I have been trying to counter the planned negativity promoted by Fox News and corporate interests by standing up to it at every opportunity. Bullying tactics are only effective if individuals allow themselves to be bullied en masse. When specific individuals refuse to be bullied in a public manner, they lessen the effectiveness of the intimidation. The time to stand up is in the beginning, before the bullies completely delegitimize the rule of law.

This week, I stood up to the bullies in two small ways that I would like to share in the hopes that others will follow suit or (even better!) improve upon them: I told my favorite Congressman at a town hall that I disagreed with his sudden unexpected choice to address substance abuse and mental illness as a law enforcement issue; and I wrote a letter to our local newspaper defending this same Congressman from a writer who compared him to Hitler.

About a week ago, Congressman Ben Ray Lujan (D-NM), sponsored a town hall on substance abuse in my community. This is not odd. We have some of the highest rates of drug overdose death in the nation. What was odd was the focus of the summit. Congressman Lujan has been a strong supporter of addressing the epidemic as a public health issue, and of ending our state of permanent American warfare.

The panel represented a surprising departure from what I know to be his genuine philosophy. It was composed almost entirely of military and law enforcement personnel. The moderator opened up the discussion by turning to an Adjutant General of the National Guard and asking him, “General, nobody would have a better answer to this question than you. How do we win the war on drugs?”

The General looked surprised and said something to the effect of “F**k if I know!” (albeit more politely)

I strongly suspect the the “summit” was not the Congressman’s idea. He was most likely snookered into it at the last minute by certain opportunistic officials in our local Democratic party who organized the event. Also, his father, the speaker of our state house (who has the power to make sure my funding requests either pass or don’t pass) was sitting in the audience. So was my boss, who needs his own bills to pass. (Not a deliberate act of intimidation, of course. They just happened to be there supporting the Congressman.) I convinced myself they were hallucinations, stood up, and objected to approaching the drug epidemic as a war. I wanted to let Congressman Lujan know that he has public support for his liberal views. There were a number of recovering addicts in the audience and once I spoke the theme persisted; many of them related how difficult it is to be denied opportunities for recovery and jailed when they are living with a chronic, brain-altering disease.

A few days later, I picked up our local paper and noticed a letter to the editor written by someone who had obviously been watching too much Glenn Beck. He accused Congressman Lujan of being a card-carrying socialist (as if this were a criminal activity) and inferred from this assertion that Lujan is a lot like Hitler. I decided to answer it. I have no idea whether my response will make it into print, but here is the unedited version for your enjoyment.

Dear Editor,

Lee Hickerson’s comparison of Congressman Ben Ray Lujan to Hitler is ignorant and offensive. As a Jew, I grew up around Holocaust survivors and as an adult, have worked with their children. I am proud to call Congressman Lujan my friend. The assertion that this kind, thoughtful, honest man might one day perpetrate acts of mass genocide is unjustified.

Hickerson’s argument is also incorrect. Without offering proof, Hickerson accuses Lujan of being a member of the left-wing Democratic Socialists of America (which he mixes up with the Socialist Party), an organization that eschews racism and champions the right of workers to organize. I don’t know if Congressman Lujan actually is a member of either of these conflated contemporary socialist associations, and I don’t care. I’m glad Ben Ray supports unionization and the regulation of industry!

Hickerson erroneously confuses today’s DSA with mid-20th century Nazis. Hitler’s German Workers Party was a right-wing, ultra-nationalist, anti-democratic organization that promoted the elimination of Jews, Catholics, gays, Gypsies, the disabled and any other minority perceived as threatening to the desired eugenics including members of the Social Democratic Party of their day. They eventually added the word “socialist” to attract a larger following but never deviated from their blatantly racist, nationalist agenda.

Hitler’s first act as head of his Party, which was composed mainly of child molesters, bad-check writers and other moronic deviants, was to barricade a beer hall, jump on a table and orate to drunken revelers. The teabaggers’ thought-challenged xenophobia resembles brownshirt mentality far more closely than any of the articulate ideas I’ve ever heard uttered by Ben Ray Lujan. Brownshirts perpetrated Kristallnacht much as today’s thugs attack Mexicans, Muslims and mosques. If Hickerson cares about constitutional government or intelligent public discourse, he should contribute to it by turning off Fox News and picking up The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.

Hitler would not have accepted Congressman Lujan as an Aryan. If you ask me, Hickerson’s letter was either cut from hate-filled brown cloth or smelly brown paper.

Sincerely,

Lauren Reichelt

Please feel free to plagiarize if you like it. If you draft your own letters remember to limit them to 350 words. And here is a link to Turn Off Fox News, an organized effort to have Fox News turned off in by local businesses and in public places.

Nothing could be better for maintaining a diverse and robust democracy.