First They Came, A Poem By Martin Niemoller

I remember reading this poem years ago and I think it is relevant now. When I look around our country and see groups trying to restrict voting rights for people, I shudder. When I listen to groups that try to use women's health issues as a platform to control women and restrict their freedoms, I grieve. As I listen to groups that try to force their religious beliefs on others, I scream. I am breaking one of my own rules. Never compare anything to Hitler and the Nazis. I am not going as far as to compare the above mentioned groups to Hitler. Hitler was responsible for millions of deaths, either directly, as in the Holocaust, or indirectly during the war that had to be fought to stop him. There is no person or group that compares to this genocide or horror. However there is the fact of how Hitler and his thugs were able to rise and grab power in Germany. This is history. I ask each of you to read the following poem and think about the tragedy of silence.

First They Came... by Martin Niemoller
In Germany they first came 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 that time no one was left to speak up.

I have always thought this to be a very poignant and human poem. It shows how we all want to go along and get along. We are willing to keep our mouths shut and accept, even atrocities against other humans to get along. It is this, the silence that leads to rights being destroyed. It is the individual rights and freedoms that are at risk when we choose silence. Remember I am addressing individual freedoms, not the freedoms of the churches. The religious community receives funds from the government. It receives money from individuals. Now it wants to suppress freedoms for women and claims it is being attacked by the current administration. It screams about it's First Amendment rights being violated, while it attempts to suppress the freedoms of the people that work for them. This is not a violation of religious freedom as the right pretends it to be. It is a political attack on women.

At the same time, if you look, hard through the smoke, there are, people trying to suppress the voting rights of millions of American citizens. They use the guise of voter fraud in convincing people that we need to protect your vote. This is their way of keeping certain blocks of people from exercising their Constitutional rights, of voting. Right now they are focused on minorities and college students. Next they attempt to suppress women from voting. Finally they will get to white males, and suppress their rights. If we remain silent on either of these issues we are giving away our rights and who will be left to speak for you. NO ONE!