Those who know “The Twilight Zone,” from 60’s television might remember this episode; normal folks, in normal town USA, turned on each other with hatred and violence. It was the start of an alien invasion. In the end, it was revealed that the aliens remotely turn on and off some streetlights and TV sets. Hate and fear did the rest. Rod Sterling, the show’s producer, predicted Springfield, Ohio 2024, all those years ago.

Have we learned nothing from the trials and tribulations of the Twentieth Century? The Night of Broken Glass? The church bombing in Birmingham Alabama, 1963? The Tulsa Riots of 1921?

“Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it,” the saying goes. I suppose all of us failed grade school history if we now fail to recognize, deny, and strike down hateful, lying words spoken by would-be leaders bent on sowing the seeds of hatred and fear for personal gain, political or otherwise.

Shame on us.

SAM STEA

Cogan Station

Submitted by Virtual Newsroom