by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The poem is paraphrased on the New England Holocaust Memorial in Boston, Massachusetts.
They came first for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
Vote for your rights on April 17.
A complete, senseless non-sequitur.
Yeah! Speak up in your raspy smokers voice (or with the little electronic larynx box) and the people will rise up to defend your addictive habit and allow you to blow smoke around restaurants and bars!
Wait, shouldn't Godwin's Law have been invoked at the beginning of this thread?
I cannot possibly fathom how someone could have the audacity to equate a smoking ban with the Holocaust. A stunningly ignorant post.
(Wenalway, what you don't seem to realize is that the more you repeat various permutations of the phrases 'non sequitur' and 'status quo' , the less it appears to the rest of us that you understand their meaning. At the very least, wait until someone who understands the application of Slippery Slope Ad Hilterum to comment, so that you reduce your exposure to the charge of insipidity. Of course, unsolicited advice from a hapless status quo defender will seem like a non sequitur to one with your keen ability to spot them.)
I do not have a dog in this particular fight, since I do not live in C-U and don't often go to restaurants there. I'm a vocal ex-smoker.
The smoking ban is indeed about defending the rights of the minority. The minority in this case are the restaurant and bar owners, a group on the order of zero in size compared to either smoking or non-smoking customers. It is not the rights of smokers or non-smokers in question, it is the right of the majority, the 100% of us who do not own restaurants, to dictate policy to the minority, the 0% of us who do own them.
The question would be better decided by people voting with their wallets. Instead, holding the vote at all increases the power of government to regulate our lives. Right now it's ostensibly for our own good. But it doesn't take long for 'ostensibly' to become 'supposedly', then 'plausibly', and finally any pro forma reference to the good of the many will suffice to impose the government's will on the few.
The Tyrant is stirring, and he makes ol' Adolph look positively benevolent.
Loren, I'd post the meaning of non-sequitur, but it'd have little to no effect.
And I'd be awfully careful about invoking statements like "the many" and "the few" in this argument. As many puffers as there are, I'd be surprised if they are in the majority.
There's a reason why he didn't include murderers or child molesters in his poem. We can slippery slope all we want, but we do actually have to draw lines SOMEWHERE on behavior that affects others.
To the negative respondents: Pastor Martin Niemöller was referring to the inactivity of intellectuals during a time of government intrusion into private rights. You will in no way be in danger in the future of anyone blaming you for not speaking.
"Wait, shouldn't Godwin's Law have been invoked at the beginning of this thread?"
That's what I was thinking.
You're right.
anonymous: About the inactivity of Iraqi intellectuals following the Saddam regime rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group.
They came first for the political rivals,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't political.
Then they came for the Kurds,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Kurd.
Then they came for the Kuwaitis,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't Kuwaiti.
Then they came for the Shiites,
and I didn't speak up because I was a Sunni.
Then they came for me,
and by that time no one was left to speak up.
You may substitute your favorite dictatorship or repressive regime. Sorry for the violation of Godwin's Law. No more Nazi references.
Then they came for the Wenalways.
But I said nothing because I was a hapless status quo defender
That's where things started, first certain places are lock down, then styles of clothes, then your right to live.