This is the Moment!

What Happens When They Come for You? Ask History

I am sensing a growing danger in our country—a political danger unlike anything I have ever experienced in my 80+ years–a danger not just to individuals, but to the constitutional and democratic norms that hold this nation together. Too many concerned citizens are choosing silence, hoping that if they “lay low,” this moment will simply pass. That silence is not safety. It is complicity. And it is profoundly dangerous.

German Pastor Martin Niemöller understood this. At first, he supported Hitler. When he later opposed the regime, he was arrested and imprisoned. He luckily survived and went on to warn the world: When you stay silent as others are targeted, no one will be left to defend you when the knock comes at your door.

We are now watching a version of that warning unfold in real time.

Across America, thousands of undocumented residents—most of whom are not dangerous criminals (less than 7% by reputable sources)—are being arrested, detained, and deported under a broken immigration system that Congress has repeatedly failed to fix. We are witnessing scenes that resemble kidnappings rather than law enforcement: unidentified, masked federal agents in tactical gear seizing people on the street, using excessive force, and operating behind a wall of secrecy.

Detention facilities—such as the one outside Chicago in Broadview, IL—are closed to clergy, local officials, journalists, and oversight. American citizens have been detained and abused simply because a federal agent decided they “looked Hispanic” or “looked Somali.” In other words, they looked “other.” These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a system drifting away from democratic norms and toward unchecked executive power.

And here is the uncomfortable truth: many white Americans do nothing. We convince ourselves we are safe because our families came from Europe. We imagine that if we stay quiet—keep our heads down—the federal machinery will never turn toward us. The same fear is infecting various immigrant communities: “If we don’t say or do anything, they will overlook us!”

But silence is not safety. Silence signals surrender.

So we must ask the most important question of all: Who will protect us?

There is only one answer: our local police and sheriffs’ deputies.
Not because they are perfect. Not because every department is where it should be. But because they—unlike federal agents—are directly accountable to us. Their constitutional duty, their oath of office, and their professional code of ethics require them to protect the rights, safety, and liberty of the people in their community—all the people.

That includes immigrants.
That includes critics of the federal administration.
That includes every one of us when federal power tries to overreach.

Local police must be the line that holds when other guardrails fail. They are the last institution still anchored in the Bill of Rights, local accountability, and democratic norms. And if they abandon that role—if they defer blindly to unidentified federal agents using force outside the law—then the balance of power envisioned in our Constitution collapses. Executive authority “trumps” the separation of powers, and the public is left unprotected from the very government meant to serve them.

This is not theoretical. It is already happening at the edges.

So let us understand this clearly: When those of us not being taken finally stand up—when we speak, resist, and challenge these abuses—do you honestly believe they will not come for us? History has already told us the answer.

Of course they will.

And if we have waited until that moment, who will speak for us? Who will protect our families? Who will protect our community?

The only way this ends well is if we act now—if we expect, demand, and support our local police and sheriffs in fulfilling their highest calling: guardians of the republic, defenders of rights, protectors of the people, all the people.

We know what this moment requires. It requires action, resistance, non-compiance and speaking out. Will we move before it is too late?