Letter to | the Editor

To the Editor:

My father, Ross Armen-trout, was a soldier in Word War II, and he often told me stories of going to Dachau, the oldest Nazi concentration camp in Germany, after it had been liberated. Maybe growing up hearing stories of Hitler’s destruction makes me so fearful that Hitler’s type of madness could happen again, right here in the United States.

Just as Hitler came into power on a wave of populism, playing on people’s fears, and stirring up hatred toward the Jews, I see Donald Trump leading our country in the same direction.

Last week Donald Trump put a ban on refugees from seven Muslim countries. He says it has nothing to do with their religion, but I fear otherwise. These Muslims are refugees, not terrorists, who are trying to escape terrible atrocities in their own country and find sanctuary in the U.S. But Trump has made Americans afraid. So afraid our country no longer promises liberty to all. 

Trump has made us so afraid we may spend up to a billion dollars of taxpayer money building a wall between the U.S. and our southern neighbors, with the vague promise that somehow Trump will make Mexico pay us back. Are we really that afraid of Mexico?

Trump plays on our fears and makes us think we need to reinstate water boarding, or “worse.” Why are we letting Trump make us so afraid we’re willing to do something we know is evil?

The only thing I’m afraid of is letting Trump make us like Nazi Germany. Let’s stand up and fight for what we believe in!

Karlee Govig, 

Red Oak