Price of dissent

IN a stark signpost of the chilling times, especially for creative expression and public discussion, Douglas MacKinnon’s Counterpunch commentary (“Why Ignore the Current Madman?,” April 14) suggests that “dissent” has become equal to “disloyal.” What happened to the concept of informed debate and open exchange of opinions?

Look to the people depicted in “The Pianist” for what Mac- Kinnon calls “the dangers of silence”: the Poles who chose to ignore or acquiesce (or worse, participate) when government policies turned their Jewish neighbors into nonpersons.

Alan Silverman

Culver City