First they 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 Catholics,
and 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 up for me.
– Martin Niemoller
In Charlottesville, VA they chanted “Jews will not replace us”.
At the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, PA eleven people were murdered.
In Palm Beach, FL a former president dined with an avowed anti-Semite and a white supremacist who has denied that the Holocaust happened and has spoken favorably about Nazis.
Over and over the name of George Soros is used as a code word for a so called worldwide Jewish conspiracy.
We hear countless stories of a swastika nearby, whether in a school or other public place. There are frequent reports of “minor” acts of hate. Small things add up, they empower those who commit them to act in bigger and more dangerous ways, often fed by lies and hatred found on social media. There was a time we were told to ignore that hate, that by talking about it we gave it a bigger voice, amplified its message. That time is long gone. Social media provides the amplification. We have to act, expose the lies, the hate. If we don’t act to fight them then what happened during the Holocaust will happen again. Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower insisted that the horrors in the concentration camps be documented. He believed that without proof there would be a denial that the evils happened.
The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
– Edmund Burke
The world is a dangerous place to live; not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who don’t do anything about it.
– Albert Einstein
#NeverForget
#FightHate
Thanks for these reminders. They are essential.