We can’t ignore fascists in action

By Lee Ridgway, Dorchester

To the Editor:

Dear Mr. Forry,
Responding to your column of Aug. 17, “Best way to treat rally: Ignore it”: That may have been reasonable advice a few decades ago, but unfortunately we now ignore such things at our peril. We must speak out and take action against the purveyors of, bluntly put, fascism now ascendant in this country. Especially when the president presents himself as a fellow traveler!  

The platforms of “social” media (a misnomer if there ever were one), and the fact that many in this country rely only on such media and right-wing TV for their fake news, means those of us opposed to these threats must find and establish our own media outlets to get our messages out. It means we must take to heart the last line of the well-known poem by the German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller:

“Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Interestingly, on the same page as your editorial was an article on the Boston Holocaust Memorial’s most recent incident of vandalism. I think this underscores the need for action against the speech and actions of those bent on, basically, destroying this country and what it (used to) stand for.

I think it would be most helpful for you and the Dorchester Reporter to publish how and where we can stand up for those constitutional and moral values many of us hope remain the core values of the US.