Editor’s note: The following letter was published on April 17. Due to the beginning of the letter cutoff during editing, it’s being re-published.

To the editor:

Thank you, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, for having a course called “Totalitarian Political Patterns” way back in the last century. It was taught by a professor originally from an East European country, who had held a high elective position there until ousted by the communists. We students of Russian language and culture and/or of politics, generally, learned to become more aware of the signs of a slide towards authoritarianism, whenever and wherever that happens.

And it’s happening, isn’t it? Pardon me, for a few minutes, while I weep. Then onward.

A Swedish relative of mine, when a few decades ago I was fortunate enough to get back in touch with some “lost cousins” in Norway and Sweden, exclaimed to me: “We need to accept and help immigrants, but not the criminals!”

She was right. Obeying the law is essential, for the weak and for the strong, too. A nation of laws. One of my young adult English language students at Moscow University in 1997 asked me,”Can you really get justice in the American legal system?” I needed a moment and then said, “Yes, but sometimes it takes a long time.”

Let us embrace our laws. Made by us, for us. With patience, vision, memory and kindness, we can make America America again.

Shirley Iverson

New Ulm