Quit Playin’: Eighty and Clueless?

Niemoller addressed the silent majority

BY: Vincent L. Hall

Thirty-seven years before Martin Luther King drew his first breath, another freedom fighter named Martin was born. Many know his work but not his name. We need to remember his work in this chaotic season of international instability.

Martin Niemöller was a well-known German pastor in the Lutheran Church and a theologian. But what made him remarkable was that he stood up against his own government during the Holocaust!

If you don’t think that his stance against his native homeland was significant, picture this. What if Billy’s son, Pastor Franklin Graham, denounced Trump’s sins, his greed and his hateful demeanor?

Would it be a big deal to you if the pastor of Dallas’ most prestigious and historic (White) church grew some gonads and called out the “Demonic Duo,” Donald Trump and Pete Hegseth?

If First Baptist of Dallas’ pastor Robert Jeffress had rejected the idiocy of livestreaming executions by firing squad, wouldn’t that be considered brave? It takes courage to walk M. Scott Peck’s “Road less traveled!” 

Here’s what ABC News said Jeffress said.

“The Pentagon’s announcement of plans to livestream the execution of Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Hasan is sparking debate.

And now, Dallas megachurch senior pastor Robert Jeffress is weighing in, saying he sees nothing biblically or morally wrong with it.  Jeffress welcomes the news that the Fort Hood mass shooter is scheduled to be executed by firing squad on Dec. 3.

“It’s only right to execute a man who has done that,” he said. “And it’s the biblical answer to what you do with a violent criminal.” 

Jeffress said that, coincidentally, six months ago he planned to preach this past Sunday about what the Bible says on capital punishment. Capital punishment is God’s idea for showing the value of human life.” 

None of us is certain which “Jesus” Jeffress was introduced to in his theology curriculum, but his God ain’t my God! I’m more inclined to agree with the original Martin. Martin Niemöller is best known for his opposition to Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime. His 1946 poem was more testimony and confession than prose.

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Niemoller’s famous poem of confession is a template testimony for America today. This president and both of his administrations “came” for the “othered” people in this nation, and our inactions said nothing. 

Trump came down his golden escalator in 2015, castigating and condemning Muslims. Not just a few specific religious figures, but the whole damn religion. He came for “them Islamists,” and we wallowed in silence and disbelief.

Then he came for “them Messicans” who were crossing our borders and “taking y’all’s jobs.” 

You bought that sack of sh!t. It was a racist slight of hand, but that uncontested act of political cruelty has resulted in a plethora of pain and a mainstay of misery.

Black folks thought we cornered the market on racial profiling, but the brand we suffer from is less severe that what we have seen. Murders, deaths in custody, vehicular rundowns, crying infants, shattered families, and shattered dreams. 

Our tax dollars fund a few companies pocketing billions while operating Trump’s version of concentration camps. Meanwhile, you can’t buy gas and groceries. 

Somalians, and other descendants of “shithole” countries, as he describes them, are being shipped around the world to other fascist governments who act as mercenaries in his blighted brigade.

Niemöller’s poem celebrates its 80^th birthday this year and still we have not learned.

A long-time Texas Metro News columnist, Dallas native Vincent L. Hall is an author, writer, award-winning writer, and a lifelong Drapetomaniac.