Letter: Europeans are concerned about a Trump presidency

I just returned from three weeks in the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia where I was traveling with a group of Americans from around the country. While there, we had journalists or government officials in each country speak to us. They all expressed concerns for the election in the United States making Donald Trump president. They don't believe he would keep NATO strong and they believe Russia is a greater threat to them than ISIS. The Ukraine was not in NATO and was attacked by Russia, and the Baltic countries believe the NATO forces in their countries keep Russia from attacking them.

Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic all were part of the Soviet Bloc before the 1990s and they gained their freedom, along with other countries, after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Why should we care as Americans? We aren't citizens of these European nations. And why should I care if Muslims are not allowed in America? I am not a Muslim. And why should I care if Mexican parents are deported with their children left here? I'm not a Mexican. Wait a minute! What if somehow, someday I'm on this list? Then who will care?

Those of us older Americans remember the days and our fright of the Cold War with missile silos, bomb shelters, stockpiling of supplies and the possibility of nuclear attack. If NATO is weakened and Russia takes other countries by force, we could again be involved with a stronger Russia and in another Cold War that may not end like the last Cold War with Russia.

We cannot let this happen.

Toya Hegwer

Landrum