Title : It Always Matters: The Importance of Bearing Witness
link : It Always Matters: The Importance of Bearing Witness
It Always Matters: The Importance of Bearing Witness
There will be a "Lights for Liberty" vigil at the Whale statue in Juneau tonight at 7:00 p.m. This is a national action occurring in 700 cities nationwide today, to protest the inhumane conditions in detention camps at our southern border. I was asked to give a few brief remarks on why this matters.
I was asked to speak tonight on why this matters.
I know that many of us in Alaska, particularly here in our Capital city, are acutely attuned to local politics right now.The governor's budget vetoes have left us reeling in a state of shock and uncertainty. But these two fronts of the war on American liberty, safety, and democracy have more in common than you might think.
Robert Kennedy said that "every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and democracy and justice."
What Kennedy was describing is the profound value inherent in the act witnessing. That is what we are doing right at this moment, both with respect to our State and more broadly with respect to the unconscionable, inhumane and un-American conditions in which our fellow human beings are being warehoused like animals whose basic needs are going unmet:
Children in standing-room only cells with no blankets, soap, or toothpaste. Families separated from one another indefinitely. Toddlers representing themselves at immigration hearings. Lice and disease infestation. Sadistic border agents. A lack of basic medical care. Freezing cold or broiling hot temperatures.
Dehumanization of our fellow men, women, and children has caused the abhorrent conditions at our southern border and is a precursor of much worse to come. Those who would abet and enable this conduct aren't monsters. They are your neighbors. They walk among us. But this is nothing new. There have always been victims, bystanders, and those who refuse to be either.
We need to be the refusers. We need to say no. We need to say enough. And we need to act and implore our elected officials to act to put this to an end, lest we repeat the lessons of history learned--the hard way--again and again.
It is incumbent on each of us to witness what is happening; to refuse to tolerate what we know to be wrong; to open our eyes and ears to corruption and inhumanity; to find the time and the courage to speak up and speak out.
It's easy to question why this matters, standing here around a whale statue in Juneau, Alaska. What good does it do, because tomorrow will be exactly the same, and it all feels futile and pointless. Again, the answer can be found in the act of witnessing and its inherent value.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel wrote in Night: "for the dead and the living, we must bear witness." He could not stay silent. Sharing his experience in the Holocaust was a catharsis, but also a historical record. Sometimes all we can do is make a record, so that regardless of the outcome, future generations know we did not go gently into that night.
It may not feel like much, but simply standing up, naming this for what it is, and refusing to condone it matters in and of itself.
I was asked to speak tonight on why this matters.
I know that many of us in Alaska, particularly here in our Capital city, are acutely attuned to local politics right now.The governor's budget vetoes have left us reeling in a state of shock and uncertainty. But these two fronts of the war on American liberty, safety, and democracy have more in common than you might think.
Robert Kennedy said that "every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted, when we tolerate what we know to be wrong, when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy or too frightened, when we fail to speak up and speak out, we strike a blow against freedom and democracy and justice."
What Kennedy was describing is the profound value inherent in the act witnessing. That is what we are doing right at this moment, both with respect to our State and more broadly with respect to the unconscionable, inhumane and un-American conditions in which our fellow human beings are being warehoused like animals whose basic needs are going unmet:
Children in standing-room only cells with no blankets, soap, or toothpaste. Families separated from one another indefinitely. Toddlers representing themselves at immigration hearings. Lice and disease infestation. Sadistic border agents. A lack of basic medical care. Freezing cold or broiling hot temperatures.
Dehumanization of our fellow men, women, and children has caused the abhorrent conditions at our southern border and is a precursor of much worse to come. Those who would abet and enable this conduct aren't monsters. They are your neighbors. They walk among us. But this is nothing new. There have always been victims, bystanders, and those who refuse to be either.
We need to be the refusers. We need to say no. We need to say enough. And we need to act and implore our elected officials to act to put this to an end, lest we repeat the lessons of history learned--the hard way--again and again.
It is incumbent on each of us to witness what is happening; to refuse to tolerate what we know to be wrong; to open our eyes and ears to corruption and inhumanity; to find the time and the courage to speak up and speak out.
It's easy to question why this matters, standing here around a whale statue in Juneau, Alaska. What good does it do, because tomorrow will be exactly the same, and it all feels futile and pointless. Again, the answer can be found in the act of witnessing and its inherent value.
Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel wrote in Night: "for the dead and the living, we must bear witness." He could not stay silent. Sharing his experience in the Holocaust was a catharsis, but also a historical record. Sometimes all we can do is make a record, so that regardless of the outcome, future generations know we did not go gently into that night.
It may not feel like much, but simply standing up, naming this for what it is, and refusing to condone it matters in and of itself.
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