... and then they came for me

Above: A scene from a WPA theatre performance of It Can't Happen Here. Photo from the National Archives.

Regret

First they came for the civil servants, and I did not speak out because I was not a civil servant.

Then they came for the left-leaning journalists, and I did not speak out because I was not a left-leaning journalist.

Then they came for the private citizens who believed in the General Welfare Clause of the U.S. Constitution, the common good, and I did not speak out because I did not believe in those things.

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

(See Martin Niemoller's original statement--which I adapted above to fit today's darkening atmosphere--at the United States Holocaust Museum, here. Niemoller "explained that in the first years of the Nazi regime he had remained silent as the Nazis persecuted other Germans, especially members of leftist political movements with whom he disagreed.")

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"Displays honoring women and people of color who served the National Security Agency were covered up by staff at a national museum over the weekend amid workers’ rush to comply with President Donald Trump’s dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, an NSA representative told NPR."

--"National Museum Covered Exhibit Honoring Women, People Of Color Amid Anti-DEI Efforts," Huffington Post, February 6, 2025