David Crabtree and Jeremy Alm, in their Oct. 13 letter, “Name-calling isn’t legitimate criticism,” would have readers believe I stooped to playground name-calling in my letter regarding the behavior of John Ashcroft.

In fact, I quoted an observation by Nazi Reichsmarshall Hermann Goering, recorded during his trial at Nuremburg.

I then posited that parallels could be found between Georing’s observation and Ashcroft’s actions.

It is a shame you are not able to understand the difference, and frightening that you do not comprehend the dangers that Ashcroft’s actions represent.

In 1915, Emma Goldman called on people “not yet overcome by war madness to raise their voice of protest, to call the attention of the people to the crime and outrage which are about to be perpetrated on them.”

She also warned that those critical of government policies, “shall soon be obliged to meet in cellars, or in darkened rooms with closed doors, and speak in whispers lest our next-door neighbors should hear that free-born citizens dare not speak in the open.”

Brad Lucht

Alumnus