Soapbox

When they come for YOU…and they will…

First they came for the homosexuals. They tried to turn them into second-class citizens and put their bigotry into the Constitution. It didn’t seem right… but I’m not homosexual, so I didn’t said nothing.

Then they came for the poor, reducing taxes for the rich while hunger and rising poverty destroyed the future of more and more of them… but I have enough to eat, so I said nothing.

They came for the women and mothers, to require even those whose lives had already been violated once by rape or incest to endure government-forced pregnancies… but I’m not pregnant, so I said nothing.

They came for the Iraqis. They dragged them from their beds at night and threw them in prison, attached electrodes to their bodies and committed other unspeakable wrongs. It was horrible to see… but we’re at war, after all, so I said nothing.

They came for the scientists and professors and former advisors who disagreed with them, savaging their honor and accusing them of helping the terrorists.. .and it seemed unfair, but I said nothing.

They came for the ordinary ones who spoke up. They arrested them and branded them criminal for wearing the wrong T-shirt, the wrong buttons, for asking questions, and even for simply saying the word “No”… but I keep quiet, so I said nothing.

Then they came for a senator. They made commercials saying he hadn’t earned his war medals, an d ignored the Navy when they said he had. They made an hour-long info-sland-umentary that accused him of causing the deaths of POW’s in Vietnam, even though it had already been proven that he didn’t.. .but I wasn’t voting for him, so I said nothing.

They came for the Constitution itself: the right to speak, the checks and balances of government and the right not to learn about their religion in my science class; the right to vote, even if you are poor or black.. .and it made me frightened… but I said nothing.

And when they come for me, for something I do that isn’t patriotic enough for them, or isn’t fundamentalist enough for them… will there be anyone left one left to say anything?