And Then? (part 1)
Let's try something different today, shall we? This will be a blog in three parts. In the first two parts, I will share two important pieces of literature. The third part, will be from me. I don't care if you like me or not. I don't care if you think I am a raging idiot or the most brilliant thing on two legs. These works are very important to us, as a people, and I implore you to read them with an open and honest mind. Read them and consider. I do not ask that you like them or agree with them or me, merely consider.
The first of these two works is the most famous. It was written by am man named Martin Niemöller. Mr Niemöller was a German-born Lutheran pastor born on January 14, 1892. He passed away on March 6, 1984. Mr Niemöller was, at first, a sympathized to Adolf Hitler. On July 1, 1937 he was arrested and brought to "Special Court" and tried for activities against the state. He was fined 2,000 reichsmarks and sentenced to seven months in prison. His detention period had exceeded the sentince and as a result, he was released after the trial. After leaving the court he was arrested by the gestapo and interned first in Sachsenhausen and then in Dachau concentration camps. He escaped execution due Germany's defeat. He was liberated by Allied forces in 1945. He was not a great man. He was a man like any other. He held ideas both noble and base and had is own prejudices and ideals. He was just a man, for better or worse.
This is his work:
First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
End Part One...
