Dear Editor:
RE: The power of words and danger of lies, Jan. 14.
I can’t defend all of President Donald Trump’s actions leading up to the assault on the U.S. Capitol. However, I believe it is unfair to put all of the blame on Trump.
If you look at what Trump actually said, he never called for the violence that occurred. Being a “law and order” man, he was likely as shocked as most conservatives were by the actions of a segment of the Trump supporters. Violence isn’t what reasonable conservatives do – we expect it to come from the left.
The 2020 riots resulting from Black Lives Matter, Antifa and other protests were widespread, resulting in destruction across the country, with even the White House perimeter being attacked.
The attack forced the White House to go on lockdown and President Trump having to go into the bunker. An estimated $1- to $2-billion of property damage was done during those riots, multiple people were killed and injured, and scores of businesses were destroyed.
Yet most Democrats and their media supporters downplayed or justified that violence. They described the protests as “mostly peaceful,” as did one CNN reporter standing in front of a burning building that had been set aflame by rioters. Small wonder that a recent poll found that six out of 10 Americans trust the media either “not very much” or “not at all” when it comes to reporting the news fairly and accurately.
The Big Tech monopolies’ censorship of Trump and other conservative voices, using the pretext that it will stop violence, is extremely hypocritical and likely to only exacerbate an already volatile situation.
Violence needs to be condemned whether it comes from the left or the right, no matter how just these people say that their cause is.
Henry Brunsveld,
Puslinch