Editor,

I have lived most of my life in the 20th century. I did two combat cruises, one in Vietnam and one in the Gulf. I taught school, coached wrestling and am involved in state and local politics.

These last three months, I have seen things happen I never would have thought possible in the United States of America. We saw the American and world economy nearly destroyed by a virus that, in the USA, has an overall death rate of less than 1%. I saw our governor violate the U.S. Constitution and take away our God given rights. The same governor, and the mayor of Seattle, abdicated their responsibility to the people of the state by allowing the riots to take place in some of the state’s largest cities.

This has not happened just here, but across the nation. These riots are because of a police officer who had numerous complaints against him for use of excessive force, once again used excessive force that resulted in the death of a man. This man was not the “saint” portrayed by the media, but was a man with a drug and violence record. He was high on drugs at the time of his death. His death was senseless, and the police officers were arrested and should already be sentenced to prison. Is there any rioting and protesting over the police officers who were killed doing their duty as a result of these demonstrations?

This said, we have demonstrations against the police, nation and a call for “defunding” law enforcement agencies across the nation. We have Black Lives Matter, a movement I think is based on lies, which came to prominence after another incident with a criminal, after committing robbery and attacking an officer. I believe their initial marches resulted in several officers being killed.

In the recent terrorist activities conducted by Antifa, which mirrors the way the German Brown Shirts got control for Hitler.

There is a large portion of the citizens of the United States whose actions mirror what happened in Germany in the 1930s. We have a news media and members of the Democratic party that apparently push violence and lawlessness.

We need to get back to the values that made this country great. Love of God, family, country and holding political leaders accountable for their actions. Not the violence and division pushed by the socialists on the left of the political spectrum.

Joseph Moreland

Oak Harbor