To the Journal editor:

This came to me a few weeks ago, and I put the words together and shared it first on Feb. 22. However I feel it is important I share my thoughts with a wider audience.

First they came for diversity, and I did not speak out because they hid it behind silly terroristic acronyms like DEO and WOKE insteading of spelling it out and humanizing our stories.

Then they came for the LGBT people, but I did not speak out because I was not LGBT and the only thing that was in the news was transgender which I don’t understand. Books disappeared and I did not speak out because I did not have time to read.

Then they came for disabled and the poor and I did not speak up when wheelchair ramps disappeared and more people were labeled big scary words like “threats to society and “enemy of the state”, and besides I don’t really like beggars or migrants because they said so.

Then they came for our national parks and I did not speak up because I was too busy working to notice or care. They used words like “wasteland” to make us devalue our precious resources in their mad search for profits and control. I did not speak up because I did not know because they came for the media too.

Then they came for our neighbors and I did not speak up because I was too busy hiding, hiding behind my fears and prejudices and lack of empathy because I never stopped to consider that I was one bad day away from walking in their shoes.

And finally, they came for me. And there was no one left to speak up.