Liberty Bell

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.

Rev. Martin Niemüller, 1945

“Niemoeller was one of the most respected Protestant leaders in Germany. After a signal career as a young man, a decorated U-Boat captain in the First World War, he became an activated Christian. In 1933, when he became the most high profile of Hitler’s Christian opponents, he was in charge of a prestigious suburban parish in Berlin-Dahlem.

Niemoeller was a leader in the mobilization of the Pastors’ Emergency League, in the Synod that denounced the abuses of the dictatorship in the famous “Six Articles of Barmen,” and in other visible joint actions and sermons that finally led to his arrest on 1 July 1937. There were then a few honest judges still functioning in Germany, and when the court let him go with a slap on the wrist Hitler personally ordered his incarceration. Niemoeller was in concentration camp, including long periods of solitary confinement, until the end of the war.”

Quoted from Littell’s article in Christian Ethics Today
Found at PIA CAUSA

A recent poll has shown Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution’s First Amendment. Only one in four Americans can name more than one of the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment. But more than half can name at least two members of the cartoon family, according to a survey.

When I quizzed myself, I remembered 4 of the 5 freedoms (freedom of religion, speech, press, and assembly) but forgot the freedom “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

My skill at remembering the Simpsons’ names was lacking - to say the least. There’s Homer and… um… his name is Homer, right?

Although slightly dissapointed I didn’t remember the fifth, my performance was sadly much better than that of most Americans. Only 8 people in 100 could name at least three First Amendment freedoms. And only one of the 1,000 adults polled in the telephone survey could name all five freedoms guaranteed under the First Amendment. Yet more than one in five (22 percent) could identify all five major characters in Matt Groening’s cartoon family.

Survey respondents also wrongly said that the First Amendment guarantees rights to own and raise pets (21 percent), to drive (20 percent) and of women to vote (36 percent). The first two are not rights at all, and women’s suffrage was not until the 19th Amendment in 1920.

To make it perfectly clear to my readers, the five freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment are:

Freedom of speech