Do what’s right, or one day they will come for us
“Then they came for me — and there was no one left to speak for me.” Pastor Martin Niemöller wrote these words after coming out of a Nazi death camp.
Mary Fisher shared this quote in a speech called “A Whisper of AIDS” at the 1992 Republican National Convention. When I was a speech professor with Alamo Colleges, I had my students read “A Whisper of AIDS” as I wanted them to understand that if we don’t know history, we are destined to repeat it. I wanted to create awareness, to prepare them to speak up before something happens.
I dread it might be happening as I read about the resurgence of antisemitic sentiments. The comments have reminded me of Charles Lindbergh and Henry Ford, both antisemites. And now Elon Musk?
About 40 years ago, attending the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, I had a new college roommate from Miami. Instead of a cross, he saw I was wearing a mezuza. He smiled in a way I’ll never forget as he immediately felt a kindred spirit.
I wore it because it symbolized an affinity for his faith. I could see he was crestfallen when I told him I was not Jewish. But this man and I remain kindred spirits to this day. He, 18 years old and away from home for the first time, admitted to me, a Black man, something I’m sure he didn’t share openly to everyone. We both knew we had to be careful, knew on any day they might come for us.
I cast this story against the backdrop of a prevailing sentiment that saps and wounds us for no reason. Today, years after I shared a room with my Jewish brother, synagogues have been bombed, crosses burned and myriad vitriol comments made against Black people and Jews on social media.
How long will we give sanctuary to such hate? How can we attend church and refuse to acknowledge a collective responsibility that indifference to such hate is incongruent to a belief in
God? How can we not love our neighbor as we love ourselves?
It’s baffling, and as I recently wrote my college roommate, “I am and will always be your brother, kindred believer, and trusted warrior in the fight against bigotry as long as there is breath in me.”
So, I worry. Not that we are better than this. I know we are. Not that we don’t know the answer. I know we do. Not that things won’t get better. I know they will. But I worry, when will they come for me?
We have fought and maintained a republic for more than 200 years. I believe there is enough fight in those who believe in freedom and justice for all. I believe we will fight to keep it.
The answer is at the ballot boxes, and the prevailing winds are blowing in directions that insist we get out and protect our country for our children.
Knowing we are the answer to challenges and division ensures us things will get better. Knowing we are the answer challenges us now to do the right thing, because if we don’t, they will come. They will replace the patriots we are. Knowing we are the answer empowers us to stand together so our “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”