First They Came After Me

First they came for the communists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I did not speak out;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a trade unionist.
When they took the Jews,
I did not speak out;
As I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

These words by Rev Martin Niemöller have stood as a warning to pluralistic societies all over world.

With a constitutional amendment on the ballot in Minnesota that proposes to deny some people the right to marry the person they love, this poem needs to be brought to our attention again. This poem should serve as a Red flag whenever a segment of our society is denied rights.

I am not a homosexual. I find the thought of gay sex a distasteful as anyone can, but I also know what it is to love someone with all your heart. There is not one way to express love.  No one can say to me the way I make love to my wife is wrong or evil, because it is born out of love.

Some people say that allowing gay marriage will make their marriage less in some way. I know it will make our marriage stronger and more important because we will share the institution with everyone.

I hope someday soon the Niemöller poem can be revised to:

They freed the homosexuals
I am not gay
But I spoke up.

Speak-up! Vote against this amendment.

Tax the Rich

As our State begins a shutdown due to the pigheadedness of Republicans, it’s time to understand who they are fighting for. I have heard a thousand times “Don’t tax the job creators”. But let’s think about that statement. We are suffering from unprecedented unemployment, corporations and banks are swimming in money, but they are not creating Jobs, why? Because consumers are tapped out, the middle class is cutting back because so many of us are unemployed or under employed we’re not spending any money. The rest of us are afraid we’ll lose our jobs next. Business is having a hard time finding customers. In spite of the improvements in manufacturing, we’re still at about 80% of capacity. If I owned a business I wouldn’t hire anyone if I didn’t think I could keep them busy.

The problem is not that businesses don’t have the money; the problem is that there is no demand.

So if Consumers can’t feed the economy and business can’t or won’t invest, who will make the investments to keep the economy going? Like it or hate it, the only institution able to kick start the economy is the government.

So the idea that 90% of the people in our state should suffer higher tuition, poorer roads, less police & firemen, larger class sizes, less help for the elderly, higher property taxes, have to cut back our family budgets further, and lay off thousands of state workers, so some fat cat can keep a couple percent of income tax is stupid.

To be fair, not all business owners are swimming in money. Many are existing hand to mouth just like many of us. Also, not all, in fact MOST of the wealthiest Minnesotans are NOT business owners. So to tax the wealthy will not affect most businesses and we can create a mechanism to filter out those that are businesses.

So write your legislators and encourage them to move on the budget and stop protecting the wealthy at the expense of the remaining 95% of citizens.

Birds of a feather

My wife and I happened to be in Washington DC when the Rolling Thunder motorcycle parade began it’s endless procession around the mall with Sarah Palin on one of the Harleys. How fitting it is that these two have come together. A half term governor of Alaska who toys with the conservative right and the press for attention and fame, and the cadre of Harley riders who will trailer their bikes across the nation to ride in parade formation, rev their engines, seeking attention, and pretending to be bad boys.

To be fair Rolling Thunder does help veterans and look for missing POWs/MIAs.  As a motorcyclist I would be happy to be part of the demonstration, but I would have ridden there. I also would have been very pissed if I found out after the fact that the event was co-opted by any presidential candidate let alone, an incompetent Sarah Palin.