Author Archives: Charlotte Scot

Letter to the Editor: This Country ‘Will Never Be a Garbage Can’

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To the Editor:

I do not live in a garbage can!

Yesterday, I almost reconsidered when my second Harris/Walz sign was stolen.

But where I live bears no resemblance to a “garbage can.” In my lifetime, I have driven cross-country at least a dozen times. Our country is not a garbage can. Yes, there are some terrible neighborhoods. In my experience, many of the ugly spots are owned by very rich people who live in the safety of the suburbs. They rent to very poor people at inflated prices. The owners seldom maintain their rental properties, angering neighbors and festering the idea that their renters (aka poor people) are lazy, menacing slobs. Rat-infested streets breed depression and violence and they may be the “garbage cans” Mr. Trump speaks of. He seems to want to scare people into thinking we have—what he termed, as President—a “s***hole country.” 

I am sorry. Our country is beautiful. It is upsetting that a person who wants to lead us thinks that our country is a garbage can. He believes immigrants are ruining it. (My immigrants arrived in 1630). Yesterday, I learned that his pal, Elon Musk, was an illegal immigrant when he came here, and he worked illegally taking away jobs from Americans. I also learned that Mr. Musk lied to obtain citizenship. Mr. Trump hasn’t said a word about this, nor has he indicated Mr. Musk will be deported like all the other migrants he calls “animals.”

No local members of his party ever speak up. They didn’t after the insurrection. They never seem to separate themselves from his lies or false claims so I guess they agree with him. In my opinion, we never would have become a country, nor could we survive today without immigrants. And we will never be a garbage can.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Scot,
Old Lyme.

Letter to the Editor: Old Lyme Republican Candidates Must Declare Opinions on National Party Before Writer Can Consider Voting for Them

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To the Editor:

Silence is one of the first ways a democracy can be destroyed. Rather than asking questions and demanding answers, people just clam-up.

I wrote a comment in response to a Letter to the Editor of LymeLine last week. Numerous people have thanked me for it, complimented me on the subject matter but none have wanted to (or dared to) put their names on public responses. I don’t blame them. We are living in a scary time when teachers, poll workers and librarians face threats if they just do their jobs.

Fear is being used to stop intelligent people from expressing themselves.  Old Lyme is a community where many believe that keeping a low profile is the best policy but, at a time when our country is in jeopardy of losing its status as the world’s leading democracy, silence is not golden.  Sadly, to remain silent is to be complicit with those who scare us.

My comment merely asked why the GOP candidates in our town do not tell us how they feel about their national party.

Do they concur that the Jan. 6th insurrection was merely a photo-shoot by tourists? Do they honestly believe that Donald Trump was cheated out of the Presidency and that voter fraud is rampant? Do they support our local librarians, teachers and poll workers.? Do they continue to support the former President even though he has been indicted four times for charges ranging from rape to mishandling of top secret documents?  Are they as concerned about democracy as I am or do they feel fears about losing our democracy are just another conspiracy theory? Are they proud of their party … or are they ashamed of what their party (the party of my Grandparents) has become?

I don’t feel it is too much for candidates to address the elephant in the room. In this case, the elephant is the Republican Party.  I cannot even consider voting for any local Republican until I hear his/her views on their party.

Sincerely,

Charlotte Scot,
Old Lyme.

Letter to the Editor: Lyme-Old Lyme Schools BOE Apparently Did Not Care What Residents Thought About Armed Guards, Will They Behave Same on Proposed $57.6 Million Building Plan? Will Residents Speak Up?

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To the Editor:

The Reticent Residents of this town have nothing to say about paying $57,555,000 for the planning, design, demolition, construction, and renovation of our public schools.

Let me break the silence. That is a hell of a lot of money.

We have 1362 children attending our schools. That comes out to about $42,000 per student, OK?

Yet the people in our community, as with the issue of arming security officers in these same schools, remain mostly silent.

I don’t get it.

I certainly didn’t understand why, if someone has a child in these schools, they didn’t feel it was important to offer an opinion on putting guns into the schools. There is no evidence that arming guards protects students and school personnel. Most people who took time to offer an opinion spoke against the idea, yet, it was ramrodded through. I have yet to see how much that will cost, what training these guards will undertake, what rules will govern their use of weapons, or what kind of guns we will be buying.

Do parents feel that our schools are falling apart?

I know there will be a hearing this week but, is there any point? Has the Board already decided to go ahead? It has only set aside 30 minutes [Wednesday, Sept. 7] to discuss the issue. (That works out to dealing with $1.918,500 per minute.) What effect will the Board’s disrespect for the opinions of people who spoke against arming guards have on this and future proposals?

Sincerely,

Charlotte Scot,
Old Lyme.