To the Editor:
The sad thing is that I feel as if I am living in the late 1930s Nazi Germany of Adolf Hitler. The reason for this is that during that time of Hitler in Germany the media was under the control and being directed by Joseph Gerbels. What I see and experience now is as bad or worse than that time and place, and it is taking place in America in the country I love and hope for.
I am a Navy vet and have several friends that are combat vets. Some have passed on and recently. A dear friend who is a Vietnam combat vet has departed. I no longer have my friends from World War II here with me and the last of my Korean vets also have left. My two youngest brothers where sent to and fought in the 1st Gulf War. Fortunately both came home and are still around. My children have grown and made lives for themselves. As nearly every parent I know there are issues between parent and child, and as a parent we spend most of our life working through these things, the good, bad, and ugly, for they are my child and I can never abandon them. My dearest wife was forced to leave me and the children over six years ago due to a cancer that destroyed her body.
I grew up in a poor farming family but I never felt a victim or neglected as my parents always loved me even when I was unlovable. I volunteered to serve my country by joining the navy. Later I worked as an electrician in New York City, and then in a computer operations center for 15 years. I moved 30 plus years ago to NE PA (Poconos) as I did not desire to raise my family and children in New York City. In that time I owned and operated my own HVAC / Electrical contracting business. At this point in my life I have seen much. Only once before have I ever written to the press, and that was long ago. I am not active in politics and even though I am registered in one of the two major political parties it is so I can vote in the primary election, nothing more.
Yet in the last few days I feel the need to speak up. I know there is the Presidential election happening soon, and I also know that there is a lot of ‘noise’ coming from all the partisans out there on both sides. But what has me so concerned that I am attempting to do something I normally would never do is the obvious suppression of the press by the very people who are in the press itself. With few rare exceptions the news of serious accusations and evidence to support it is being ignored, dismissed, vilified without even so much a thought about it. It makes me think of the press under Hitler and if and when some one came forward with substantial evidence of Hitler being involved in the murder and plundering of the Jewish people, and how the press of the day and age would ignore and dismiss it. Even worse, the press would grab any accusation against the Jewish people and shout it without hesitation even when it was proven to be a false. I am sure most reading this know I am referring to our current situation where real evidence of Joe Biden being involved in corrupt political influence peddling while he was vice-president is being dismissed and ignored, and yet any and all accusation against President Trump are shouted from the roof tops, regardless true or not.
I will be the first to state that I would never want Donald Trump to be at my family gathering as I would not want what goes on in my family pasted to twitter each and every day. Yet that does not mean I am not curious and concerned about Joe Biden and his real history of nearly 50 years in national politics. I have a choice to make as to who I, myself, believe would be a better president for this country I love and have sacrificed for. This is not a choice I want anyone else to make for me. Yet I see the very people and institution that claims to be the guardians of truth and transparency being overt liars and hiding the truth from me.
I do not know who will win the election or even if we will have a honest election. But I do know that many in the press have betrayed the very people they should serve and protect from lies, deceit, and half-truths, for they have become very vile they decry.
Robert Pickell
Greentown, Pa.