Mackinac Island is a special place for me. It epitomizes the idea of living without personal automobiles, something I’ve done and advocated for most of my life. I am very glad I was able to visit the island during a family vacation to Michigan. The absence of cars transforms the atmosphere on the island. The pace of life is calm and peaceful, or at least it was before Pence’s motorcade arrived.

So I am personally affronted by the Vice President’s intrusion on the island, with eight gas guzzling SUVs. I am reminded of Joseph Welch’s question to Senator McCarthy on June 9, 1954, “You’ve done enough. Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?”

This atrocity typifies the assault on Mother Earth by the Republican administration and members of Congress. At a time when there needs to be a massive global response to the environmental crisis, the Republican administration not only has done everything it can to obstruct efforts to address environmental collapse, but actively overturned existing protections of Mother Earth.

What a shameful legacy of profit over people and our environment.