"The infamous Salem witch trials began during the spring of 1692, after a group of young girls in Salem Village, Massachusetts, claimed to be possessed by the devil and accused several local women of witchcraft. As a wave of hysteria spread throughout colonial Massachusetts, a special court convened in Salem to hear the cases; the first convicted witch, Bridget Bishop, was hanged that June. Eighteen others followed Bishop to Salem's Gallows Hill...the painful legacy of the Salem witch trials would endure for centuries.."
Note to Melania -- the quotation marks above indicate that this writer took his quotes from another historical source. We use them in English -- quotation marks that is -- I can't speak for Slovakia-Slovenia-Slabovia. The writer's own thoughts begin below.
Last night as I watched the GOP convention, with Hillary called "Satan" by a deranged brain doctor - the hysteria created in the crowd reminded me of the Salem witch trials - at least as I remember them from the movies of my childhood. No, I am old but not so old as to have witnessed them in my youth. There was one with the wicked Bonita Granville called something like "Witches Burn in Salem..." Correct me on the title - I had snuck into the local theater as a small boy to see it -- my slightly older sister leading the way -- disobeying our parents -- and it haunted my dreams for weeks to come. I fear that the GOP convention will do the same.
If the mad doctor had not called her Satan surely someone would have called the candidate Beelzebub. They did not merely want to defeat her, they wanted to destroy her - and burning at the stake would have been the preferred remedy for eliminating the woman if allowed. Trump's "crooked Hillary" had now become the Devil's handmaiden -- and if fire regulations permitted someone would have created a stake and brought a fiery torch to ignite it -- burning the woman in effigy.
I believe it took a few centuries for the witch Joan of Arc to become Saint Joan. I don't see the sanctification of Hillary -- but I do see the experience and value of this woman widely appreciated over time -- when she survives this election and wins the Presidency. The tone of demonizing his opponents has been set by Trump himself, and I don't give a damn how many pretty young daughters can testify to what a good Daddy he has been -- he can never be a father of this country -- he is its designated undertaker -- should he win.
But he won't win -- not as long as this old guy can wrangle people in Central Park and on the streets while out walking with Sam -- and tell them that Trump will destroy our centuries of imperfect freedoms and replace them with perfect Trump concentration camps. Hyperbole? I hope so -- but the part of me that has not been horrified by what the GOP hath wrought knows in my bones that this shall not come to pass -- and the good, common sense of the country will emerge and defeat him. Any young voter who refuses to vote for Hillary because he is disenchanted with the system, advise him that disenchantment will be the least of his or her troubles should he not work to defeat a menace to our freedoms. Let us pray for the soul of poor Bridget Bishop and all those who have been the victims of the eternal Trumpian mendacity -- a cruel ignorance which flows like a stream through our history -- but is always defeated by men and women of good will.