value science. They simply become harder to detect until detection comes too late and you die in agony.

On top of this, millions of acres of public land are being opened to fast-tracked drilling, mining, and industrial extraction. Some of these lands were previously protected for wildlife, clean water, and recreation.

Foreign corporations can now lease American land to remove timber, drill for oil, or dig for copper and lithium because the oversight meant to protect those resources has been stripped away. These are places where families hunt, hike, fish, and camp. Places meant to belong to all of us.

So here is the real question the Independent sign was trying to ask:

If you stand proudly behind the phrase “We voted for this,” what is the “this” you believe you voted for?

Not the man.

Not the showmanship.

Not the rally speeches that made you feel heard.

Not the thrill of sticking it to the other side.

I mean the policies.

The consequences.

The impact on your neighbors, your town, your land, and your future.

Are you pleased that the agency keeping Ebola out of this country is weakened?

Are you pleased that food inspectors are furloughed?

Are you pleased that air-traffic controllers are working without pay?

Are you pleased that farmers are losing their livelihoods?

Are you pleased that public-health workers are gone?

Are you pleased that the land our grandparents fought for and protected is being sold or leased to private and foreign companies for resource extraction?

If your answer is yes, then say it plainly.

If your answer is no, then you are standing with the majority of people in this town and across this country, including Republicans, Democrats, and Independents who are seeing clearly what is happening and want it to stop.

When I was a child, I learned a simple song about this country. The words said that the land belonged to all of us, from one coast to the other. I believed it. Many of us still do. That belief is worth fighting for. These hills, these woods, these streams, and these rights are shared. They do not belong to the highest bidder. They do not belong to a political faction. They do not belong to any one man.

Berne just proved that neighbors can cross party lines when the stakes are real. A bipartisan slate won because people voted as community members, not combatants.

So I ask one honest question:

What did you believe you were voting for, and are you proud of the results you are seeing now?

If this isn’t what you meant to vote for, then say so.

There’s no shame in admitting you were misled. A lot of good, smart people were. What matters is what you choose now — because you can be part of the growing movement of Americans who are waking up, speaking out, and rebuilding this country one honest step at a time.

Silence is how bad decisions become permanent.

Emily Vincent

Berne

Editor’s note: Emily Vincent is a sheep farmer and cardiac intensive-care-unit nurse.