At this critical juncture in USAmerican history, I have been thinking this morning about how helpful it is to listen to outstanding women who have spoken and are speaking words that need to be heard and taken with utmost seriousness.

At the top of the list, of course, is Vice President Kamala Harris. I trust that you who read this will not only listen to what Kamala says but that most of you will vote (or maybe have already voted) for her to become the next POTUS.

Reading Heather Cox Richardson’s latest newsletter, which I read this morning (and which you can find here), sparked my thinking and led to writing this brief essay. Six nights a week, Dr. Richardson (b. 1962) publishes what she calls “letters from an American,” and I read them early every morning. She is a history scholar (and a faculty member at Boston College), and her daily posts are usually regarding significant current matters, often seen concerning past historical events.

As is true of today’s letter, in recent days/weeks Heather has written often about the danger she sees in what Donald Trump says at his campaign rallies and elsewhere. Today’s post was one of her strongest Ietters yet. She unquestionably sees Trump as a threat to democracy in the U.S. But her newsletters are not written by one who is a partisan Democrat. She is registered as an Independent, and she self-identifies as a Lincolnian Republican.

I encourage all of you who read this to click on the link above and read what Dr. Richardson wrote last night. Much of what she said was about Dorothy Thompson, an American journalist and newscaster. I can’t remember hearing of Ms. Thompson (1893~1961) previously, but she was a highly influential woman in the 1930s and ’40 as she chronicled pertinent news about Hitler and the Nazis. And Dr. Richardson sees frightening parallels between what Thompson wrote about Hitler and what she hears Trump saying today.

In addition to Ms. Thompson, Heather also introduced the following woman whom I hadn’t heard of before, but now I am signed up to receive her Substack posts regularly.

Rachel Bitecofer is an American scholar with a Ph.D. in political science. Dr. Bitecofer (b. 1977) yesterday posted “What (Really) Happens If Trump Wins? Like Hitler, Trump Has Made Clear His Plan is Dictatorship, Not Democracy” on Substack. (Here is a link to that lengthy and informative article.)

Reading that essay made me think that Rachel is another woman that I/we need to listen to.

Jessica Piper is also a woman I heard about from Heather Cox Richardson, and I have been a regular reader of her Substack posts since first learning about her–and I was surprised to find out soon that she lives on a small farm only about 25 miles from my hometown in northwest Missouri.

Jess (as she is commonly called) was a high school English teacher for over a decade and then ran for the office of Missouri Representative, losing badly in rural Missouri where more than 80% of the voters cast their ballots for Trump in 2016 and 2024. According to a local Kansas City 2022 publication, she has more than 200,000 followers on her social media, and “she represents progressive rural Missourians who aren’t on board with the state’s highly conservative policies.”

In addition to her numerous Substack posts (accessible here), she speaks to small groups of Democrats and Independents across the Midwest. There is some unevenness in her posted articles, but she is another woman worth listening to–especially if you live in Missouri or the neighboring states on the north and west.

These are just three (or four if you include VP Harris) women that are worth listening to, especially now as it is only two weeks until Election Day.