We have crossed the Rubicon

It was a pleasure to drive south, along with perhaps a dozen other Eurekans, and take part in the 50501 protest. I estimated attendance at upwards to 400. The last time I was so moved would have been in 1972 when Jerry Ruben visited the University of West Florida campus to protest the war. It was gratifying to see that young people were well represented. Make no mistake about it, they are the future.  

There was a plethora of homemade signs that revealed a broad range of issues that have moved people to react. My takeaway was this: we have crossed the Rubicon. It is now or never. If we fail to act now the opportunity will pass as our despotic president surges toward a stranglehold on our democracy. This movement must grow until there is an undeniable groundswell of opposition. Otherwise, they will pick us off one by one.  

First they came for brown-skinned people, and I did not speak out because I did not have brown skin. 

Then they came for academia, and I did not speak out because I was neither a student nor a professor. 

Then they came for journalists, and I did not speak out because I was not actively engaged in journalism. 

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak out for me. 

The above lines are a corruption of Martin Niemöller’s (1892–1984) famed words written at the end of World War II. He was a prominent Lutheran pastor in Germany. In the 1920s and early 1930s, he sympathized with many Nazi ideas and supported radically right-wing political movements. But after Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Niemöller became an outspoken critic of Hitler’s interference in the Protestant Church. He spent the last eight years of Nazi rule, from 1937 to 1945, in Nazi prisons and concentration camps. Niemöller is perhaps best remembered for his postwar statement, which begins “First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out, etc., etc.” 

To all of you who can only dwell on the specter of having your guns taken away, remember, it was the Nazis who took away guns. Donald Trump does not want a “well-regulated militia.” Given the opportunity he would crush you like a bug, take your AK-47 away, and throw it in the trash heap! Even as I write this, he is negotiating with the despotic president of El Salvador on ways to incarcerate mostly innocent people and perhaps even some American citizens. 

Sir, bring Vilnar Abrego Garcia back to America and make your best case before arbitrarily handing him a death sentence. His American wife, his three citizen children, including a disabled son, and yes, We the People, deserve nothing less. Remember this is more about due process than the victim himself. 

Benjamin Franklin, one of our revered Founding Fathers (ordained by God, right?) said: “Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” 

Gary Montgomery, Eureka