by Rep. Art Peterson
On October 25 a group of state Democrat and Progressive legislators at a State House press conference implored Governor Phil Scott to re-institute a state of emergency due to high corona virus infection numbers. The health and safety of Vermonters was at stake they claimed. Recounting personal stories of how Scott’s call for Vermonters to use ‘personal responsibility’ in the virus fight actually hurt their families, these public officials presented graphs and charts showing how high vaccination rates were not enough and that mask mandates and other measures were needed to keep us safe.
It made me wonder if “health and safety” of our people has always been in the minds of these politicians. I looked at their voting record on two bills passed in the 2019-2020 biennium that will have a huge impact on the health and safety of Vermonters: House Bill 57 (H.57), now Act 47, making it legal in Vermont to get an abortion up to the day of birth, and Senate Bill 54 (S.54), now Act 164, legalizing the growing, manufacturing, and selling of cannabis. Sadly, all the legislators I saw present at the press conference, who were in office at the time, voted for both bills.
Every year in Vermont abortion claims the lives of approximately 1200 babies, far exceeding the two year death total from COVID. It is an unnecessary elective procedure that risks the physical health of the mother, and almost always leaves mental scars that sometimes require years of mental health therapy. Act 47 is a most extreme abortion law. Virtually any stage of pregnancy is covered by this terrible legislation. To vote for it means that you have set aside any care for human life and the health and safety of the mother. Simply put, you cannot claim you care about people and still support this bill.
Just as tobacco use is unhealthy so is the use of marijuana. To smoke it causes unhealthy results. To use it in any form can retard brain development in our youth. Chronic use can cause mental psychosis in many forms. All this has been clearly documented by physicians for years. Last session in the House Healthcare Committee, of which I am a member, we were discussing the problem of children wait times for mental health services. We heard from one of the doctors giving testimony that marijuana use by children is one factor in the rising number of youth mental health cases. And the safety of the traveling public is at risk as more and more people buy and use state sponsored pot and drive under its influence. Again, you can’t claim to care about people if you support a substance as unhealthy and unsafe as cannabis.
In order to help these legislators “walk the talk” when it comes to the health and safety of Vermonters I am asking them to do two things. First and most importantly, join with me and many others to vote NO on Proposal 5, the abortion amendment to our State Constitution. If approved by the state legislature it will be on the ballot in November 2022 for all Vermonters to vote on. This amendment will guarantee that taking life out of a mother’s womb at any stage of pregnancy is a basic human right. Second, support my bill, H164, which would give local control not only for retail marijuana establishments but also for the cultivation, manufacturing, wholesaling, and testing of marijuana. It would allow towns to keep all forms of marijuana out of their jurisdiction, thereby not contributing to the very real health and safety affects that cannabis bring.
Soon COVID will retreat and be a thing of the past, but the abortion and cannabis laws will still be in force, allowing unfettered abortions and encouraging increased cannabis use. As legislators, if we are truly concerned with safety and health, we must show it with how we vote. As lawmakers it is our personal responsibility.
The author is a first-term Republican member of the House of Representatives and U.S. Army veteran representing Clarendon, West Rutland, Wallingford, Tinmouth, and Proctor.
Categories: Commentary
Bravo Representative Peterson. And, more specifically about the merits of mask mandates, see Chapter 12 of a new book by Dr. Peter Breggin, co-authored with his wife, Ginger Breggin, “COVID-19 and the Global Predators: We are the Prey” (2021), which concludes, “At the very least, we can say the argument for the effectiveness of masks is weak, and the cost of wearing them is high in terms of causing and aggravating cardiovascular respiratory illnesses, diminishing social interactions, causing alienation, fostering docility and conformity, and making dictatorial politicians feel they can demand of the citizens ever more submission and forsaking of liberty.”
These things that Representative Peterson speaks of reflect how America over the past half century has turned from God to pursue false gods of their own making. The Lord made a wonderful planet and blessed America in ways no other nation had ever experienced.
But the time has come when we must make a choice and we have directions for that choice in the Holy Scriptures. “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing; therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19 KJV). We cannot choose evil and expect blessing. Israel, God’s chosen, turned away from God and offered their children up on the altar of Baal and God withdrew his protection and that nation was destroyed. The United States has offered its pre-born children on the altar of immorality, money and Planned Parenthood, and many millions more than Israel.
How can God deal with us any differently than he did with the Israelite people? We know it is wrong! We see lots of wrong in our world today and all you must do is put it to the test. Things that are good are considered evil and visa versa. You know that is true. “Woe unto them that call evil good and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” (Isaiah 5:20 KJV)
We have been warned many times. Our nation is failing rapidly. We must act at every opportunity to turn back to God. We must work to defeat Proposal 5 in Vermont that will engrain the evil of abortion in our State’s Constitution, bringing death to the document that gave Vermont life.
Sometimes there are emanate threats that cannot wait for legislation.
Just as the Scott administration kicked off its campaign earlier this week, to vaccinate Vermont’s 5-to-11-year old’s, a newly released document shows that Pfizer added a secret heart attack drug to the Children’s version of its COVID 19 vaccine, called Tromethamine.
The information came to light of this dangerous blood thinners inclusion, used as a buffer to replace the normally used saline solution, it was discovered on the FDA’s website.
This is just one more concern to suggest these experimental injections are not safe and effective as we are being told.
I have been trying all week to get Senators & Representatives to do a press release asking for a moratorium or halt from injecting our children until this threat can be vetted, and wonder why, not even one has acknowledged my request.
Perhaps they are too busy crafting legislation, but isn’t their first responsibility to protect?
Especially our children!
There are far too many that have been uneducated on what commercialized cannabis has ushered into other states. What makes Vermonters think they will avoid the same consequences? Sadly our news media has opted to ignore these stories rather than fulfill their role that helps protect the citizens of our state. Sadly the vast majority of our legislators are too quick to side with the uninformed masses that say – yeh, if they want to smoke pot let them smoke pot. They don’t realize that today’s pot regulations should provide protection for high potency THC products that truly needs safeguards for the health and safety of the people. This is only a sliver of the concerns that the legislators should have addressed to protect the health and safety of the people/communities and the environment for our fish and wildlife.
Check out https://www.vthope.net/learn-about-drugs.html and learn more.
Art is right, the same who have ignored these concerns are ignoring other vital health and safety matters.
A second grader in Florida showed more moxie and wisdom than any adult I’ve seen thus far. Her courage resulted in the mask mandate being removed for the school children in Tampa.