Mini-um Writing

Let me start with Martin Niemoller’s (a German theologist) most haunting poem:

First they came for the Jews,
And I did not speak because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists,
And I did not speak because I was not a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I did not speak because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me,
And there was no one left to speak out for me.

In his youth he was an anti-semite and admirer of Hitler. As Nazism took over Germany he saw Nazism for what it was not just the Jews Hitler sought to eliminate it was anyone with an alternate point of view. He spoke out and was incarcerated in Sachesenhausen and Dachau Concentration camps from 1937 to 1945 and was nearly executed. He wrote this during his time in these camps.

These words once read haunt you. Yesterday I had drinks with some colleagues and one young man decides to make a statement that he is pro a certain politician that stood by and watched while carnage engulfed his state, his reason this politician is good for the economy and then the piece de resistance was that he stated that people dying was ‘ok’ as long as the country prospers so such politicians should be encouraged to become our country’s next leader. The words of Niemoller resounded in me and my anger got the better of me, he is so lucky I don’t throw a good punch; I tried arguing but alas arguing with morons is of no use they will bring you down to their level and land up beating you cause they are have so much practice at being idiots.

Someone once asked me if I thought that writing a blog or rallying would actually make a difference, they are not aware of the power of youth and the power of words. Words have the power to transform, they can create CHANGE, they can persuade or inspire and in cases like above with Niemoller words they can dissuade a young boy from rattling off without using his commonsense.

I truly appreciate the magic of language which allows us the ability to communicate with many people or maybe even just the few of you that read this blog, it helps contextualize our own complex ideas about race, religion, war, communalism and help shape your idea of who exactly you are and what exactly are your beliefs and ideals. Words and language according to me is the mirror to our souls, and they show us that sometimes that image is not as pretty.

However language must be used carefully as said before one must think before one talks or writes about anything controversial as language is a political instrument, it is the crucial key to ones identity, it reveals over a couple of drinks ones personal identity and helps us the bystanders connect with or divorce from the speaker or the writer. It also helps the speaker realize if his views are part of the larger community, in the case of the boy his views were not. They were divorced from our views, I use a strong word like divorce because I find it critical to the description.

Someone once said the tool and the tool-user become inseparable; here language is the tool and it become part and parcel to ones identity.

Obama used his words to galvanize a nation and the world reeling from hard times with a new vision of hope and reconciliation.

In conclusion I would like to say that language and words create thought process and a thought; this thought can be disagreed with, it can be opposed…but it cannot be unthought.