I’ve got a job,
I’ve got a family,
I can’t afford to say anything about the wrong things going on in America, around me.
I can’t afford the time,
I can’t afford the risk,
I can’t afford the lost job,
I can’t afford the lost reputation,
if I speak up and get involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Is it too soon to get involved ?
Is it too late to get involved ?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Martin Niemoller, a Lutheran pastor in Germany, gave the following confession numerous times in speeches after WWII, remembering the silence of German intellectuals and clergy, including himself, during the Nazis’ rise to power and purging of their chosen targets, group after group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* A week after American Family Association initiated a boycott of Target stores because of their policy allowing men in women’s private spaces, over one million signatures were included, and growing.
Soon after, I participated with a group picketing in front of the Target store in Temple, Texas.
I had the opportunity for a few words with the store manager.
When I asked him if he personally agreed with the company policy, he said,
“I have a family.”
That says it all, for millions of Americans, who think they can’t do anything or say anything against the evils taking over this country.
And so far, most of us can still say, “They have not come for me.”
But they will, just as surely as Niemoller exerienced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve got a job,I’ve got a family,I can’t afford to say anything about the wrong things going on in America, around me.I can’t afford the time,I can’t afford the risk,I can’t afford the lost job,I can’t afford the lost reputation,if I speak up and get involved. Is it too soon to get involved ?Is it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,2,3,7,9,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6941","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-faith_based","category-family","category-inspire_lifter","category-political-cultural","category-time"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6941"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6941"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6941\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6942,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6941\/revisions\/6942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.awordforthought.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}