To the editor:

I write this letter with some reluctance as a relative newcomer to the North Country. I arrived here only eight years ago, so I probably don’t have the same grasp of regional issues as an actual “local.” Nevertheless, I am a sixth-generation U.S. citizen, working since I was 14 and voting since I was 21. I think that makes it my country as much as anyone’s and it seems more important than ever that people own their opinions in public.

I consider Saranac Lake to be a friendly, welcoming community, so I was surprised, prior to the presidential election, by the number of people who told me they wanted to put a Harris sign in their yard but were afraid to. They were literally afraid that their neighbors would vandalize their property or worse. When did the ability to intimidate your neighbors become a national value?

Now we are seeing the fruits of that election. The gleeful mass firing of federal employees, apparently without forethought or understanding of their function. Administrative chaos that will take years to untangle, without a single action being taken that will actually make anyone’s life better. But I guess that wasn’t the point.

The framers of the constitution created three branches of government to serve as checks on each other’s power for a reason. We are having a demonstration of that reason right now. The complicity of the Republican-controlled Congress in the destruction of the structures that support and execute the laws they passed is essentially abetting a coup. We won’t have many opportunities to counter this abdication of their responsibilities, but we in New York’s 21st Congressional District have one. When Elise Stefanik is confirmed as Ambassador to the United Nations, we can elect someone to replace her who has not already accepted the supremacy of Elon Musk and Donald Trump.

Meg Andrews

Saranac Lake