I run into folks who tell me that we’ve elected the School Board to make decisions like adopting the Red Plan without allowing us to excercise our traditional right to vote.
This willingness to sacrifice long held rights is dangerous. The best antidote to this sloppy thinking is to think of something you have a right to do and imagine another person taking your right to do it away because they don’t want you to get your way.
Dear Abby used to put it this way:
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.
In Duluth the mantra would begin:
First they came for the Red Plan opponents
but I was not a Red Plan opponent
so I didn’t speak out. . .
