College and University Blog
The Teaching of Tolerance
They first came for the Communists and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist.
Then they came for the Socialists and the Trade Unionists, but I was neither, so I did not speak out.
Then they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew so I did not speak out.
And when they came for me, there was no one left to speak out for me.
Pastor Martin Niemoeller, a German opponent of Nazism
When asked what it means to be an American, many people associate their country with individual freedoms and rights. This is particularly true of freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the right to assemble, and the right to a trial by a jury of peers. Clearly, no rights are absolute