Background: This column was originally published July 4, 2007. When I previously ran for Douglas County Commissioner, I believed in plain talk and telling people what I thought, not what people necessarily wanted to hear. (Perhaps that explains why so few honest people get elected to public office.) This was a tongue-in-cheek column written about changes at the Douglas County Fair. My intent was not to attack any individual or their opinions, but rather to focus attention on the fact that public apathy is often responsible for unpopular decisions made by the government.
Martin Niemoller (1892-1984) was a pastor who supported Adolph Hitler prior to his taking power in Germany. But in 1933, Niemoller organized the Pastors Emergency League to protect Lutheran pastors from the police.
Niemoller is famous for his "First they came for..." poem that has been translated and re-written in many different versions, used by many people to promote many different causes.
The Douglas County Fair Board's decision to destroy the Umpqua Model Railroaders display later this year, in conjunction with other changes at the fair during the past two decades, prompted me to write my own version of Niemoller's poem. I wanted to give credit where credit is due, because the "First they came for..." concept is not my own.
Keep in mind this is a tongue-in-cheek poem; it's not meant as a criticism against any one individual or any one government administration, being as the changes have spanned several different fair managers. It's only that I sometimes wonder if people stop and realize how many changes have taken place.
FIRST THEY CAME FOR...(at the Douglas County Fair).
First they came for the Child Evangelism Fellowship story house trailer in Umpqua Park and evicted the trailer from the fair...and I never said anything because I wasn't a Christian.
Then they came for organist Verne Reynolds and silenced his music during part of the day, so it wouldn't interfere with newer children's acts...and I never said anything because I didn't listen to old-fogy music.
Then they came for the adult poultry exhibitors by eliminating open-class poultry competition at the fair, and limited it only to 4-H and FFA students...and I never said anything because I didn't like chickens and waterfowl.
Then they came for the press that provided free publicity for the fair, and took the news media parking spaces inside the exhibitors parking lot (first three spaces on the right) and gave them to the Douglas County Commissioners...and I never said anything because I liked politicians more than I liked the "liberal" news media.
Then they came for the beer garden, and evicted it from the grandstands...and I never said anything because I wasn't an alcoholic.,
Then they came for the service club food booths and required them to use cash registers...and I never said anything because I didn't volunteer to work at one of the food booths at the fair.
Then they told the last remaining sit-down foot booth at the fair, the Myrtle Creek Grange, they would have to obtain or rent cash registers, or else the decades-old Grange booth would have to go...and I never said anything because I didn't like roast beef dinners and butterscotch cream pie.
Then they came for the Umpqua Model Railroaders and told them they were no longer welcome at the fair...and I never said anything because anyone who enjoyed model trains must obviously be a juvenile delinquent.
Then they came for (list your favorite item here)...and by that time, there was nobody left to speak up for me.
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