Freedom!

Since I am sick right now, I better not do intense exercise. I walked the Freedom Trail this afternoon. (It is a trail that connects the scenes of critical events in Boston's struggling
for independence.)

I carried a book, Walk Boston, with me. The book not only directed me the routes but also told me the stories about the historical sites. However, something other than the history of independence also caught my eyes. On my way to Old North Church, where Robert Newman signaled with lanterns the approach of the British regulars, I saw the memorial of victims of Concentration Camp. It is elegantly designed in the first place. Not just that, it is a structure with content. The transparent glasses of the monument embed the thousands victims’ numbers. (They did not have names in the camp, but numbers on their arms.)

The inscription of Martin Niemöller’s famous quotation also moved my soul.

They came first for the Communists,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,

and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,

and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,

and by the time no one was left to speak up.

I suppose this memorial is built to “speak up” for those who had suffered.