Did you answer “yes” to our opening questions?
If so, you’ve come to the right place.
This website was created by several residents of Durham, North Carolina. Its purpose is to help distribute yard signs and bumper stickers like those pictured above. We designed these items on a laptop. Now we’re distributing them in Durham and Chapel Hill and we want you to do the same elsewhere, for two reasons:
To give people a way to express public opposition to the immigration policies of Donald Trump and his administration.
To put before the public a message to think about and heed.
The message, of course, is the one so memorably articulated by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller after World War II. Niemöller told his fellow Germans that all of them, himself included, bore some responsibility for the crimes of Nazi Germany, in that their silence and inaction had allowed these crimes to occur. His famous words, now known as The Bystander’s Credo, have special meaning for Americans today.
This is not to suggest that Americans are doing to immigrants now what the Nazis did to Communists (and others) in 1933 and thereafter. The Nazis used brutal, even murderous violence as a matter of routine. That isn’t true of ICE, DHS, or any other federal, state, or local authority that we know of. (Joe Arpaio’s actions fell short of Nazi methods by orders of magnitude.)
That said, there are nonetheless compelling reasons to display yard signs and bumper stickers that allude to Niemöller’s words. First, our government is scapegoating, demonizing, and mistreating immigrants. The Bystander’s Credo reminds us of our moral obligation to speak out on their behalf.
At the same time, other attacks by Trump and his followers are targeting institutions and values that Americans must be prepared to defend: e.g., the free press, the right to vote, equality under the law. Just how sturdy are these pillars of our society? As a historical figure, Martin Niemöller reminds us of the fragility of civilization when citizens do not act.
We therefore encourage you to download templates from this website, then find a print shop, locally or online, to produce yard signs and bumper stickers for your area. Another option is to request yard signs and bumper stickers directly from us. To learn more, click here or on Signs & Stickers at the top of this page. Good luck!