September 11, 2026
Dear editor;
I have a friend who is dying, but she’s a fighter. Not fighting against death, but fighting for her best life until the end. You wouldn’t know she is dying if she didn’t tell you. She is too busy living than to dwell on what is to be and works to contribute what she can with her life today.
She spends no time on bitter regrets or telling someone else how they should live their life. She would shake her head at someone telling me that I should leave this country because they don’t like what they think I believe.
She is a shining example of truth and beauty by the way she chooses to live. If she was running for office, I would mark my ballot for her. She doesn’t just think of herself, but what she can do for others so we can all live our best lives.
Each of us is only one person, but together we are a movement (a movement to recapture America). When anyone attacks one of us with their fears, lies, and hatred, we have to stand up and fight back. Recognize lies when you hear them. Don’t be a fool falling for the same lies over and over again. Donald Trump said at his two-night Midterm Convention in Dallas, a $5,000 bribe for each adult who votes Republican to hold the House and Senate so Democrats cannot hold him accountable for his lies, crimes, and corruption – this from a man who has made more than $2 billion for himself and his family in less than a year after returning to office. He’s told us he wants to be a dictator, believe him!
It’s time to step up, educate yourself and vote for the likes of people like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Lyndon B. Johnson, and true believers in our Democracy who gave us the New Deal, Social Security, Medicare, the middle class, and the belief that we can accomplish anything by working together, not separating ourselves from each other.
You pay your taxes, why shouldn’t the richest of the rich pay theirs? Also, let’s change the cap for Social Security to keep it solvent. End Citizens United that claims “Corporations are People too,” so they can spend endless dirty money to finance politicians who vote against Medicare-for-All that all other democratic countries provide for their citizens.
Stop the privatization of prisons, now detention camps for brown people (abominable what ICE is doing). Private prisons, camps, make money by charging government agencies a daily fee for every inmate, immigrant they house, and they cut their own costs by reducing prisoner services spending less money on food, medical care, and rehabilitation programs for inmates. Lower costs mean higher profits for the company owners and shareholders. Even if the prison is empty, the government still pays (which means our tax dollars pay).
You can stop the insanity! Don’t vote against yourself – farmers, cattlemen, how did those lies work for you? Don’t let fools run our government. Register by October 6 and Vote November 3 like your life depends on it, because it does!
My friend represents what America means to me and how to revere those who have lost their lives while upholding America’s ideals as written on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free. The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Judy Siedlecki, Oswego