This is the one argument I see over and over - if you personally aren't sitting in Guantanamo Bay then YOUR rights must be intact, right?
Wrong. If the Government violates the civil rights of a citizen who you don't know or care about personally then those rights are void for YOU and ALL others. A person on the other side of the country is denied legal representation. On the same night you, after being arrested, demand and receive quailty legal representation. How can you call that a right? The police could have turned to you and said "that guy didn't get a lawyer, why should you?"
You did not exercise a RIGHT in that situation. The Government extended you a PRIVILEGE. And there's a BIG difference between a right and a privilege. And that's exactly the concept that underlies the Niemoller quote.
Quote:
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Oh I couldn't help terrorist groups?
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Quote:
The case before the court involved five groups and two U.S. citizens seeking to provide support for lawful, nonviolent activities on behalf of Kurdish refugees in Turkey.
The Humanitarian Law Project said the plaintiffs were threatened with 15 years in prison if they advised groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds' campaign for self-determination in Turkey.
The judge's ruling said the law, as written, does not differentiate between impermissible advice on violence and encouraging the use of peaceful, nonviolent means to achieve goals.
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So Kurdish refugees are terrorists now?