To the Laconia Daily Sun,
Recently, there has been a disturbing undercurrent of anti-Semitism in the Lakes Region. The most conspicuous example was from Dawn Johnson, a member of the Laconia School Board and Representative of District Three in the NH House of Representatives, reposting an obviously anti-Semitic cartoon on her social media. Her apology did not involve that ugly content but rather her carelessness in reposting it. As of this writing she has yet to offer her remorse to the Jewish community.
In addition to that disgraceful incident, a writer recently criticized Charlie St. Clair for St. Clair’s censure of Nazi concentration camps but failure to criticize the Antifa violence in American cities. This is false equivalency at its worst. The rioting and looting of American cities were condemned by President Biden, who clearly stated such violence should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Nazi concentration camps did not involve property destruction, but rather the mass-production murder of human beings. The Nazis used a chemical, zyklon-b, to asphyxiate 2,000 human souls every 20 minutes. Think about that. Those who were chosen for such gas chambers were usually children, women with small children and the elderly. While the Nazis murdered many, the vast majority of their victims were Jewish, the process was genocide and it is known historically as The Holocaust. This heinous crime cannot be associated in such a casual way with property destruction. There is no moral equivalency. While riotous mobs are guilty of crimes against property, the Nazis were guilty of crimes against humanity.
These two instances raise the specter of anti-Semitism here in Laconia and that must be condemned in the strongest possible terms. After World War II, regular Germans who were not Nazi party members were asked how their society became morally bankrupt. They replied that the steps were all so small, each one was only a little worse than the last. They expected someone to protest but the steps were incremental and no one did. Therefore, we need to renounce the blatant as well as subtle anti-Semitism we have in our community.
Jayne Morris Crowther
Laconia
(1) comment
Look at the party they support- enough said.
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