Feedback: January 30, 2026

Then They Came for Me

Dear Editor,

I’d like to thank your reader Michael Carey for his letter in your January 23 edition excellently updating Martin Niemöller’s poem “First They Came” to apply to current events. The original poem about Nazi Germany has been frequently on my mind since June 16, 2015.

Niemöller began as a conservative and self-professed antisemite who initially supported Adolf Hitler – a monster adept at using people’s prejudices, their hates, and their desires to manipulate them. Our current administration shares that awful talent and intent.

Niemöller realized his error earlier than most, began warning others, and was put in a concentration camp for his efforts opposing Nazi state control of all churches.

We are headed down a very similar path. Immigrants are already experiencing concentration camps. ICE is the U.S. version of brownshirts. We have more than enough evidence to justify outrage.

May Americans wake up and insist on sanity, kindness, and true democracy soon.

Thank you,
Frances Haggard

The Great Terror Is Nigh

Dear Editor,

The current Republican administration, both in Washington and in Texas, is destroying the American economy. This needs to stop, and soon, or we as a country and as a union will cease to exist. The Republicans, enthralled with the overt racism and greed of Donald Trump and his followers, have sold out the bulk of the American people. And for what? For the chance at wealth and the power that they presume will come from that. They have not learned from history.

The Trump administration has no friends, only enemies, and they will turn on each other as quickly as they have turned on ordinary American citizens. Until the political class in Texas realizes that they will be next marked for destruction they are at risk. Once the fascists who have hijacked the Republican Party have wiped out dissent, there will be a purge of the top ranks of the Republican Party similar to what Hitler and Stalin both pulled off in the early 1930s. The most devoted followers will be hunted down and murdered in their beds, not by the “enemies” of the administration, but by the administration itself. Totalitarian leaders fear not only popular uprisings, they fear those within their ranks who may become more popular or become more powerful than they themselves are. Most dictators are brought down by their closest supporters, and they know it.

Trump has said that the greatest threat to him is from within. He meant the Republican Party itself, and he will turn on the party with vengeance and ruthlessness once he feels safe from the “mob.” This has happened time and time again throughout human history. Betrayal is the norm.

Those who have aligned themselves with a ruthless dictator will themselves be targeted, one way or another. It is just a matter of time. The great terror is nigh.

David Reeder

You Do It to Yourself

Dear Editor,

My primary volunteer activity in retirement has been nonpartisan voter registration here in Texas, where online registration is not offered and registration is required 30 days before an election. Naturalization events have been especially rewarding, as I hear so many wonderful stories from individuals who have been on this long, expensive journey for years.

My heart breaks to see this administration severely reduce naturalizations and plan to denaturalize previously naturalized individuals.

I also have flashbacks to a scary time nine years ago when our now healthy son was fighting a life-threatening disease that was out of control. We marveled at the UT Southwestern teams of physicians and researchers, immigrants from all over the world, caring for him, and the research to which he owes his life. 

Many of these best of the best are now being recruited by countries that want them and value science. The damage America is doing to itself is hard to fathom.

Cathy Murphree