Political Speech - Innapropriate, or Essential?

[pameladlloyd]

I've been struggling with the issue of how much I should say about politics in this blog, not because I think I should be silent on this issue (I don't), but because I've noticed that many people prefer to maintain some distance between their personal, work-oriented, and political journaling. So far, I've maintained this journal as a mix of the three, but as I've begun to express more political views, I wonder if that's making my friends who know me from non-political venues uncomfortable. Yet, at the same time, I'm very concerned about the direction of politics in my country, right now. I've considered creating a second journal, in which to discuss politics, but I haven't felt entirely comfortable about that either. For now, I think I will continue to make the occasional political post. There are many important issues and they touch on both my personal and writing life: issues of censorship, what it means to be a woman in today's world, how we as concerned citizens should respond when we are in disagreement with our government's actions, the information we share with others about candidates, and so much more. Ultimately, perhaps, all the issues come down to freedom: How do we define it? and, How do we ensure it?

Because the issue of speaking out and of silence have been very much on my mind recently, I want to share this poem by Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892—1984) that I first encountered while I was in college in the late seventies. He apparently used many variations of this poem in different venues and there is dissagreement as to which is the "correct" version. You can read about this poem and its variants on Wikipedia.

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

As always, I welcome your comments.

Comments

[cedunkley.livejournal.com]

I used to participate in political discussion and debate quite heavily online for a while, in particular on many of the NY Times political forums. We had quite a lively steady group with a mix of viewpoints that ran the gambit. Unfortunately the Times ended up shutting the forums down, mostly due to too many out of control groups from the far left and far right that would invade each forum with the successful intent of disrupting any possible debate and discussion.

Here in LJ land I've made a point of staying out of any political discussion. If I do, I would most likely create an alternate LJ account just for political discussion as I would not want my writing blog inundated with political ideologues incapable of separating the two worlds.

Just my opinion.

[pdlloyd.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Your opinion is always welcome. While for the short term, at least, I will probably keep political posts to this journal, I haven't made up my mind one way or the other for the long term. If I find the political discussion is beginning to predominate things, I may change my mind. :)

So far, I've not run into anything on LJ that seemed out of control. Most folks I've interacted with here are downright pleasant and work hard to get along with everybody.