Light in the darkness?

Dear Editor,

So, for those of you who may not have had a chance to keep up with things, here’s a brief update on what’s been happening in our nation over the past three months.

Basically, our newly re-elected leader and his administration have been recklessly dismantling our government, trashing our constitution, and doing everything they can to complete an authoritarian takeover of our democracy.

They have been following the playbook of dictators throughout the world, and doing so at breakneck speed, e.g.: bullying, threatening, extorting and attacking any who criticize or do not bend to their will and pledge unquestioning loyalty.

Targets include political opponents, the media, judges, law firms, federal workers and institutions, and universities, to name but a few – as well as other countries who have been our allies.

In addition, they are openly using the levers of power with which we entrusted them to further enrich themselves at the expense of the rest of us, callously inflicting unimaginable suffering on our nation’s people.

They are openly defying the Supreme Court, terrorizing members of their own party, and brutally kidnapping and imprisoning legal immigrants while denying them their constitutionally mandated rights to due process (i.e., an opportunity to defend themselves).

In fact, our tax dollars are currently being used to pay rent for concentration camps based in foreign countries ruled by dictators. And our leader has stated that he is “considering” the possibility of at some point sending American citizens who criticize him there as well. Think about that.

Is this who we are now?? Is such lawlessness and outright cruelty now acceptable here, along with a president trying to seize absolute and unchecked power? Do we desire yet another King to replace our flawed and messy yet precious democracy?? Did any of us vote for this kind of America? Did you??

But there is hope. Although it took a while for the American people to fully catch on to what was happening, they are rapidly finding their footing and beginning to resist and push back.

So, we are at an extraordinary choice point in our nation’s history: democracy or authoritarian rule? Shall we bend our knees to the bully, and surrender our rights? Or rise up to defend our nation, it’s now battered and fragile democracy, and our people?

The choice is ours. May we choose wisely.

Dale E. Buonocore,

Warren