Today Them, Tomorrow You!

Today Them, Tomorrow You! is the narrator’s English rendering of a German proverb that turns the wrongful persecution of Muslims and Arabs into a warning about anyone’s vulnerability. It closes a passage about arrests made under the banner of the War Against Terrorism, shifting the focus from those already targeted to those who may be targeted next.

Wording and Context

The narrator gives the proverb in German as “Heute die! Morgen du!” and immediately translates it as “Today Them, Tomorrow You!” The compact sequence sets two moments against each other: a group suffers now; the person addressed may suffer tomorrow. In the passage, the warning follows the observation that Muslims and Arabs have been persecuted and wrongly arrested.

From Them to You

The proverb’s force lies in its movement across the boundary between the people being persecuted and the person hearing about them. The narrator has just contrasted Americans with non-Americans, arguing that wrongful arrest does not stop at nationality. The proverb sharpens that comparison into a direct caution: mistreatment dismissed as someone else’s problem can become one’s own.

Narrative Function

Placed at the end of the passage, the saying gives its argument a memorable closing form. It is not presented as a prediction about a particular future arrest, but as a warning against treating injustice as safely confined to other people. The shift from “Them” to “You” makes the passage’s concern with unequal vulnerability personal and immediate.