Amidst the tyranny among us, let us not forget the terrible toll that SARS-COV-2 is having on the world and the United States. Click on the link for the most current data and information.
Lesson 7: Be Reflective if you must be armed
“If you carry a weapon in public service, may God bless you and keep you. But know that evils of the past involved policemen and soldiers finding themselves, one day, doing irregular things. Be ready to say no.”:
Timothy Snyder, author of On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From The Twentieth Century, 2017.
Dr. Snyder offers this lesson to members of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies and members of the military. You could be asked at some point to do the unthinkable and jail or kill innocent civilians. It was done during the Great Terror of 1937-38 in the Soviet Union and during the Holocaust of European Jews by the Nazis in 1941-45. There were special units equipped and trained to carry out their atrocities, but they had the help of the regular police as well.
The Nazis used gas chambers to carry out most of the killing of Jews, but shooting actions involved the regular German police. Regular police forces murdered more Jews than the Einsatzgruppen. But there were a few cases when officers refused orders to murder Jews and the policemen were not punished. Without those that conformed to the monstrous orders to murder innocent people, the hideous atrocities of the Holocaust would not have been possible.
You might think that this doesn’t apply to us in the 21st Century. This simply can’t happen. But Dr. Snyder wrote this book because he saw early signs that the Nationalism of the 20th Century was returning in the 21st Century. We are at a point when we can still defeat the tyranny, promote and strengthen Democracy and send a clear signal to the world that the United States is still “the shining city on the hill.”
This particular link is to a site that talks about how Ronald Reagan used this line in his Farewell Address to the nation in 1989. On first examination of this site, I questioned myself on whether this was the proper context for this message. But, even as I looked at the goods being promoted for sale on the site, the message still remains clear, at least to me, that this was said with good intentions.
I did not and do not agree with President Reagan’s political views and policies. But, President Reagan was a patriot. He cannot be confused with a Nationalist. He was an unabashed “America first” patriot, but he practiced his beliefs largely from within the workings of Democracy and the Constitution.
If you are a person entrusted with protecting the public or know someone that works in public safety, please be thoughtful in considering the orders that you receive and be aware of the people that you serve. When asked to do the unthinkable, be prepared to say No.