Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

(Yes, this is long enough to warrant an <lj-cut> tag, but I didn't want to hide any parts of it from immediate view except the footnotes, and I wasn't sure how the links to the footnotes would work if they were behind lj-cut.)

Maybe having my quote-of-the-day script run at 5:25 in the morning wasn't the best move, 'cause it means that by the time I see something like this, my "of the day" quote has already been posted... bikergeek wrote about Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Rememberance Day (emphasis added by me):

"The price of liberty is eternal vigilance."
"Never again."
 
These are worrisome times. We would do well to remain vigilant. Speak up when someone makes an ethnic joke. Write your legislators to protest legislation that infringes freedom and civil liberties. We are not at the mercy of a tinpot dictator. We have tools at our disposal to make sure that evil like this does not happen in the United States. We should make sure to use them, and use them often. Or it will be too late.

I don't think this is a Jewish holiday. It's a universal one; it just has a Jewish name for obvious historical reasons. The Jews can say "never again" all they want, but unless the rest of us listen and act ... well similar things have happened elsewhere since to other peoples [1], not on the same scale or attracting as much worldwide attention, but the genocide meme has not been stamped out. And I see disturbing portents here in my own "civilized" country -- not of mass executions, but certainly of persecution. I probably won't be in the main targeted group if things go that way, but I won't consider that any consolation if the things I love about my nation are destroyed, as they will be if such a thing were to happen here. Or ifwhen my friends are destroyed.

"Never again."

vvalkyri pointed out a post by kmelion about Yom Hashoah that's worth reading. Don't worry, it's short. She also pointed out a New York Times opinion piece by Thomas L. Friedman about our military victory in Iraq, mentioning the cognitive dissonance between the liberation over there and the promise (and challenge) of instituting a free and democratic government, while "many Democrats are reluctant to celebrate because they fear -- with good reason -- that President Bush will be empowered by this war victory, that he and Karl Rove will use that power to drive through a radical conservative agenda that Democrats fear is erasing separations between church and state [2], depriving government of the tax funds it needs to maintain decent social and educational programs, and despoiling the environment. Sure, Democrats argue, we did right in Iraq, but if it will only lead to more wrong at home, how good can you feel?" (Emphasis added by me.) The piece is from a couple of days ago, but it seems apropriate that I only saw it today.

Note (as others have done in comments to the aforementioned locked thread) that this isn't really about Germany now. What we remember this day happened there, but that's not where the threats are that we have to protect against now. It's not about resentment, it's about making sure it doesn't keep happening elsewhere.

Like here.

[Footnote 1]: There are two "corrections" I can foresee people making to that statement -- that nothing can compare to the Holocaust and that the Holocaust deaths were not limited to Jews. I don't want to go anywhere near discussions of whether or not other genocides are worthy of being compared directly to the Holocaust -- or to play the "whose pain is bigger" game -- but whichever way you want to argue that point, they're still the same type of thing. And as I was reminded in a footnote to someone else's friends-only locked post (as though I could overlook it anyhow), Gypsies, homosexuals, and dissidents were also killed in the Holocaust.

[Footnote 2]: Speaking as a Christian in a nation where the big threat to the separation of Church and State is from other Christians, let me say this, briefly: I do not think that entangling religion and the State is a good idea for my nation or for American Christians and the churches. Those who wish to gain power for their churches by tearing down that "wall of separation" are being foolish and shortsighted. TANSTAAFL.