First the corporations came for the bees. With thanks to Martin Niemöller: “First they came . . ."

By Henrik Eger

Charging Bull outside the New York Stock Exchange, NYC. Sculpture by Arturo Di Modica.

First the corporations came for the bees,

"New data show the US honeybee population is still dying in record numbers." By Chase Purdy. June 20, 2019, Quartz.

And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a bee.
 
And then they came for the butterflies, 

"Scientists scramble to learn why monarch butterflies are dying so quickly," by Jesse Higgin, July 22, 2019, UPI.

And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a butterfly.
 
And then they came for the rivers that dried out, 

Local environmentalist Juan Butrun pretends to drink water from the dry channel of the Colorado River. Photo by John Trotter.

And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a river.
 
And then they came for the children in Flint, 

Dangerously polluted water in Flint, Michigan that killed many children.

And I did not speak out 
Because I was not a child, forced to drink leaded water in Michigan.
 
And then they came for the poor and uninsured, 

Mack Carter, 71, stands with his bike in front of his house in Helena, Arkansas. AP Photo by James Finley.

And I did not speak out 
Because I was not poor and uninsured.
 
And then they came for the retired and the old,

Henrik Eger holding a concentration camp puppet from The Puppet Master of Lodz, Mum Puppettheatre, Philadelphia,
Puppet Festival (r)Evolution, National Festival of the Puppeteers of America, Swarthmore College, PA, Aug. 2013. Photo: Alex Griffin.

And there was no one left to speak for me.

ORIGINAL of the many versions of this thought-provoking poem by Martin Niemöller (1892 – 1984). 
 
A longer version by the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, a charity established by the UK government, below:[4]
​
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.

Men during the Depression. Sculpture by George Segal. FDR Memorial, Washington, D.C.

If you are interested in publishing or adapting this copyrighted poem by setting it to music, staging or filming it, etc., please contact the author. ​​​

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