The photograph above was taken just a few short years ago during a time that was comparatively idyllic to what is coming today. All around, we see examples of those among us who feel the crushing boot of an increasingly totalitarian government. Did the Bolsheviks come to power one day, then slaughter tens of millions the next day? No, they creeped, they infiltrated, then they unleashed. Did the Nazis suddenly open up shop one day, then put their railway lines and stunning resorts into operation the next day? No, they began by attacking dissenters, they began with propaganda campaigns, they began by singling people out then using the existing government institutions to attack.
And while you may wake up today in a warm and secure place, you live in a delusion of security. Unlike in prior periods of violent suppression, today the crushing boot of violent suppression comes not based on race or creed or color. The biggest threat we all face is the threat we will be crushed and kicked and violated when we have lost the personhood that comes from economic contribution. When you lose the ability to fund the economic machine, you lose your personhood just as surely as a prisoner loses his rights as a human being. Just as surely as the man of color in the photograph above lost his right of personhood by virtue of the color of his skin.
The Constitution told us we had the right to be secure in our homes from unreasonable searches and seizures, but The Banks did not consent to our Constitution and they are not bound by it. They will kick down your doors, they will change your locks, they will seize your property when they care to.
The Constitution told us we had the right to Due Process of law, but the legislators that The Banks elected have gutted our court system. The Banks have exempted themselves from entire areas of The Laws that once existed to level the playing field and protect you and I.
The Constitution told us we had the right to Speak Freely and to Peaceably Assemble, but loud protesters were not what those old guys called the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote out those little suggestions or guidelines that are outlined in that little scrap called the Bill of Rights.
Today they came for my friends. Tomorrow they will come for my neighbor. And then?
First they came for the communists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
And yet there remains one single faint hope in the midst of this darkness. That hope remains The Law practiced by lawyers who are willing to stand up and fight this epic battle. Lawyers who are willing to shake off the yoke of the paycheck and instead chase the dream that is The Higher Calling.
For every time The Machine takes one of the flock down, two lawyers stand pull them back up. It happens every time a bank is beaten back and a family stays firmly planted in a home. It happens every time a protestor finds an attorney standing next to him on a first appearance. It happens every time a humble indigent recognizes that The Law is not owned by the Judges or the Lawyers or the Courts and endeavors to represent himself pro se.
But it doesn’t happen nearly enough. For every time we succeed there are too many that fall down. For every family that we save, there are too many that wind up out in the street. For every witness or activist or protester that stands up, thousands stand down, rightfully fearful of the suppression.
And that ratio has got to change. Now. Today.
