Dear Editor:

I grew up in Lithuania under Soviet occupation. My grandfather spent ten years in Siberian gulags for “crimes” fabricated by the communist party. He left behind my mom as a toddler and managed to only return home thanks to Stalin’s death. In my childhood, it was a nightly routine for my grandfather to tune into the Voice of America and hear news other than the communist propaganda. It was risky, and the reception was terrible, due to Soviet radio jamming. Yet, for my grandfather and for millions of others behind the iron curtain, this was a way to stay sane when bullies and liars were in full control of the society, including all legal sources of information. I still keep that radio as an important childhood memory, and had it recently fixed up by a neighbor in Nobleboro.

The Soviet Union is gone, to a large extent thanks to America’s unwavering stance against authoritarian regimes around the world, at great sacrifice. Lithuania regained its independence and managed to develop a healthy democracy. For the past 20 years, I have been living in the U.S., which would have been an outlandish fantasy back in my childhood days. Even more outlandish would have been the idea of the U.S. turning away from democracy. Yet, I am starting to see things in America, that I saw in the Soviet Union: political leadership demonizing press that is not supportive of them; major news outlets turning into tools for spreading state propaganda and lies; threats to jail political opponents; intimidation of civilians by thugs with assault weapons being touted as an expression of freedom; the party in power trying to prevent people from voting; nepotism at the highest level so pervasive that it no longer makes headlines.

In the past few years, we have been witnessing top U.S. politicians departing from sensible leadership, sacrificing integrity for tribalism and falling prey to cults of personality. Did the U.S. win the Cold War to then betray the core values it was fighting for just three decades later?

Ramunas Stepanauskas

Nobleboro