Voltaire

"If I were accused of stealing the towers of Notre Dame, I should escape first and discuss afterward."
- Voltaire

Apathy

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I was not a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) Germany, in regard to the apathy of the Germany people during the rise to power of the Nazis. I hope in Millinocket we don't have to change these sentiments to "those who wrote for the newspaper," "the others who had opinions," and "anyone who spoke out."

Photo taken of marker at the Boston Holocaust Memorial while home visiting friends and family.

Maine Courts Issued Failing Grade

I'm not surprised that "HALT" - a non-partisan, non-profit public interest group that conducted a comprehensive study of state and federal judges gives the State of Maine a failing grade for it's Judicial Accountability. Halt stands for Help Abolish Legal Tyranny, and their report card can be found at www.halt.org

Here's a link to Maine's grade and the reasons for finding it the worst of all fifty states in the important area of accountability in the justice system.

This information was garnered from the Wednesday October 22, 2008 Morning Sentinel in an advertisement paid for by retired Maine Attorney Lester Jolovitz of Waterville, Maine.

I guess Maine Courts have gone to the dogs, and it's not just the dogs they want to put behind bars.

Louis D. Brandeis

From: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/l/louis_d_brandeis.html

Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done.
Louis D. Brandeis

To declare that in the administration of criminal law the end justifies the means to declare that the Government may commit crimes in order to secure conviction of a private criminal would bring terrible retribution.
Louis D. Brandeis

Our government... teaches the whole people by its example. If the government becomes the lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.
Louis D. Brandeis

We can have democracy in this country, or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can't have both.
Louis D. Brandeis

Those who won our independence... valued liberty as an end and as a means. They believed liberty to be the secret of happiness and courage to be the secret of liberty.
Louis D. Brandeis

If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
Louis D. Brandeis