WEST TOWNSHEND — Elayne Clift compares current culture in the United States with that of Germany during the Nazi takeover, specifically related to a woman's reproductive rights and the right to think independently and to read freely without censorship.
I would like add to Clift's thoughts the fact that we Americans - supposedly living in the home of the free and brave - have slipped backwards since Sept. 11, 2001 into the home of the fettered and fearful. Fettered by masks and regulations. Fearful of people, even neighbors, who do not buy the government rhetoric.
The landslide towards fascism continues in the 2020s with Covid restrictions, which the populace, especially schools and workplaces, bought lock, stock, and barrel - no questions asked, no thoughtful consideration. Just masks, testing, travel restrictions, vaccination passports, and nothing to promote health and vitality.
This is certainly the trajectory of fascism:
Fear of the unvaccinated; fear of the next Covid cousin; the acceptance without question or options of the government and pharmaceutical industry's protocols; the vilification, as if fake, of healing arts like homeopathy, chiropractic, effective breathing, and even real food grown in soil, sunshine, rain.
Historically, the United States has taken pride in its freethinkers like Thomas Paine. We were born out of revolution. Now that the United States is the world's drum major, the tables are turned.
Earlier this year, I was accepted into a writing program at a well-respected institute. But my entry was denied because I am unvaccinated.
So what happens when the thinkers, the writers, and the artists are silenced because they do not conform to government standards? Who is going to ask the hard questions and demand accountability?
Will you be on board to halt this descent into fascism?