To the Editor:

I grew up in Parishville. My father was Dr. Thaler. Perhaps he helped someone in your family during the 40 years he practiced medicine in the North Country.

He was also a refugee.

Here is a story my mother told me. In 1932, she was a young woman in Vienna, Austria where her family had lived for generations. Out with friends, she found herself at a political rally and was swept away by the enthusiasm of the crowd and cheered along with her friends. The speaker was Hitler. Within 7 years, her friends and neighbors had turned on her, her world collapsed, she barely made it out alive and spent a decade in a refugee camp.

Only when my parents came to St. Lawrence County did they find a home.

The man at the Republican tent at a fair I went to told me that Trump was “using Hitler’s playbook exactly.” These were his exact words. He said it twice. Then he said he was going to vote for Trump. Wow.

One of my neighbors just told me that a person who is using “Hitler’s Playbook exactly” is his choice for the next president of our country. Wow.

If I had not been concerned before, I sure am now. To say that this is America and hate could never take over here is naive and dangerous.

Susanna Thaler

Parishville