13. We're In This Together
We should never tire of the immortal words of Pastor Martin Niemoeller, as both a legendary expression of the Holocaust and a guide for liberating freedom each day of our lives.
They came first for the Communists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Jews,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Catholics,
And I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me,
And by that time no one was left to speak up.
Conscience — the courage to feel our innate interrelatedness —reminds us that we’re in this thing together, that we can’t do it alone.