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EmailDec. 4, 2015
“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Socialist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out — because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.”
The quotation from Martin Niemoller, the Lutheran pastor who was imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps for seven years, speaks again to the selective and blinkered behavior of the righteous and smug among us when they do not feel threatened by the evil that threatens others. Or sometimes when they do.
Pastor Niemoller’s words go to the heart of political correctness and are easily altered to include other victims.
