Happy Fourth of July and 'Why I Do This"

Here's hoping everyone has a safe and enjoyable Independence Day.

I am often attacked and derided by those I post about on my websites. They don't like that I am watching what they are doing and letting others know how their elected officials are doing or not doing the people's work.
To those who believe that Freedom of Speech should not extend to factual criticism of the government, I will continue like The Albany Project and Daily Kos and so many others do and use my voice and my right to speak up.

I offer the poem 'First they came...' written by Pastor Martin Niemöller:

"In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;
And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;
And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up."