I was in grade school during WW II, a teenager during Korea and a young adult serving my country in our next war. It is unbelievable that the party of my grandfather, father and my younger self would select and enable a leader who would turn away from 80 years of alignment with the other nations of the free world. Our government is abandoning a new democratic ally to face a powerful, brutal, totalitarian neighbor in a fight for their existence as a free nation.

The passive, fearful and subservient Republican Party now supports a president who abruptly changed allegiance in the midst of an unprovoked aggressive war, started by Russia whose purpose is to recapture the Soviet Empire. This is not the Party of law and order, patriotic responsibility, fiscal restraint or fidelity to the Constitution. It is a party now unrecognizable as being “Of the people, by, the people and for the people.”

During the early years of our nation, Thomas Jefferson, in 1787, wrote these hauntingly appropriate words: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.“ Which bloodline best reflects your values? It is time to choose.

History informs us that very bad consequences can happen when good people decide to do nothing. This is not the time to be subservient, but to stand up to the antidemocratic forces abroad and at home. We either fight once more to maintain our freedom from a new form of authoritarianism within our own country, or choose to capitulate to those malign forces.

Still honoring my Constitutional Oath.

San Olson, veteran

Lopez Island