The anti-democracy movement is dangerous

Albert Camus’ 1947 novel “The Plague” describes a fictitious Algerian town engulfed with a deadly plague. Seventy-five years later, the world suffers from the COVID-19 pandemic, with deaths in the U.S. alone now eclipsing 830,000.

On Jan. 6, 2021, we saw the embodiment of another devastating “plague,” fueled not by microbes but by distrust, distortion, hate and violence. Every American should mobilize to ensure that such an appalling attack on our democracy never occurs again.

A main character in Camus’ book, weary from working to save his town from more suffering, concludes, “It may seem a ridiculous idea, but the only way to fight the plague is with decency.”

As 2022 begins, let us also strive to be more decent.

I taught adult education classes (history, government, citizenship) where the students qualified to be American citizens. When they applied for citizenship, there were questions, if not truthfully answered, that would disqualify and deny them citizenship status.

These questions included if the applicant was a member of the Nazi Party and guilty of crimes of state and federal law.

How could I explain to my students that regardless of the events of Jan. 6 and the revisionist explanations, our nation does not espouse the same values that would disqualify them as U.S citizens? Double standard indeed.

I applaud the efforts of the House Select Committee’s ongoing investigation regarding the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

However, I fear that the American people do not realize the significance of the event or understand what it means to our democratic society or the Constitution of the United States.

I fear that as time passes the issues will become less important to the American people and be used as a platform for false information. I would like to see more information in the news from the U-T.

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