Is It Your Turn Yet?
April 9, 2011 by kmabarrett
| First 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 for me. |
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| — Martin Niemoller |
| (A German pastor during World War II) |
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| [First they came for the Poor, and I did not speak out — |
| Because I was not a Poor. |
| Then they came for the Teachers, and I did not speak out — |
| Because I was not a Teacher. |
| Then they came for the Muslims, and I did not speak out — |
| Because I was not a Muslim. |
| Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me. |
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| There is a war for opportunity going on in this country. Historically, the attacks have mainly been by the “Have’s” on the “Don’t Have’s”. There is a narrowing band in between them, the “Want To Have’s”. The narrow band is shrinking as the attacks by the “Have’s” have shifted and are driving more and more of the “Want To Have’s” into the ranks of the “Don’t Have’s”. There is a saying I learned from studying history: “The rich surrender what they must; the poor take what they can seize.” Historically, in this country anyway, the “Want To Have’s” have always been willing to work within a civil society to become one of the “Have’s”. When working for opportunity ceases to be an option… When that narrow band, that “middle class”, between those with a wealth of opportunity and those with no opportunity ceases to be, what part of civil society will protect the rich from those that take what they can seize? |
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| — KMAB] |
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Posted in Philosophy, Politics, Quotes | Tagged Martin Niemoller, Philosophy, Politics, Quotes | 2 Comments
I believe your comment, “first they came for the unborn.” is a misinterpretation of historical fact. I believe you are correct the Nazis came for the mentally disabled and the handicapped and blacks before coming for the groups cited by Niemoller, but they were not targeting the unborn as much as the unprocreated. Sterilization of “undesirables” was used before abortion (although I’m sure abortion soon followed), which was used before individual murder, which was used before group extermination.
I believe, historically speaking, the Jews were the first internal target for Nazi hatred. I believe the Poles were the first external targets.
The following is a list of Nazi targets (it is certainly not complete or all-inclusive):
•Jews
•Roma/Sinti (Gypsies, Romanies)
•Freemasons
•Opponents of the Nazis, including communists, socialists, labor leaders and people who opposed the Nazis on religious grounds
•Soviet political advisers (‘Politruks’)
•Soviet prisoners of war (with 3.3 million to 3.5 million killed, this was by far the largest group after the Jews)
•Resistance fighters
•’Unco-operative’ Poles
•Polish academics and other Polish intellectuals
•Gays
•Jehovah’s Witnesses
•Various incurables (mental and physical)
•Social ‘misfits’ (for example, prostitutes and people with no fixed address, beggars, the ‘unemployable’)
Of the 11 million people killed during the Holocaust, about six million were Polish citizens. Three million were Polish Jews and another three million were Polish Christians and Catholics. Most of the remaining mortal victims were from other countries (mostly Slavic) including Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Ukraine, Russia, Holland, France and even Germany.
Hitler wanted not only to conquer all of Europe, but Hitler also wanted to create a new religion and to replace Jesus Christ as a person to be worshipped. Hitler expected his followers to worship the Nazi ideology. Since Catholic priests and Christian pastors were often influential leaders in their community, they were sought out by the Nazis very early. Thousands of Catholic priests and Christian pastors were forced into concentration camps. A special barracks was set up at Dachau, the camp near Munich, Germany, for clergymen. A few survived; some were executed, but most were allowed to die slowly of starvation or disease (St. Kolbe, for example).
As for the reference to Father Maximilian Kolbe (Saint Kolbe, actually), I recognize he is the patron saint for the Catholic “Pro-Life” movement and that he died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1941 sacrificing his life for another. I do not deny his good works. I do not even question that he would be opposed to abortion (legal or otherwise).
I do, however, question if Saint Kolbe would condone or in any way support the murder of doctors or the physical and mental harrassment of women seeking medical options – even upto and including abortions – in the interest of preventing abortions.
I recognize the Nazis were one form of socialist party and that their form of corporate socialism was labelled “Facist” (from the Italian meaning “group”) by Mussolini. The point of quoting Niemoller was to relate a famous saying I learned while growing up to the state of modern American politics.
The “socialization of risk” and narrowly focused “privatization of wealth” are what I am commenting on – and I believe are great threats to this country which I love.
For the last forty years we have seen a mostly unending attack on the poor (“welfare cheats” and immigrants) and private sector unions. We are now at the point where less than 15% of the workforce is unionized. We are now at the point were almost 20% of the general public don’t know what a union is or what a union does. We are now at the point where it is okay to attack teachers unions and other public service unions. We are now at the point where Congress has held hearings on why Muslims are radicalizing in America, yet, it was a “Christian” who blew up a Federal building in Oklahoma and a “Christian” who murdered a Doctor (who performed abortions).
I AM a Federal employee and for the last few weeks all this talk of shutting down the government means that NOW they are coming for me…
first they came for the unborn.
The Nazis came for the mentally disabled and the handicapped and the blacks before they came for any of the aforementioned groups. They also came for the Christians, see Maximilian Kolbe.
The Nazis were socialists. They came for the socialists that were not of their stripe of socialism. Their stripe of socialism was best defined by Benito Mussolini as Corporatism.