Letters to the Editor: I lived under Nazi occupation. Yes, it could happen in America too

To the editor: Sunita Sah’s article concerning the compliance of most Americans should be required reading in every school, from the sixth grade through the 12th. (“America thinks it’s a country of free thinkers. But we’re actually compliant,” Opinion, Feb. 28)

It is of course in our nature to be nice and not make waves, as it is characteristic of most human beings everywhere. We dislike aggressiveness and, mostly, defiance. I recall berating a sales clerk for being racially disrespectful to a customer and being subjected to glares from others in the store because I dared to speak up.

Having lived, albeit as a child, under the yoke of the Nazi regime that had invaded the Netherlands in World War II, I still ponder this question: How did people allow this monstrous totalitarianism to exist?

Among the answers, according to Sah, is that we are largely compliant when faced with choices that may compromise our acceptance in our community. I will add that, through this passivity, a nation could conceivably become complicit in evil, as happened in Germany.

This is the danger that increasingly confronts us today. When we are compliant — for example by following edicts on banning diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives — we set the stage for an authoritarian government that will inevitably affect us all.

Anneke Mendiola, Santa Ana