Martin Niemoeller was a pacifist who spoke out against nuclear weapons. He is best known for his powerful statement about the failure of Germans to speak out against the Nazis:
First they came for the Communists, but I was not a Communist so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out. Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out. And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
He died in Wiesbaden on March 6, 1984.
I first read this quote in an Ann Landers column in the New York Daily News when I was about 8 years old. I guess you could say it resonated with me because I never forgot it.
So when people like woodward, stud21, conanobrien, jameswales, etc. enter chat and start spewing vitriolic hate against gays, lesbians, bi-sexuals, people with HIV or AIDS, women, and blacks I cant ignore them.
It pisses me off when otherwise sensible people tell me to use the ignore function when a sexist, racist, homophobic troll enters chat. History shows us these people dont leave never to be seen again. In cyberland they just change names and keep coming back like onion.
In real life they do not retreat quietly into the night never to be seen or heard from again. They go home and start armies and churches like Jerry Falwell, Fred Phelps, and Adolf Hitler.
As long as I have breath in my asthmatic lungs I will shout them down, I will jump on their case; and I will get up in their grill.
I Will Not Be Silenced!