I once had a best friend that really got me. She and I worked together. She was the cool girl - artistic, funny, and loved by all.
Our circle expanded to include a guy, who had a wicked wit and who was the life of the party. All three of us were friends for a time, until the guy's wit turned on me. When I told him his words hurt, he only increased the verbal assault, and left me in tears several times.
I asked my best friend why she didn't support me; why she continued to hang out with him when he was so vicious to me. She didn't like the abuse, she told me, but he was still nice to her, so she wasn't going to drop him as a friend.
I learned a really hard lesson that day. And although it took months to break away, I did. And unfortunately, I've had to repeat that lesson many times in my life.
Today, on Martin Luther King day, I honor the man who stood up for his friends when others persecuted them. Life would have been so much easier for him if he ignored the injustices forced upon his friends.
Many years after that first lesson, I worked in Berlin, and on a rare weekend off, took the train to the concentration camp Sachsenhausen, where a Lutheran minister, Martin Niemöller,once a supporter of Hitler, was imprisoned. After the war, he expressed his sentiments with prose that rings true even today.
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
No comments:
Post a Comment