Homeland Insecurity
Nov. 16th, 2004 07:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoThanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
animist for saving me the trouble of looking up this quote:
In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me - and by that time there was nobody left to speak up. --Martin Niemoller
Niemoller was a protestant in Nazi Germany, describing here the slow descent into hell that overcame the Weimar Republic under Hitler. This is going to sound impossible to some of you, but I say the present course of US politics will bring the same to pass. Already the news is reporting scattered incidents of over-reaction by "Homeland Security" (our new American SS) to absurdities. High school kids perform a Bob Dylan protest song and HS shows up to investigate. LJ writer says Bush should drop dead and HS shows up to intimidate her. Eleven states pass discriminatory hate legislation by ballot referendum. Michigan's legislature passes a bill explicitly permitting medical personnel to refuse to treat gays. ABC News (owned by Disney, remember) plans to air a documentary arguing that gay-killings are not hate crimes.
Welcome to the 21st Century in Amerika, where gays and lesbians are the fashionable hate targets, with the blessing of the church and the government.
Now I do not believe that the majority of US citizens agree with this stuff. Unfortunately, I do believe that most are remaining aloof because they think it doesn't affect them. Folks, it does. After they come for the gays, the pattern will be established and accepted. A new hate target will be needed to keep their power base, which is founded on paranoia and keeping us all divided and suspicious of one another. Who will it be? Arabs? Blacks? Episcopalians?
animist for saving me the trouble of looking up this quote:In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me - and by that time there was nobody left to speak up. --Martin Niemoller
Niemoller was a protestant in Nazi Germany, describing here the slow descent into hell that overcame the Weimar Republic under Hitler. This is going to sound impossible to some of you, but I say the present course of US politics will bring the same to pass. Already the news is reporting scattered incidents of over-reaction by "Homeland Security" (our new American SS) to absurdities. High school kids perform a Bob Dylan protest song and HS shows up to investigate. LJ writer says Bush should drop dead and HS shows up to intimidate her. Eleven states pass discriminatory hate legislation by ballot referendum. Michigan's legislature passes a bill explicitly permitting medical personnel to refuse to treat gays. ABC News (owned by Disney, remember) plans to air a documentary arguing that gay-killings are not hate crimes.
Welcome to the 21st Century in Amerika, where gays and lesbians are the fashionable hate targets, with the blessing of the church and the government.
Now I do not believe that the majority of US citizens agree with this stuff. Unfortunately, I do believe that most are remaining aloof because they think it doesn't affect them. Folks, it does. After they come for the gays, the pattern will be established and accepted. A new hate target will be needed to keep their power base, which is founded on paranoia and keeping us all divided and suspicious of one another. Who will it be? Arabs? Blacks? Episcopalians?
