The following is a letter to the editor submitted to the Perham Focus by a reader. It does not necessarily reflect the views of the newspaper. To submit a letter, email editor@perhamfocus.com .
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To the Editor:
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On several occasions over the last two years, Michael Flynn, the disgraced former general and National Security advisor, has suggested that the United States should declare martial law. This suggestion was met with some enthusiasm by the far-right radical faction of our political spectrum. Recently we have found out that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and several Republicans (according to Rep. Greene) were requesting martial law to stop the political transition to President Biden.
If one wonders what life would be like under forced martial law, you need look no further than what is happening in Russia right now.
Under Putin, there is no protesting (left or right) allowed. People who do so are physically thrown into police vehicles and taken to prison without a trial. There is no free press. All the “truth” comes from government sources and any private source of news like the free press or social media has been closed under threat of imprisonment.
You can be arrested for using the wrong words for describing government actions. Anyone who would seek to be elected in opposition to Putin is immediately arrested and imprisoned. One person is in charge and whatever he says is what happens, even if most Russians disagree.
There is a huge concern that this person may be going over the deep end, but no one can say anything for fear of their very life. The war he started, lied about, and is now escalating, has already claimed the lives of thousands of Ukrainians, and destroyed billions of dollars’ worth of property. His own people are unable to stop him.
In the United States, we may not agree with our neighbors, but our founding fathers put together a darn good document, called the Constitution, that protects us from tyranny. We have been blessed with the ability to peacefully disagree.
We have legislators that understand that after they are elected, they need to respect everyone’s opinion, even if they choose to vote a different way. These same legislators know they need to peacefully accept defeat, if their constituents vote them out, and step down.
Vladimir Putin is going to go down in history as one of the worst monsters ever to run a country. He will join the ranks of Idi Amin, Kim Jong-un, Pol Pot, Josef Stalin, and Adolph Hitler.
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Despite the turmoil that is going on in our country, I stand with the vast majority of people in the United States who feel blessed to be an American and live in a democracy. We condemn those like Michael Flynn and Marjorie Taylor Greene who would bypass the U.S. Constitution and take these inalienable rights away from us.
—Donald Johnson, Detroit Lakes
