First

Inspired by First They Came for The Jews*

First they came for the murderers,
To be a murderer is vile,
and I am not a murderer
so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the sex offenders,
to be a sex offender is shameful,
and I am not a sex offender
so I did not speak out.

Then they came for the criminals,
to be a criminal is dirty,
and I am not a criminal
so I did not speak out.

Then, they simply came for the poor,
to be poor is to be poor,
dirty, shameful and vile,
and I understood.

That the only language they understood
was the silvery flapping
of a little tongue of green...
and it was too late to speak out for myself...

Karl Chamberlain

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* First They Came for The Jews is a poem written by Pastor Martin Niemöller during WWII, a prominent German anti-Nazi theologian improsoned by the Gestapo. His poem is inscribed on the New England Holocaust Memorial.