Operation AXIOM: Black Ribbon Day

'Tis Black Ribbon Day, the American observance of the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism & Nazism. Seventy-eight years ago to the day, 23 August 1939, the foreign ministers of Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a neutrality agreement that divided Eastern Europe into "spheres of influence." For the next fifty-two years, 'til the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, first Nazi & then Communist totalitarian repression would blight the face of Europe, slaughtering tens of millions outright & grinding hundreds of millions of terrorized survivors under an iron boot. We dare never forget how close absolutely tyranny was, how acceptable it was in even polite company. We American fought the good fight against both Nazism & Soviet Communism, but very few of us ever saw the oppression close up, even lived in such fear societies. Never forget & never again.

"First They Came…"
by Martin Niemöller (1892-1984)

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist.

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.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Black Ribbon Day
Black Ribbon Day '16
Black Ribbon Day '15
Black Ribbon Day '14

'Tis also the International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition. The slave trade may no longer be legal, but we should never mistake abolition from elimination. Slavery continues today, & we are all in chains so long as anyone is in chains.

While I dislike the tenor of much of our current sociopolitical discourse, I must say I am greatly encouraged by the recent movement to remove statues of Confederate "heroes" & to rename buildings & institutions that had honored that vile conglomeration of slavers & traitors. The Confederates lost the war, but in all too many ways they won the peace; it is high time we recognize treason as treason, & debunk & denounce the myth of the "Lost Cause of the Confederacy."