Democracy dies in silence

To the editor:

Democracy dies in silence! I am proud to live in a state with the courage to stand up to the type of tyranny my parents’ generation fought against in World War II. When some will endure bone-chilling temperatures to protest injustice, how will history and our descendants judge each of us?

Do we want our children to live in a world where the right to dissent is replaced by fear and intimidation?

Do we recognize the frightening parallels between the 1930s and today?

Do we, in a nation of immigrants, want our values to be defined by a picture of a little brown boy in a bunny hat in ICE custody?

Are we content to allow our elected officials to lie to us and to defend the indefensible?

Is it acceptable to insult our foreign neighbors, alienate our allies and act like the bully of the Western Hemisphere?

Do we recognize the lie in the claim that tariffs are paid by foreign countries and not by American importers and consumers?

Do we still hold dear our First Amendment freedoms, the rule of law, the separation of powers and the qualities of integrity, truthfulness and decency?

Has the party that once stood for limited government and states rights been hijacked by those who seek blind obedience to what is often morally repugnant and constitutionally forbidden?

Is it simply inconvenient scripture to note that Matthew reminds us that God’s judgment will be based on our treatment of the stranger, the sick and the poor?

Dave Sorenson

Truman