Last week, I attended a large community meeting at Trinity United Methodist Church where the Rev. Rich Lang, who has this week’s community op-ed, issued a call to action on Sept. 11, 2007.
There has been a systematic expansion of state powers through legislation like the Patriot Act and through various Executive Orders that have received little attention in the media. These lay the groundwork for declaration of martial law and the substantial curtailment of civil liberties in the event of a terrorist incident. The most recent of these was aimed directly at the anti-war movement, and gives the State broad powers to seize the property of those judged to have impeded the war effort.
The boiling water metaphor — in which a frog will jump to safety, but will become drowsy and die in a slowly heated pot — may have become trite through overuse but that doesn’t make it any less apt.
More than 60 years ago, theologian Reinhold Niebuhr wrote that the fatal flaw in democratic theory is that we almost always underestimate the extent to which self-interest and class dominate human affairs and the terrible lengths to which power is willing to go.
Rev. Lang, with his call to action, has offered a prophetic call in every sense of the word. Whether we respond with denial or action is up to each of us. There is a point at which silence becomes collaboration. Those of us who are influential in our various communities need to seriously consider where we stand.
Read weekly posts by Tim Harris at apesmaslament.blogspot.com