To the Editor:

 The other day I read something that chilled me to the bone, especially considering the direction the new administration is taking our country. After living in Germany for 13 years and touring the concentration camps of Auschwitz, Dachau and Buchenwald that were liberated at the end of World War II and remembering the Japanese-American internment camps, I am becoming fearful.

I urge you to read the following quotation attributed to Martin Niemöller (1892-1984), who was a prominent German Protestant pastor and, as an outspoken foe of Adolf Hitler, spent the last years of Nazi rule in concentration camps. He believed that through their silence many German and Protestant leaders were complicit in the ensuing Holocaust:

“First 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 for me.”

What if you were to change these groups to: Catholics, Mormons, Mexicans, Italians, Asian-Americans, African-Americans, LGBTQ, etc.? We need to strongly reject and speak out against any such discrimination of any and all people. 

Nancy Copeland

Waynesville