Some of you accuse me of making a political statement on the back of the fans. This is not the case. The only reason why we are not traveling to the USA is our concern that in September things may be even a lot worse than today, and that it may be dangerous for people like us, who criticize the government openly, to visit the US. It may sound ridiculous to some of you, but looking at what has happened in just a few weeks, I cannot predict at all how far your government is willing to go. It was never our intention to make a political statement nor to hurt your feelings or insult you. We just gave you the truth of what led us to this decision.
Some of you accuse me to speak about things which are not of my concern. First of all, everything the USA does is of concern for any human being on this planet since the US actions affect the entire world. Besides that, my mother has been living for over 30 years in San Francisco, CA and is married to an American citizen. CA has been something like a second home for me for centuries, and I used to live there myself. I think this qualifies for being concerned as well.
Some of you also accuse me of being badly informed by listening to the ‘wrong’ news. I am from Germany, where the media is financed and run by the people. The media is committed to be neutral and unbiased by law. Besides that, we have also news run by commercial companies, which mostly are biased in the vein of their owners like in the US. Some of you might have a wrong idea about our public media. They are not operated by the government, nor has the government any control about the content. This is regulated by law. But since we are all human, this works not all the time 100%, but it works good enough for me to keep my trust in a more or less neutral and unbiased coverage.
Some of you also accuse the Germans, that we would forbid the freedom of speech. This is as wrong as can be. The freedom of speech/opinion is anchored in our constitution, the Grundgesetz, Article 5, which also forbids censorship. But unlike in the US, where literally everything is allowed to say, print or picture, we have some limitations. Insults, defamation / aspersion, and incitement of the people / racial hatred are forbidden by law and will be prosecuted if violated. This simply means, you can express any content as much as you want as long as you don’t insult and/or defame others, and your content is not inciting the people. We have learned that from the mistakes of the Weimar Republic, This is where the vast majority of the German society comes from and I am totally okay to sacrifice a tiny little bit of my freedom of speech having to make my points in a civilized way without hate, insult and defamation. Because those are the tools / weapons of demagogues.
Some of you also accuse me having divided the ProgPower USA metal community. I am sorry if I brought up a topic which is unpleasant, but the divide has been there long before I wrote the statement and was not made by me. The divide is made by politicians who use hate and defamation to manipulate the people to their needs. My statement just made visible what is under the surface.
Once again I would like to express my deepest regret about the current situation and having to disappoint people who are not responsible. Once again, I can only ask for your understanding and tolerance. We don’t claim to be right here, but we have to base things on what we think is right. If we are right or not… time will tell.
All the best.
