I used to be a Peace Corps volunteer in Chile at first of Normal Augusto Pinochet’s navy dictatorship. The justice system, the newspapers, even the schools accepted and carried out with out objection the dictates of the navy junta. Following the September coup, many leftists merely disappeared, by no means to be seen once more. Households misplaced their fathers, brothers, moms, sisters. Individuals saved their heads down and their mouths shut.
Ten months into my service, a Chilean pal invited me to go to her household in Iquique in northern Chile. One night, I used to be invited to satisfy with a gaggle of households that had misplaced family members to the brand new regime.
To the households in that room I represented hope. I would be capable of discover out what occurred to their family members. Such determined hope was of their faces!
I advised them that I used to be “simply” an American citizen with no extra authority or affect than the widespread man.
Now, the identical factor is going on right here. Individuals are being “disappeared.” Household and pals are afraid that they are going to be subsequent.
The judicial system, Congress, newspapers and the “widespread man” want to talk up for our democracy.
David Robert Askren, Mill Creek
