Sen. Collins needs to hear from us. I think she believes that we all have rights, with no exceptions. But her political party has been taken over by people who want to suppress the rights of everyone but rich, white, cisgendered, male, American citizens. They want to cut services for the poor to give themselves tax breaks. They are addicted to money. No matter how rich they get, it will never be enough.

To further enrich themselves during the next few years, they want to stop the development of green energy and make us depend even more on fossil fuels, even though this would doom future generations to weather disasters. Within a decade or two, this would ruin the economy for everyone.

It will take a great deal of political courage to vote against this budget, to tell these men they cannot take our tax dollars and keep doing these things. And yet this is what we need her to do. If she stands up for us, we will owe her gratitude and respect.

Richard Thomas
Waterville