Randy Bergeron

To the editor,

Swearing is the sign of an ignorant mind trying to express itself. That little tidbit from my youth has been in my thoughts a great deal of late. It is the only analogy I can think of that seems suitable to some of the comparisons being made these days about our president.

You don’t have to look, or listen, far to hear President Obama compared to some prominent figures in history. All over the mainstream media I hear these comparisons: Obama is the next Stalin, or Obama is the next Hitler.

What saddens me greatly is that I have read the same comparisons within this very paper. The vast majority of the contributors to the opinion section you are now reading are intelligent men and women. Moreover, we are down to earth New Hampshire folk that exult in our freedom of speech and the rights we enjoy.

To see some of these same people resort to fear mongering just baffles me. And that is what it is. Comparing President Obama to Stalin and Hitler is fear mongering. There are no points of contention, no issues to debate. You are trying to frighten your readers to change their political views. And it makes me think about swearing. Read the first sentence again.

Stalin gave the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe countless executions, The Great Terror and the Eastern Bloc. But because some of President Obama’s policies smack of socialism the two men are compared.

Hitler brought racial hygiene to the world. He was responsible for the killing of 11-14 million people, including 6-million Jews, homosexuals and psychiatric patients. His movement of racial purity and survival of the fittest began with the extermination of children with physical and developmental disabilities. Yet, both men were great orators so the comparison is given.

To the people that use these tactics, I would like to propose the following. Is it possible that by fear mongering you are, in fact, weakening your own arguments? That in your efforts to sway the minds of your readers you are instead discrediting yourself as an informed writer?

I want to hear the support and praise for our president. I also very much want to hear the criticism. We live in a country of checks and balances and it has served us well. They say there are always two sides to the story, and I want to hear them both. I applaud the watchdogs.

But I challenge all of you to present your arguments, and your opinions, in a way that does not try to provoke fear. Give us informative, cogent and well thought out arguments and we will listen. I promise, we will. You might even sway us, one way or another. But if you try to bring fear into our lives you will be ignored.

Randy Bergeron

Laconia