Yes, it was certainly amiss of me to call Gerry Levy un ouanquere. Two wrongs don't make a right and I was wrong to respond to his initial flaming of myself and Lou Proyect in the same manner. Mark Paul Zarembka wrote: > Martin Niemoeller's own personal history is not so great and it is in fact > that personal history that drove his comment. Niemoeller had NOT opposed > the rise of Nazism as he hated the Weimar Republic. It was ONLY after > Hilter was in power that he realized his own error. In other words, he > waited on the sidelines until it was too late, he waited as the gays, > communists, Jews, etc. were attacked, waited perhaps while ugly words were > being thrown down, waited perhaps even as a "few murders" and assaults > occured by "extremists" within the Nazi movement, waited until the die was > cast. > > He "greatness" was in having had the moral courage to resist as soon as he > realized his error, beginning in 1934 if I remember correctly, and to > resist when the "price" was high to himself. > > The price to me of resisting attacks on gays, cop-baiting, etc., whether > by the right or within the "left" is so low (at least for the time being), > relative to the price Niemoeller faced, as to not be worth mentioning. > Niemoeller, who died in 1984 (I believe he survived 7 years in Nazi > concentration camps), would be highly unlikely to disagree or to recommend > the "silence" Michael P. has recommended. > > Paul Zarembka > > P.S. Mark Jones, if you don't want flames don't start one by calling > Jerry Levy "un ouanquere". > > ************************************************************************* > Paul Zarembka, on OS/2 and supporting RESEARCH IN POLITICAL ECONOMY at > ********************** http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/PZarembka > > Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 08:00:32 +0100 > From: Mark Jones <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: [PEN-L:285] Re: Martin Niemoeller on "silence" > > I think most people who subscribe to this list know who pastor Niemoller > was and know the quote Zarembka cites practically by heart. Personally, > I could feel a little insulted at being likened to the Nazis in this way > (relax, Paul, no-one is coming for you, that I know of); but I think > most normal people would feel more concerned for the insult to the > memory of a very great man, to see his name taken in vain in this way. I > really do not feel there is much comparison between the fate of > communists, Jews, gypsies, Russians and millions of others whose lives > were extinguished in the Nazi holocaust, and that of comfortable > American academics who seem more concerned to find enemies on the left > than on the right. > > Michael has repeatedly asked for this absurd flaming to stop. Is it not > time to DO something to stop it? > > Mark
