Courage and Solidarity
Apr. 26th, 2025 05:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ndrosenA few days ago, I wrote about azaleas, and said that I would follow up with a grimmer post. There was a recent article in The Atlantic about the Trump administration’s efforts to make the country fascist. The author does not think that we are doomed, but does sound the alarm.
Slate magazine published a piece by Radley Balko about attempts to intimidate lawyers and others from giving advice to illegal aliens, or doing various other things which displease the MAGAts in power; lawyers are not the only ones being threatened. There is the temptation to lie low, and not stick your head out. You don’t want to be arrested, you don’t want to be bankrupted with cost of defending yourself against a bogus prosecution. You may have your own children to think about. You may not want to be fired from a civil service job, or from a position at some business or law firm that sees the need to stay in the jefe’s good graces. You don’t want to be clubbed by cops, and then sentenced to years in prison, or made to disappear into CECOT in El Salvador. Let someone else be a hero or martyr.
Not being naturally brave myself, I understand all of this. Nonetheless, if we are to have any hope of preserving constitutional government, we will have to summon up our courage, take risks, and act in solidarity. We will have to suffer various hardships — some of us, at least — to speak out, to dig into our pockets, to give up our ambitions of worldly success, if we are to have any hope of securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Do what you can, according to your skills and resources. If you have time but not money, attend a demonstration. If you are pressured at work to do something to advance the Fascist agenda, refuse, and prepare to look for new employment as a busboy. If you have money to spare, make donations to groups standing up for democracy, or contribute to the legal defense of people being unjustly sued or prosecuted. If you have a way with words, or with graphic design, speak up. Don’t be a scoundrel, and don’t be a bystander. Be as much of a hero as you can manage.
I remember the warnings of Holocaust survivors, from past Holocaust Remembrance Days. “Don’t be a bystander,” was the plea of one survivor. Another said that there are not enough truly evil people in the world to accomplish all the bad deeds that are done, and that the actual Nazis could not have managed without the assistance of the cowards and the conformists. Don’t enroll in either category. Support and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Slate magazine published a piece by Radley Balko about attempts to intimidate lawyers and others from giving advice to illegal aliens, or doing various other things which displease the MAGAts in power; lawyers are not the only ones being threatened. There is the temptation to lie low, and not stick your head out. You don’t want to be arrested, you don’t want to be bankrupted with cost of defending yourself against a bogus prosecution. You may have your own children to think about. You may not want to be fired from a civil service job, or from a position at some business or law firm that sees the need to stay in the jefe’s good graces. You don’t want to be clubbed by cops, and then sentenced to years in prison, or made to disappear into CECOT in El Salvador. Let someone else be a hero or martyr.
Not being naturally brave myself, I understand all of this. Nonetheless, if we are to have any hope of preserving constitutional government, we will have to summon up our courage, take risks, and act in solidarity. We will have to suffer various hardships — some of us, at least — to speak out, to dig into our pockets, to give up our ambitions of worldly success, if we are to have any hope of securing the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.
Do what you can, according to your skills and resources. If you have time but not money, attend a demonstration. If you are pressured at work to do something to advance the Fascist agenda, refuse, and prepare to look for new employment as a busboy. If you have money to spare, make donations to groups standing up for democracy, or contribute to the legal defense of people being unjustly sued or prosecuted. If you have a way with words, or with graphic design, speak up. Don’t be a scoundrel, and don’t be a bystander. Be as much of a hero as you can manage.
I remember the warnings of Holocaust survivors, from past Holocaust Remembrance Days. “Don’t be a bystander,” was the plea of one survivor. Another said that there are not enough truly evil people in the world to accomplish all the bad deeds that are done, and that the actual Nazis could not have managed without the assistance of the cowards and the conformists. Don’t enroll in either category. Support and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
no subject
Date: 2025-05-04 12:34 pm (UTC)https://www.pbs.org/show/simon-schama-the-holocaust-80-years-on/