Speak For Me?
Daniel Webster
Pioneer Press

One wonders if Protestant Pastor Nartin Niemoller (1892-1984) envisioned that he was writing about 21st century Americans when he penned these words about World War II:

First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.

Over the past decade we have seen several groups under attack - as their freedoms were eroded.

How many loggers stood beside our Siskiyou miner Virginia Russell when she was fighting for her rights on her mining claim? Dare I say barely a few?

After all, how many of us are miners and why should we really care?

When the logging industry was pounded by the spotted owl, how many farmers and ranchers joined in the protest to help those affected by these regulations? Dare I say only a few had the time to help fight this cause?

Today we are watching the farmers and ranchers slammed by the Endangered Species Act. Their livelihoods are not simply being threatened, but an entire region - for that matter, an entire industry - is at the risk of extinction.

We are seeing the miners stand beside the farmers and ranchers - after all they know very well the end result.

The loggers are also standing with the farmers and ranchers, as they know the power of passing the bucket.

Yet there are others who still don't feel the need to show their support. Like the communists, trade unionists and protestant pastors in Nazi germany, the urgency of the situation still hasn't hit close enough to home.

Educators and county employees in the Klamath Basin are keenly aware that the disaster in their area jeopardizes their jobs. They are coming out in force to support their farmers and ranchers. En mass they have e-mailed me to join the Virtual Bucket Brigade. Conversely, a mere fraction of this number of educators and county employees in areas such as Yreka and Scott Valley have e-mailed me.

Had the Nazi regime gone against all of the targeted groups at once, the resistance would have been too strong for the battle to be won. Instead, quite shrewdly, the Jews were the first to be slowly targeted, merely having to register as Jews and then made to wear a yellow star.

The bulk of the German population didn't have enough commonality with the Jews to bring about solidarity. Without the strength and power of numbers, the Nazis were able to overtake the Jewish population.

Then they went after the other groups one by one, methodically crushing minorities and folding those who failed to act when they saw the demise of the others. When each group's time came, they found themselves alone.

With each of the battles we fail to unite in, fewer potential allies remain.

Throughout rural America we are seeing liberties taken away and group by group small sections of our communities are being eliminated.

One of the responses I received to our Virtual Bucket Brigade was from a woman who wrote, "Sorry, I'm with the fish on this one."

Supporting the fish that she loves is absolutely her right and may be seen by some as a noble cause. Her support for the regulations that are saving her precious fish, however, could ultimately be used to strip her of a right and freedom she holds dear.

She is currently sitting in her home thinking that it is utterly impossible that water could ever not flow ehen she turns on the tap in her kitchen. As ludicrous as it may sound, once the precident has been set that the sucker fish is able to strip 1,400 farmers of their irrigation water, what's to stop this fish or any other species from stripping a small city of its life-sustaining liquid?

Impossible you say?

1,400 farmers thought so merely a few months ago.

At the point when this woman turns on her tap and not a drop comes out, she will look around for someone to join with her in solidarity. Will she find someone who responds "Sorry, I'm with the fish on this one?"

When she screams out, "It's my home. I can't live without water. How can you make thousands of people leave their homes because they don't have water?", will she find that there is no one left to speak out for her?

It has happened before.

It will happen again.

May God help her at that moment.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, and as defined under the provisions of "fair use", any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment for non-profit research and for educational use by our membership.