A woodsman went into the forest and petitioned the trees to provide him a handle for his ax.  It seemed so modest a request that the principal trees granted it right away, and they declared that the plain homely ash should furnish what was needed.   No sooner had the woodsman fitted the staff for his purpose, however, than he began chopping down the noblest trees in the woods.  By the time the oak grasped the entire matter, it was too late, and he whispered to a neighboring cedar, "With our first concession we lost everything.  If we had not sacrificed our humble neighbor, we might still be able to stand for ages."

When the rich surrender the rights of the poor, they provide a handle to be used against their own privileges.

[The concession need not be of the rights of the poor by the rich, but even of our own rights which we consider to numerous to be overcome by a small concession. Steady encroachment of our liberties by enemies who continuously encourage us to surrender them, without ever giving back what they've gained from us, makes us vulnerable to ultimate destruction or enslavement.]