David Frankham, the 91 year old British character actor from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s who might be best remembered for playing Lawrence Marvick, the tragic designer of the USS Enterprise, on Star Trek: The Original Series, recently posted a stunning response to Donald Trump on his Facebook page.
Many of us can condemn Nazis and Hitler in hindsight, in the abstract, but I’m afraid there are probably few left who can rebut Trump with the moral authority of having actually lived under attack from genuine Nazis.
DAVID FRANKHAM
August 13, 2017
“I make it a point not to get into politics on my Facebook page, but in light of our President’s comments on the murder in Charlottesville yesterday …
"We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides … We ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Lets come together as one!”
… as a WWII veteran of the British Army, I just feel the need to say:
I feel no inclination to unite with people who proudly wear the same symbol that was painted on the airplanes that dropped bombs on me and my family in London every night in 1941.
I feel no inclination to come together with people who wear the same symbol as those who caused the family six doors down from us to be vaporized one night, replaced by a giant crater …
... who dropped the incendiary bombs which, as a teenager, I patrolled our school with a bucket of sand to find and put out …
... and who tattooed a number on the arm of my BBC colleague, Renata, who told me in 1948 that she would have been next in line for extermination, but for the end of the war.
Unlike our President, apparently, I have no problem naming and condemning Nazis.”