Soviet Canuckistan

My brother sent me a note on a recent comment by a (failed) politician from the U.S.A. who calls the country we live in Soviet Canuckistan. I thought it was funny–yet another crackpot trying to get in the paper–but then I looked up the phrase on Google to see the various coverage.

I used to think Pat Buchanan was just a blowhard. I still do, but I’ve recently realized that he’s a dangerous blowhard… and that there are dangerous people in this country who not only don’t have a problem with him, but revere him as the unerring voice of sanity and rightness. I’ve looked at the websites: these people are just this side of skinheads, and will be angered most that this post doesn’t go so far as to actually put them in that category.

I’m not a political person–on the whole it’s a topic that doesn’t interest me in the slightest–but I’m ashamed to share a country, let alone a continent, with people like this.

First They Came

First they came for the Communists.
I was silent.
I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews.
I was silent.
I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists.
I was silent.
I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me.

There was no one left to speak for me.

Pastor Martin Niemöller [adapted from various sources]