First They Came For The Muslims. . .

Friends, will you speak up when I am taken away because I speak truth to power, because I don't buy our government's bullshit lies? I would for you, but by that time there may not be anyone left to speak up for you.

If you believe that that abuses and crimes of Nazi Germany can't happen here in the U.S., then you are fooling yourself. We have already sold our government to corporations. (Fascism is at basic sense "corporatism.") Citizens, yes CITIZENS, have been held indefinitely WITHOUT CHARGE. Our 1st Amendment Free Speech Rights have and are being stripped. (Remember the "Free Speech Zones" during the Republican Convention?) Our Fourth Amendment Rights against unreasonable search and seizure are being tossed out the door. (Has your phone line been tapped yet without a warrant? I bet mine has. And that's just the tip of the iceburg.)

If we continue down this course, I bet "detention camps" aren't that far down the road. (Actually, there is chatter on the Net that these have already been built. And I'm not even talking about the prison at Guantanamo Bay. Do a Google search on this topic and you'll be frightened by what you find) And since I am a vocal protester of the government, many times criticizing the Shrub and his crew on this blog, where I give my real name (how stupid of me), don't you think I'll be one of the early ones to go?

I really don't think I'm being a "paranoid, liberal ninny" here. Just a good student of history. . . something my Conservative father taught me to be. (And he is a Conversative in the true sense of the word, not these Neo-Con fuckheads that have co-opted the Republican party. If my dad was in office, he'd be for checks and balances (something this Republican Congress isn't doing) and more importantly, at least we'd have a balanced budget AND no deficit!)

Remember, those who don't learn from history are doomed to repeat it!!

Don't worry, I'll keep a bunk warm for you at camps for when you get there.

-Spider





They came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up...
By Stephen Rohde

(Author's Note: The USA Patriot Act became law a little over one year ago.)



First they came for the Muslims, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Muslim.

Then they came for the immigrants, detaining them indefinitely solely on the certification of the attorney general, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't an immigrant.

Then they came to eavesdrop on suspects consulting with their attorneys, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a suspect.

Then they came to prosecute noncitizens before secret military commissions, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a noncitizen.

Then they came to enter homes and offices for unannounced "sneak and peak" searches, and I didn't speak up because I had nothing to hide.

Then they came to reinstate Cointelpro and resume the infiltration and surveillance of domestic religious and political groups, and I didn't speak up because I no longer participated in any groups.

Then they came to arrest American citizens and hold them indefinitely without any charges and without access to lawyers, and I didn't speak up because I would never be arrested.

Then they came to institute TIPS (Terrorism Information and Prevention System) recruiting citizens to spy on other citizens and I didn't speak up because I was afraid.

Then they came for anyone who objected to government policy because it only aided the terrorists and gave ammunition to America's enemies, and I didn't speak up ... because I didn't speak up.

Then they came for me, and by that time, no one was left to speak up.

Forum Column (from the Daily Journal, 11/20/02). Stephen Rohde is an attorney. He edited American Words of Freedom and was was president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

Does Rohde's text seem familiar? It should. He based it on one of the web's most widely-circulated texts about silence in the face of evil:

In Germany, the Nazis 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, but I didn't speak up because I was a protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak for me.

That text appears in several slightly varying forms but is always attributed to the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöeller (1892-1984), who was several times jailed by Hitler in the mid-thirties, then spent eight years in Sachenhausen and Dachau. He survived to become an important anti-nuclear pacifist. He was, from 1961-1968, President of the World Council of Churches. One source says that he frequently ended his speeches with that text, so the several variants may simply reflect transcriptions of those different events.