Letter to the Editor: In America, We Should All Be Anti-Fascist

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Hooray. Citizens of Lewis County can breathe safely once again. Inhale, pause and exhale. Our esteemed sheriff and a band of merry men, super geniuses, the lot of them, have declared the county’s most precious asset safe from harm. 

Yes, it’s true. There was a rumor that the scourge of all humanity, the dreaded Anti-Fascists were going to attack our most valued monument, the Uncle Sam billboard near I-5 exit 72. It just makes one’s heart beat a little faster that the sheriff had the courage to rally hundreds of gun toting super patriots in defense of a sign located on private property. 

A neighbor reported driving by the gathering and noting the weapons on display. They also reported that there were four squad cars parked at the intersection of Rush Road and Jackson Highway another approach to the beloved monument. What a great use of our county’s law enforcement personnel and budget.

 People can’t be too careful when it comes to those Anti-Fascists. Back on June 6, 1944 thousands upon thousands of them swarmed ashore on the beaches in Normandy, France, unasked for by those folks that our sheriff apparently supported, the spiritual grandfathers of today’s pro-fascists, the Nazis of Adolf Hitler. Let’s make no mistake. Anti-Fascists are American citizens — people opposed to facism and Nazism. People opposed to Anti-Fascists have self identified as Pro-Fascist. No amount of spin and twisting of truth can alter that fact.  

Fascism is a form of far-right, authoritarian ultranationalism characterized by dictatorial power, and forcible suppression of opposition. In America, the home of the brave land of the free, Fascism should be everything we all stand strong against. 

Franklin Roosevelt, Dwight D. Eisenhower were Anti-Fascists. So was the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marines. At the time of WWII, America was overwhelmingly Anti-Fascist. There was however a movement known as the “Silver Shirts” who were proudly Fascist. 



There was a branch of the Silver Shirts in Washington, and a group gathering in Chehalis made it to the pages of Life Magazine. Nowadays it seems that the “Silver Shirts” have been reborn in Lewis County, and our sheriff appears to be proud to stand at their front.

 

Alan Mahood

Chehalis