Thank you for reminding the people of St. Lawrence County that we still have a “Bill of Rights.” Unfortunately, there are way too many people who disrespect this document and our Constitution. Thomas Paine, 1737-1809, was an Englishman who wrote “Common Sense, and “The Rights of Man,” and was honored by the French for defending the French Revolution in the “Rights of Man.” He was given citizenship and elected to their constitutional convention. According to John Adams, second president and Founding Father, Thomas Paine “paved the way for the “Declaration of Independence.” Paine was greatly admired by George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and many statesmen of that period.

I would like to thank Sean Pigeon for his letter in the Watertown Daily Times, “Atrocities begin with expressions of bigotry.” Sean had made a visit to Terezin, near Prague and went to the sites of WWII concentration camps and crematoria. It seems history is beginning to repeat itself, and the quotation, “Lest we Forget” has already vanished from our vocabulary- and the crimes committed against millions of innocent victims never happened. Well it did happen, and General Dwight D Eisenhower took photos of what he saw, because he knew, that “one day some s-n of a -b would deny it” and his prophecy came true.

I bought a book many years ago, “The Holocaust Chronicle.” I have yet to read all as it details the horrors and the much suffering that our Jewish brethren and many others went through. Because of my own experience in wartime England, I gave my children DVDs so that they could see what happens to a society when tyranny rules. The History Channel shows the stories of man’s inhumanity to man, during WWII. Adolph Hitler was a psychopath who felt nothing. He was void of all human compassion. The Nazis, Hitler’s henchmen were also void of any emotional feelings. The gas chambers, death by starvation or torture were what they seem to delight in, and they could go home to their families and act like all was normal. Professor Julius Hallervorden was a pathologist who participated in the Euthanasia program to eliminate mentally ill and physically handicapped. Dr. Joseph Mengele experimented on many children, twins especially.

During the years that Sean mentioned, 1941 – 1945, we were a family of 10 children. In 1941, my grandfather and my 10 year old brother died during an air raid. My grandfather’s home was completely destroyed as were others in that road, and there were many deaths and casualties. During those years we slept mostly in open fields or ditches. My father never let us go into a shelter. When the sirens went off. We headed for the fields, many times without proper clothing or shoes. The in June 1942, we got to a football field close to our home, and the field started to light up with incendiary bombs. One of our friends was hurt, but survived. We were close to the gate and roadside and the home guard came and helped us to safety. It was then that my parents found out the air raids had destroyed about half of our street and our house was completely destroyed.

I truly fear for our country and world. Illegal drugs, marijuana, assisted suicide, euthanasia, the mass killings of the unborn and now legislation to kill if they are aborted at full term and survive, Christians and Jewish people being persecuted. We are going the way of tyranny and people just sit back in silence. This is how tyranny starts.

Brenda Littlejohn

Massena