To the Editor:
My husband was a World War II veteran, awarded a Purple Heart for injury in battle and a Bronze Star with Oak Leaf Cluster for bravery under fire. He fought in the Battle of the Bulge, under General Patton. He fought for the Four Freedoms that President Roosevelt defined in his State of the Union address in 1941.
Last weekend, I marched down North Street in Pittsfield with 1,500 people from Berkshire County in the 4Freedoms Coalition rally. I carried the American flag and wore a sign stating that my husband fought to maintain the Four Freedoms across the world.
Someone asked me whether I was afraid of violence during the march. I answered, “Not at all. That’s not the mood of this event. We’re all together.” As the speakers pointed out at the gathering in the church after the march, solidarity conquers fear.
Now we have to keep it up, defending democracy during the next years of the new presidential administration. There are four key battlefields where we can fight as private citizens — the streets; the States; the elections, beginning with local ones; the courts. Let’s begin.
Tela Zasloff
Williamstown
The writer is author of “A Rescuer’s Story. Pastor Pierre Charles Toureille in Vichy France.”
