As I listen to the deafening silence in our communities in response to the hateful anti-gay programming on "Christian" radio station WAWN, I wonder if such silence would also be the response to similar programming targeting racial or other minorities?
Instead of anti-gay extremist Diane Gramley, for example, what if WAWN broadcast a regular program by the Grand Dragon of the Pennsylvania Ku Klux Klan, or the head of the Keystone State Skinheads, trying to stir up hatred and animosity toward people of color or other minorities in the community?
What will it take for people in Venango County to challenge this kind of offensive and dangerous garbage?
At times like this, I think about the powerful quote by Martin Niemoller, a prominent German, anti-Nazi theologian and Lutheran pastor:
“In Germany they came first 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.”
If we don’t all begin to stand up now against the kinds of messages being sent by Diane Gramley and WAWN, what kinds of communities are we really?
I'm trying to summon the courage to break my own silence and invisibility. It's hard, and I'm scared.
I hear you -- and I appreciate your comment, anon or not.
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