I heard this poem in middle school and from that first time I have never ever forgotten about it or it’s meaning. It makes you think. So many of us take the approach that it’s easier to stay out of a fight for equality BECAUSE IT DOESN’T PERTAIN TO US, and yet, what if someday it did??

“First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

–Martin Niemöller