Martin Niemoller Was Right

Hurricane Katrina is bearing down on New Orleans as I type this. Potentially there will be hundreds of thousands of homeless people there soon. You and I will be called upon to subsidize the poor choices of these folks to not only live on the coast but also to live below sea level. I am not talking about Christian charity, which I think is called for. Rather, I am talking about the immoral and unconstitutional theft of my money and its redistribution to someone that a bureaucrat in D.C. deems worthy. Not participating in this rape of my person is called tax evasion and can result in a hefty jail term.

Paradoxically, a lot of government effort and my money goes into keeping people homeless. Here in the "land of the free" one can, sort of, own property, at least as long as you can pay a form of extortion known as property tax. However, one most definitely does not have a right to live on the property that one owns anywhere in the these United States in America. (Not to mention that governments [we the people] own half the land mass in the U.S.--but we can't use that, either.) Even if one were to find a place where there are no zoning or building codes (and usually so far out that there are also no jobs), one still has to contend with the water and sewer Nazis who will dictate exactly how you must provide water and sewer, whether you can afford their dictated solutions or not. If you do more than rudimentary research, you will discover that the government solutions are not only excessively expensive, they are also very poor ecological choices. Many safe, low-cost alternatives are possible, but not without the permission of our owners, the State.

How did things get so turned around that money is being stolen from us not only to assist people who have homes and resources but also to keep those without homes and resources homeless? Is it any wonder when preachers in the nation's churches are silent on their congregations' transgression of the Eighth Commandment? The clergy is more afraid of losing their tax exempt status than for standing up for what is right. Consequently, most Christians do not consider stealing wrong when it is done by proxy with the help of politicians. Nothing seems to be wrong for a Christian to do as long as he gets it done by the proxy of the vote.

Martin Niemoller was right. No one gives a rip until it affects them personally. Where do they think the Kelo decision came from? This incrementalism on property rights has been progressing for the past 100 years! Some days I am not too proud to be an American.

Niemoller's Poem

A poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller, Berlin, 1939. Niemoller was a pastor in the German Confessing Church who spent eight and one-half years in a Nazi concentration camp.

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.