“First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—
because I was not a communist;
Then 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 out for me.”
― Martin Niemöller
Can you imagine a world in which the Holocaust never occurred? Or a World War that never took place? Can you imagine all the lives that would have been saved, families that never had to be bereaved of their children, and the millions of men, women, and children whose lives could have been spared? If only the people would have stopped the destruction before it took place. No one ever expected the Holocaust to happen. Who could imagine that such evil embodied through Hitler and his regime could have ever taken place? Were there no warning signs to the people of Germany? Yes, there was.
The Germans told the Jewish people they couldn’t swim in their swimming pools, but no one protested too strongly. Then they said they couldn’t attend their schools, “No problem,” said the Jewish people, “We’ll make our own schools.” Little by little their rights were stripped from them and taken away through deceptive measures, but no one ever imagined the horror that awaited them because they tolerated the beginning trickles of injustice that left governmental power unchecked, which ended up billowing into one of the most tragic events in history. Everything that Hitler did looked like law, smelled like law, even had the color of law, but was not law. What is it that we have learned from looking back and studying the past?
John Adams, the second president of the United States, stated, “Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.”
Is America walking contrary to John Adams’ statement? You decide. Today, those who stand for the Constitution, the sanctity of life, and the traditional values of morality our country was founded upon, are now labeled as un-American haters.
Vladimir Lenin, First Leader of the Soviet Union, said, “We can and must write in a language which sows among the masses hate, revulsion, and scorn toward those who disagree with us.”
Sound familiar?
We see it in trickles now, but left unchecked by the silent majority who sit back and do nothing… what will be your fate America? History tends to repeat itself unless we stand up and do something to stop it. Knowing what you stand for limits what you fall for.
Proverbs 28:1 says,
“The wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are bold as a lion.”
If America was virtuous we would not be afraid to stand against oppression.
“All the miseries and evils which men suffer from vice, crime, ambition, injustice, oppression, slavery, and war, proceed from their despising or neglecting the precepts contained in the Bible.” – Noah Webster
Who is Bradlee Dean
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