I am writing in response to the defaced Harris/Walz billboard displayed in Grand Rapids. I am horrified that the Grand Rapids Mayor and Village Council, Wood County elected officials, and the Wood County Republican Party have not yet condemned this billboard’s use of dangerous antisemitic symbols. I question the patriotism and human decency of anyone in a leadership position in this community who fails to use their position to clarify that Wood County is not a place that tolerates the use of Nazi symbols.
Some people in Wood County may believe that the Grand Rapids resident has a point – that Kamala Harris presents a risk to America that is comparable to the evils of Nazism. This could not be more wrong, dangerous, and insulting. I recommend that all Americans visit the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. to learn more about how and why Nazi Germany systematically robbed, starved, shot, and gassed six million Jews. The Nazi government deliberately stripped Jews of their citizenship, jobs, property, and human rights before accelerating to industrialized mass murder. They also killed millions of other people, including Poles, Roma, Communists, disabled people, Jehovah’s Witnesses, and gay men. Each one of those victims was a human being who deserved to live a full life free from the cruelty inflicted by the Nazis and their collaborators across Europe. The Nazis attempted to kill Jewish life in all its forms: by targeting synagogues, businesses, languages, art, music, and political activism. Due in part to the bravery of Americans and our allies, they failed. Jewish life has persisted. Jews around the world and here in our community are celebrating the High Holidays, the most important time in the Jewish calendar, this week.
Here in America, we have the right to vote for whoever we choose. Anyone has the right to disagree with Harris’s policies and fear for the direction of the country under her leadership. However, it is disgusting to compare Harris and Walz to the leaders of Nazi Germany. It is appalling to use the deaths of millions of people to make a political statement about this presidential election. It should go without saying that Harris and Walz will not organize and carry out the murder of millions of men, women, and children and the attempted eradication of an entire group of people. To make the comparison is unconscionable.
The symbols painted on the billboard cannot be separated from their terrible history. The swastika was featured prominently on the uniforms and vehicles of Nazi soldiers and leaders. The siegrune, the double S logo, represented the Schutzstaffel (Protection Squadrons) who implemented the Holocaust and ran the death and concentration camps. These are symbols of hate, of death, and of genocide.
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Leo Bucks
Bowling Green
*As originally published the letter included a line referencing suicide. That has been removed.
