To the editor: As a Jew whose father went through World War II and the invasion of Normandy, I have a red-alert siren inside me that starts blaring in the face of targeted smears against marginalized ethnic groups. (“The Nazi roots of the Trump-Vance smear of Haitian immigrants,” column, Sept. 17)
Until recently, I had been thinking: Why isn’t anyone comparing Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s and his running mate Sen. JD Vance’s Haitian smear rhetoric to Nazi Germany? Columnist Michael Hiltzik finally said what needed to be said and provided a history lesson and warning that the entire country needs to heed.
We should never minimize race-baiting behavior. If it isn’t sufficient cause for alarm, then Americans have their heads in the sand, hardened hearts and lost or dead souls. The forces that threaten freedom and sanctity of life for any group will always threaten us all.
Elaine Mintzer, Keene, N.H.
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To the editor: Vance, who says he is a Christian, seems to have forgotten or is just ignoring one of the Ten Commandments, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.”
Maybe he should visit one of the schools that has the commandments posted in classrooms and spend a little time pondering their meaning.
Kathleen Walker, Los Osos, Calif.
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To the editor: As a Jewish educator and a Holocaust lecturer, I have long resisted comparisons of contemporary political behavior to Nazism. It has always seemed hyperbolic.
But the groundwork that is being laid by the Trump campaign is very similar to that of the Nazi Party of the late 1920s and early 1930s.
Richard Shafarman, Santa Clarita