A question of survival and not morality
Following the current events abroad or politicking in general I like to formulate here my own stand on issues, one that I have been taking now for a while already. No subject matter on today's political landscape is more important than taking a stand against hatred.
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. One century ago now he found many of the new political ideas on offer alouring enough to support radically right-wing political movements. Movements that gained support by offering the other as a sacrifical lamb.
However, in 1933 after Hitler came to power, he became the most outspoken critic of the Nazi interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in prisons and concentration camps. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for his postwar statement:
"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."
Good men and women do exist everywhere. Of that there's no doubt. What they do with the power that they still have at the ballet box is yet again the right question to ask. Should any politician one votes for not be a person who loves more than hates?
My argument is that hatred is indeed the measurement of any good politician whether he or she is of the right or of the left. Don't mistake what evil can do. It takes the most banal things like a railway time table or a weekend garden party and turns it into hell on earth.
Secret Army was a 1970s BBC tv drama that told the story of a resistance movement in German-occupied Belgium during WOII, an escape line dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually shot down by the Luftwaffe, to Great Britain. Every story within the script was based on true events.
The actor Bernard Hepton played Albert Foiret, the proprietor of the 'Candide' café that served as the base for the evasion group, 'Lifeline', led by its idealistic founder Lisa Colbert. This network and its young female leader were losely based on the heroic deeds of the Comet Line and Andrée de Jongh.
Albert accepted early on an invitation from Ludwig Kessler as head of Gestapo and SD in Belgium, played by Clifford Rose, and came to see and experience what he was really fighting against. The numbness of fright needs to make way for the rightness of action in defence of the other
[media=https://youtu.be/aK5bHO6INyQ]
Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. One century ago now he found many of the new political ideas on offer alouring enough to support radically right-wing political movements. Movements that gained support by offering the other as a sacrifical lamb.
However, in 1933 after Hitler came to power, he became the most outspoken critic of the Nazi interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in prisons and concentration camps. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for his postwar statement:
"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."
Good men and women do exist everywhere. Of that there's no doubt. What they do with the power that they still have at the ballet box is yet again the right question to ask. Should any politician one votes for not be a person who loves more than hates?
My argument is that hatred is indeed the measurement of any good politician whether he or she is of the right or of the left. Don't mistake what evil can do. It takes the most banal things like a railway time table or a weekend garden party and turns it into hell on earth.
Secret Army was a 1970s BBC tv drama that told the story of a resistance movement in German-occupied Belgium during WOII, an escape line dedicated to returning Allied airmen, usually shot down by the Luftwaffe, to Great Britain. Every story within the script was based on true events.
The actor Bernard Hepton played Albert Foiret, the proprietor of the 'Candide' café that served as the base for the evasion group, 'Lifeline', led by its idealistic founder Lisa Colbert. This network and its young female leader were losely based on the heroic deeds of the Comet Line and Andrée de Jongh.
Albert accepted early on an invitation from Ludwig Kessler as head of Gestapo and SD in Belgium, played by Clifford Rose, and came to see and experience what he was really fighting against. The numbness of fright needs to make way for the rightness of action in defence of the other
[media=https://youtu.be/aK5bHO6INyQ]
