To The Editor:
When it was first announced that Vice President JD Vance was coming to The Valley for a family ski weekend, I pitched my tent in the camp with those who believed in allowing him his space. As much as I strongly disagree with virtually everything this administration is doing or is trying to do, I believed that the Vance family deserved a peaceful and relaxing respite from the tribulations of everyday life, just like any other family visiting The Valley.
Two things swung my opinion in the other direction. First was his appalling treatment of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House on Friday morning. Vance had a chance to cool the temperature in the room when Trump became characteristically disparaging and bombastic; instead, he piled on. If he wasn't going to extend common courtesy to his own guests, why should Valley folks be courteous to him?
Second, on Friday evening I went out to dinner at the 1824 House. As I was about to make the left turn into the restaurant parking lot, I was forced to pull over by a stream of flashing lights heading southbound. It wasn't just a handful of Secret Service personnel and state troopers escorting the Vice President and his family; although I didn't count, I would estimate a motorcade of about 70 vehicles. I waited for probably five minutes to make my turn. (I was told that a helicopter or two was also in the mix, although that wasn't something I saw myself.) This looked nothing like a family coming for a ski vacation. Instead, it was an in-your-face display of pompous self-importance, with all the look of a paramilitary invasion.
Even if he had deep misgivings about America's role in the Ukraine war, Vance could have and should have welcomed Zelensky with graciousness and the respect a foreign head of state deserves. He didn't. He could have arrived in The Valley with the humility of a regular guy on vacation with his family. He didn't. He deserved, and should have expected, the confrontational (though peaceful) reception he received.
Peter Oliver,
Warren
