A Warning for the Time of Trump _______________________________________________________________

Shortly after World War II, a German Lutheran pastor, Martin Niemoller, wrote what became an oft-quoted and oft-revised prose poem. It crystallized the role we all play in our own fate and the fate of others. Being very adaptable, it has been through many iterations at the hands of sundry writers. In the original English-language form, the poem referred to the Nazis using a simple pattern: “First they came for …” as in “First they came for the socialists … “
 
As we know, “they” took their victims away, incarcerated them and murdered millions. We tend to think of the perpetrators of the assault as parts of the official Nazi apparatus, but as Nazism grew, fearful neighbors turned on each other in order to curry favor with officialdom. How about our wildly proliferating mass shooters? Do they, in their derangement, believe they are currying favor with the hater-in-chief?
 
Will some dystopian future bring us a similar fate? Herewith a warning. 

A Warning for the Time of Trump

First they went after the African Americans
And I did not speak out
Because I was not African American

Then they went after the Latinos 
And I did not speak out 
Because I was not Latino
 
Then they went after the Muslims
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Muslim
 
Then they went after the immigrants
And I did not speak out
Because I was not an immigrant
 
Then they went after the poor
And I did not speak out
Because I was not poor
 
Then they went after those who were lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer
And I did not speak out
Because I was not lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer
 
Then they went after the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
 
Then they went after the women of reproductive age
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a woman of reproductive age 
 
Then they went after the writers
And I could not speak out …
 
Because then they came after me …