First they came...

"First they came ..." is a famous statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller (1892–1984) about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets, group after group. The text expresses, in a condensed form, the understanding of history presented by Niemöller in a January 6, 1946 speech before representatives of the Confessing Church in Frankfurt.[1]

"THEY CAME FIRST for the Communists,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist.

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 Jews,
and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew.

THEN THEY CAME for me
and by that time no one was left to speak up."

Is there anything more powerful than this? Keith Olbermann read this on his show last night during his special comment regarding the Mosque/Islamic Center being built downtown. The fact that we as a country are willing to give up religious freedom because of fear makes us no better than what people always say about America. It makes us a bunch of hypocrites. And for as long as each and every one of us sits on the side line and says nothing because we aren't the target right NOW, read the lines above, one day you will become the target and who will be there to speak up for you?