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SPEAK UP We protect the right to free speech in this country, and the right to freely insult any person or group. The wisdom of this policy is generally proved in the time it takes for a forum of foolishness to evaporate in the dearth of public support. But support is not always evidenced by active participation, as a wise man once observed: "All it takes for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing" ... those with a VCR flashing 12:00 and the vision to fix it by covering with tape. Ostrich mentality topples the best of intentions and the grandest achievements. No one can afford the luxury of not caring: "First ... they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.... Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up." (Martin Niemöller, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 16th Edition, Justin Kaplan, General Editor, Little, Brown and Company, 1992, p. 684) |