quot;I Sit and Look Outquot; Walt Whitman I Sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; I hear secret

"I Sit and Look Out"

Walt Whitman

I Sit and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame;

I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after deeds done;

I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt, desperate;

I see the wife misused by her husband-I see the treacherous seducer of young women;

I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid-I see these sights on the earth;

I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny-I see martyrs and prisoners;

I observe a famine at sea-I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;

I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor, and upon negroes, and the like;

All these-All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon,

See, hear, and am silent.

"First they came for..."

Martin Niemöller

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.