Saturday morning on the radio I heard there was a multiple
shooting in Pittsburgh. My sister lives
in Pittsburgh.
The shooting was at a synagogue. It is near my sister’s church. We’ve been in the neighborhood.
My brother-in-law’s
brother and family are Jewish. They are
members of another synagogue. They are
safe.
Nearby Carnegie Mellon University is locked down. My sister’s nephew attends CMU.
It gets closer and closer.
First They
Came For The Jews
by Martin
Niemöller
First they
came for the Jews
and I did
not speak out
because I
was not a Jew.
Then they
came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I
was not a Communist.
Then they
came for the trade unionists
and I did
not speak out
because I
was not a trade unionist.
Then they
came for me
and there
was no one left
to speak out
for me.
"First They
Came for the Jews," was written by Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran pastor and
theologian who was born in Germany in 1892. At one time a supporter of Hitler’s
policies, he eventually recanted and as a result was arrested and confined to
the Sachsenhausen and Dachau concentration camps from 1938 to 1945. After
narrowly avoiding execution at the hands of the Nazis, he was liberated by the
Allies in 1945 and continued his career in Germany as a clergyman, pacifist and
anti-war activist.
