To Porteplume: I agree

[IBJoel]

I think the US has so much, for lack of a better term, "cultural imperialism". So these things get a lot of coverage. But I saw it to a lesser degree in Europe, too. I could only afford to stay in places that were not in "nice areas". I never felt unsafe, but it was apparent in Rotterdam that I was in an enclave for Eastern Europeans/Slavic peoples and in Oslo I stayed near where many refugees were located (the same in Paris).

No country is perfect, and it takes a lot to change (my country had a war over independence and then another over slavery!), but there can be systems put in place to help the vulnerable, if only everyone recognizes their own vulnerability. There is a poem a former German Nazi-supporter who came to see the error of his ways, "Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."

[Porteplume]

Bonjour Joël,

That last strophe made me looking further and I now I understand what you meant...

“First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.”

By Martin Niemöller