The Third Bit

Choosing Sides

Bruce Schneier, on revelations that President
Bush authorized the NSA to engage in domestic spying:

Any debate over laws is predicated on the belief that the
executive branch will follow the law.

Vladimir Bukovsky (who spent 12 years in Soviet prisons for human
rights activities), on the ineffectiveness of torture:

…why would democratically elected leaders of the United
States ever want to legalize what a succession of Russian monarchs
strove to abolish?

Canadians are a month away from choosing a new government. Most
don’t care; most think, “It couldn’t happen here,” or, “There’s
nothing I can do about it anyway.” I think they’re wrong. I think
the time has come to choose sides, and I’m on Maher Arar’s. Please, tell the
candidates in your riding that you want a full inquiry, not the
whitewash job we were given this year.

In Germany they first 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.