To the editor:

As Americans, we embrace the First Amendment. However, like a double-edged sword, it can protect as well as kill. On Saturday, Aug. 12, groups of people with different agendas assembled in Virginia. End result was violence, injury and death under the guise of free speech. Some might dismiss the tragic incident as an isolated product of thugs and their fringe group ideology.

Just want to jog people’s memory. It was thugs and their fringe group ideology that engulfed a nation. Their crescendo started slowly in the 1920s. It, too, included torchlit marches, fiery speeches, rallies, violence and slogans. As they gained momentum, it eventually led to events like Kristallnacht, Nuremberg laws, war and the Final Solution. Just like a Wagnerian crescendo, the final note is always followed by silence. This silence occurred in 1945, but is an encore on the horizon?

Kenneth J. Sausa

Lake Placid