To the editor:

I used to live in Portland, Oregon. I have great concern for the undertakings on their streets, and were I living there today, I well might be standing with the moms and grandmas who are defying the stormtroopers in camouflage, armed with lethal weapons and tear gas. I’ve lived long enough to have heard stories of World War II and have known survivors of the Nazi terror in Europe. If the tyrannical president gets his way, the United States would become the Un-tied States, and the gestapo tactics of every evil dictator could become the modus operandi of the government.

I have watched with dismay at the slow process of learned ignorance our politicians and some educators have delivered to the public. We have taught younger generations to follow, not to lead, and we have created a culture in which anything someone wants to know can be found “online.” But what regard or oversight has been created for the online info to be accurate?

Now it is entirely possible for anyone to be totally immersed in a unique bubble of information that may or may not be factual. I can remember when there were three TV stations, and regardless of which one was watched, the news was basically the same. Today it is more about agenda than fact, and it is blatantly evident in stories about coronavirus. Some are taking it seriously and following the science. Others have thrown political seeds of doubt at science and scientists, to the point that some have sprouted growing shoots of disbelief and others have developed to deadly consequences.

Now we are watching and living crises in our nation of our culture, economics, health and politics — and, what is most alarming, our democracy!

There were Germans who believed Hitler’s lies about making his country better while eliminating the ethnic element of Jews. We are watching the VERY SAME tactics playing out before our eyes. If you truly believe Trump and his tyrannical rhetoric, you are becoming complicit with his fascist ambitions and you will give him the power to continue, and so will I if I continue to say NOTHING. So I am saying something: His tactics have got to go. We need to vote him out, along with those who blindly follow, like our current representative to Congress. I will vote for Joe Biden this November and, at the same time, Tedra Cobb.

Barbara Hofrichter

Jay