Tuesday, February 27, 2024

Be Critical, Surface, Tillie Olsen

“Be critical. Women have the right to say: This is surface, this falsifies reality, this degrades.” - Tillie Olsen. After twenty years of transcribing other people's words, the long-suppressed author of Silences finally found her own voice.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 13.

Saturday, February 24, 2024

Friday, February 23, 2024

In Germany, Communists, Jews, Catholics, Protestant, Martin Niemoller

"In Germany they first came for the Communists, and I didn't speak up, because I was not a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up, because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up, because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me." - Martin Niemoller, 1945 (WW1 war hero & U Boat Captain, WW2 pastor who spent 7 years in Nazi prisons).

This is one variant of the quote by Martin Niemoller. Variations include trade unionists, social democrats, and others. We are now observing orders in the U.S. aimed at Muslims, with the false idea that all Muslims are terrorists - an idea as wrong as the idea that "all blacks are bad", "all blonds are dumb", "all ____ are _____."

You can view this and some of the variants at https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Martin_Niemöller, or Google Martin Niemoller for more links.

Thursday, February 22, 2024

Persecuted, Center of the Universe, Elie Wiesel

"Wherever men and women are persecuted because of their race, religion, or political views, that place must - at that moment - become the center of the universe." - Elie Wiesel

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/eliewiesel451207.html.