Write a Wrong

The erosion of civil liberties is like that frog in the pan of water. If you'd told Germans back in the 1930s: "The good news is that a leader will emerge to unite everyone and re-energize national pride. The bad news is that he'll institute racism and anti-Semitism into law, including eugenics, and trigger a Holocaust, followed by years of defeat, separatism, and economic depression," then most forward-thinking Germans might have balked at Hitler's initial allure. 

Toss a frog into a pan of boiling hot water, and it'll jump out.

But that's not how things evolved: what Hitler triggered was a steady but gradual degradation of civil liberties and human rights. Each one was abhorrent, but they didn't affect everyone — they just affected Jews, gays, the infirm and disabled, scholars/intellectuals, and gypsies — anyone the Nazis deemed unfit. Hitler also eliminated all the detractors and men of conscience who would've put his subversive plans through legal checks and balances. His ascendency was so lethal, few dared to speak dissent. Those who did were summarily snuffed out.

Toss a frog into a pan of cold water and heat it up slowly. What happens? The frog boils to death because it doesn't know to jump out at the first signs of trouble, so it weakens and submits.

• Ferguson, Missouri, has been exposed as one of the most corrupt and racist judicial systems in the US. Is it typical or an anomaly? 

• This year is the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act. Will anyone care? or will we be busy gerrymandering, cooking up legal mumbo-jumbo to deprive "otherized" Americans of their right to cast a vote? 

• These RFRA bills — if they succeed in institutionalizing discrimination against LGBT communities, then how long before another segment of American community is targeted? Religious freedom is the right to worship in one's own way, free of persecution, not to be used as a weapon against someone else (or have such individuals never noticed what's been going on in the Middle East? Taliban? ISIS? Boko Haram? Hello...?). Since when was the Bible intended to be a "law book" used against humanity?

Our current dysfunctional Congress has the scruples of a streetwalker, our democracy is becoming oligarchic, yet we saw Indiana governor Mike Pence squirm and reverse his position when business leaders, small business owners, LGBT activists, and ordinary people presented a unified front against a divisive and spiteful piece of legislation.

It's not just about protecting one's own civil liberties. If we don't protect the civil liberties of the targeted, weak, and vulnerable among us, then the bullies will have won the day. Make penpals of your Congressmen. Until this nation decides on term limits, these folks in Congress lead country-club lifestyles often without careful study of the bills they're expected to vote on. They may not heed one voice, but eventually they will have to listen to a growing number of voices. No matter which side of the issue you fall on, speak your truth to power. The world is run by those who are present and get involved.

Hold their feet to the fire.