Sheila Plotkin

This letter was published in The Cap Times on Feb. 7, 2017

Dear Editor: One step on a slippery slope dislodges a small cascade of stones and mud. The minority president banned some Muslims from entering the country. A mosque in Texas was set ablaze and burned to the ground. His statement on Holocaust Remembrance Day did not mention Jews. More than 20 Jewish centers across the country received bomb threats during the past week, including in Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. All were evacuated. The FBI has been called in.

The intellectual responsibility for these terrorist acts belongs to the minority president and his closest advisers. They have given perpetrators tacit permission to act. Criminals now have the unofficial blessing of those in power. Defensive Republican members of Congress wrap themselves in the flag or remain silent. Republicans are now accomplices in domestic terrorism. The minority president has created a scenario wherein hate crimes are patriotic. This is no longer a small cascade. It is an avalanche.