They Came

This needs to be posted, somewhere, from time to time, just to remind us all why we have the Bill of Rights - to protect the weakest among us from the most powerful among us.

First they 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 Catholics,
and I didn't speak up,
because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one
left to speak up for me.


by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945