The Witch Hunt of Today
This letter to the editor, by Laurie Harmon, appeared in the Hudson Star Observer on September 25, 2025.
Most of us want good neighbors. Knowing that people are watching out for us makes life better. While teaching English, I found students loved a play called “The Crucible,” where neighbors in a Puritan community in 1692 looked out for each other in Christian love. Things turned dark, however, when jealousies, grudges and greed infiltrated the community, quickly turning their idyllic peace into witch hunts and executions.
Infected with fear and suspicion, neighbors turned on each other, leading to death and destruction. Written in the 1950’s by Arthur Miller, the play about the Salem Witch Trials was also a warning. Miller saw a new “witch hunt,” headed by Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy. With threats of the Cold War and communism, McCarthy found his fame by repeating the disturbing behavior from almost 300 years before. Like the Puritans, he used Christianity and Nationalism as weapons to eliminate perceived “enemies of the state.” Once again, citizens turned on each other.
Now, another Wisconsin politician, Derrick Van Orden, is spreading a new national fear: fear of opposing ideas. He’s posing heinous threats against law-abiding American citizens and encouraging neighbors to turn on neighbors because he doesn’t approve of opposing viewpoints. This revisited “witch hunt” continues to wield Nationalism and Christianity as weapons, this time against our constitutional freedom of speech.
Van Orden, Trump and others are betraying their Constitutional oaths. They are forgetting that freedom of speech makes America great. We are a country of diverse viewpoints and ideas and our ability to listen and talk through our differences is what ultimately makes us stronger. Our very democracy was founded on challenging tyranny, hatred and injustice. Whether on social media or late night television, we the people have the right to speak out.
When free speech was under attack in 1954, legendary broadcaster Edward R. Murrow boldly stated “This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy’s methods to keep silent…we are the defenders of freedom…”
Vote Van Orden out of office. Your vote is your voice. We can’t afford to tolerate threats against our freedoms. Good neighbors defend each other’s rights.