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The poem “First They Came” was written by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller in 1946.

Niemöller wrote the post-World War II confessional about the complicity of German intellectuals and clergy following the Nazis’ rise to power and subsequent purging of their chosen targets.

The author was a supporter of Adolf Hitler and a self-identified antisemite before he spent time in concentration camps for his opposition to the Nazi regime. His poem is a powerful reminder of how easily a country could be overtaken by such a hateful government.

It is a poem that more people need to read and think about. Here is the full poem by Niemöller:

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

That is the poem that I have posted on Facebook a few times after seeing people getting too worked up about locking up or deporting people who do not look like them. It seems like a good reminder to how things can escalate if we don’t speak up for others.

On July 3, I posted that poem in the Facebook comments below a KXLF story about ICE raids in Bozeman and the protestors who were speaking out against them.

It is worth noting that I did not post the poem solely because the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement was rounding up brown people about 1,500 miles north of the Mexican border.

I posted it because I read so many deplorable comments cheering on ICE, condemning the people who have been taken off the streets without a hint of due process and calling for the inhumane removal of people to be expanded to include “liberals” and “Democrats.”

Immediately following my posts of the poem, the insults started coming. A woman named Mary Christie was first, posting “Bill Foley you are an IDIOT.”

Then Mary started lecturing me about how she is glad she left Butte because it has turned into a hellhole thanks to the Democrats like me running the city.

It is worth noting that I did not mention Democrats or Republicans. I simply posted the poem by Niemöller without any further explanation. I did not condemn ICE or the Bozeman sheriff who went to the media to blast the people he accused of interfering with those agents.

It is also worth noting to Mary that the Butte-Silver Bow government is entirely non-partisan. It is even further worth noting that I am not in any position of power. She must have missed the memo that I lost the election.

Then a woman named Shawna Nielson from Bozeman took it a step further. Not only did she call me an idiot, she stated that she hopes I do not have any children.

A man named Tal Gilman chimed in to tell me that “commies aren’t people,” and that is just a dangerous way to look at any situation.

Now, I am not afraid to at least think that it is possible that I am just an idiot. That is an important step because the trouble with most idiots is they think that other people are the dumb ones. That is why being stupid is tougher on the family members of the inflicted than it is on the fool.

But I am confident that I am at least as smart as Mary, mainly because of her use of the all caps in calling me an idiot.

I know I am smarter than Shawna. So are my dogs.

I honestly believe that she thinks I wrote that poem for that post, not knowing that it is one of the most popular works of poetry of the 20^th Century.

In addition to expressing her hopes that I would never procreate, Shawna also chastised me because the masked ICE agents in Bozeman were not rounding up any trade unionists. They were just rounding up people who may or may not have technically broken the law while working to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Without a hint of irony, Shawna said that I clearly do not have a high school education. She figures I am a moron because I do not know the difference between trade unionists and undocumented immigrants.

Now, I am not going to say that people who enter the country illegally should not face the consequences of breaking the law. I just think they should be awarded due process.

Ted Bundy, Charles Manson and Bryan Kohberger received due process, so the least we can do is offer the same consideration to people trying to live and work in the “Shining City on the Hill,” as Ronald Reagan called America.

Also, immigration debate has incited enough vile comments on Facebook to cover Bundy, Manson and Kohberger 10 times over.

Many billionaires are not even trying to hide the fact that they are plotting to replace all of our jobs with artificial intelligence, and yet such a large segment of our population wants to blame immigrants for ruining their lives.

That doesn’t make sense to me. But, then again, I have been called an idiot.

Like every other sane person, I believe our country needs strong borders. We need to make sure that people wanting to come here do so legally. Anyone who commits any crime should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, as they say.

That, by the way, goes for citizens and politicians, too. From all parties.

It is however, troubling what we have seen from ICE over the last year or so. It is sad to see people ripped away from their children. It is sad to see them stake out the immigration courts to arrest people who are trying to do it the right way.

It was sad to see ICE arresting everybody with the wrong color skin at Home Depots in Southern California. It was sad to see ICE kill American citizens for standing up for other people.

What is also sad is how these actions have been cheered on by so many, mostly by way of the Facebook comment.

This is not a Democrat vs. Republican issue. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both deported more people than Donald Trump. Reagan and both presidents named George Bush spoke eloquently about welcoming immigrants into the country.

The problem is with the way we are targeting immigrants. ICE is doing its best Gestapo impersonation as it terrorizes communities and takes people to be mistreated in places like “Alligator Alcatraz” and that inhumane prison in El Salvador.

And people sit back and applaud all that, even though the vast majority of Americans have never been personally bothered by a single undocumented person.

Maybe I’m not that bright, as Mary says, but I think it is important to stand up for people who cannot stand up for themselves. We have to stand up for people who do not look and sound like us, too, because they are, despite what Tal says, people.

When you cheer the separation of families and deportations without due process, you are at risk of finding yourself on the wrong side of history. When you sit silently, you are every bit as complicit.

The fall to a totalitarian regime is a very slippery slope. Niemöller realized the error of his ways, and he came around to see that. He wrote a poem to try to show how the Holocaust happened and how easily it could happen again.

People like Mary, Shawna and Tal show us that his words are as important to share today as they were when he wrote them.

Even an idiot can see that.

— Bill Foley, who has been called an idiot before, can be reached at foles74@gmail.com. Follow him at twitter.com/Foles74 or Bluesky at @foles74.bsky.social. Listen to him on the ButteCast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you find your favorite podcasts.