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Race & Diversity
Point Fingers, and a Million Point Back at You
Be careful what you copy and paste on Facebook. People might assume you mean it.
Someone I know well copied and pasted the following to their Facebook wall, yesterday. I don’t think they really read it closely, or thought it through — I’m not entirely sure it expressed their own, honestly-held views of the world. I’m not entirely sure it doesn’t, if I’m being honest with myself. We all make excuses for family and friends, to the point of twisting ourselves into pretzels of denial and cognitive dissonance to manage it.
My Reply to the Now-Deleted Post
I’m not so much “outraged” as I am disappointed.
The First Amendment guarantees us all the right to express ourselves freely, without fear of retribution from the government. People on all sides of the political spectrum are quick to point out that that does not free us from the consequences of what we say. But there are consequences to silence, as well.
You may be familiar with the famous poem, often attributed to Martin Niemöller, regarding the Nazis’ rise to power in Europe:
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out —
Because I was not a…
