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Maine Sen. Margaret Chase Smith made her “Declaration of Conscience” speech on June 1, 1950 — 75 years ago this weekend. She declared that, “It is high time that we all stopped being tools and victims of totalitarian techniques — techniques that, if continued here unchecked, will surely end what we have come to cherish as the American way of life.”
Sen. Susan Collins’ website shows that she is inspired by the woman whose Senate seat she now occupies. Yet, over the past four months of what I see as cruelty and ineptitude, during which the leader of her party has dismantled the pillars of our rights and freedoms, weakened our economy, and imperiled our national security and safety, I believe Collins has remained too quiet.
I urge her to find her own integrity and voice to speak out for what is right, though it might not be politically expedient. Right now, more than ever, we need for her to demonstrate the courage to reject authoritarianism and defend the rights of everyone living in America to have the benefit of freedom of speech, due process of the law, and freedom from intimidation.
Mary Beth DiMarco
Houlton
