You are sitting in your house with your family. You've relaxing in front of the television, with your children playing nearby. You've just finished dinner, and you want to enjoy a quiet evening before heading to bed. You look at your children and smile, and then squeeze your spouse's hand. The news may be full of scary talk about epidemics and bank failures and martial law, but at least you have one another.
You think about the reports you saw on the patriot blog today, about the new children's rights initiative. You're glad that you home-school your children, so you won't have to worry about that. Your subscription to the health magazine has disturbing reports about genetically engineered food, but that won't affect you, either. Your family eats only or organic food. You know that the FDA is trying to regulate more and more over the counter products, but you aren't too worried, because your family only uses herbal and homeopathic medicine. You reflect on your good fortune, to have taken steps to protect your family years ago.
That's when it happens. Suddenly, the quiet is shattered by the sound of your front door being kicked in.
FREEZE! HANDS IN THE AIR! NOBODY MOVE! WE HAVE YOU SURROUNDED!
Masked intruders, guns drawn, are shouting at you as they rush in. Your children scream in terror as they are shoved to the floor. You and your spouse are thrown to the ground, your hands bound painfully behind your back. You call out to your children, trying to comfort them, telling them to stay calm. One of the men rewards you with a slap across the face and an admonition to "SHUT UP! YOU ARE NOT ALLOWED TO TALK TO THEM!"
The intruders ransack your house, but the things they are taking seem unusual for thieves. Your books, papers, and computer disks go into their bag. They leave the computer, but rip the hard-drive from it. They take the organic food from your pantry, the herbal medicine from your cabinet, and your children's home-school workbooks from your desk.
This goes on for hours. You are confused, and scared, because you still do not know why these men are here, or what they want from you. You have noticed their badges, and that they are all wearing the same uniform, but they refuse to answer your questions.
Finally, you are pulled to your feet and dragged out the door to a waiting van. Your children are placed in another vehicle, still screaming in terror. Your captors now inform you that your children "will be taken care of," and that you are being transported to a detention center for suspected terrorists. You are not read your rights, you are not placed under arrest. You question this, and the truth is finally revealed.
Don't you pay attention to the news? You are a suspected terrorist. You have no rights.
Do you think this could happen, or is it too far-fetched?
[Originally posted 8 May 2009. Thanks for featuring this,
Catpooish!]
Comments (49)
Actually, this is closer than many want to notice . http://www.tuccille.com/blog/2009/02/maybe-shooting-politicians-dogs-isnt.html
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=83865
This is only 2 links. How many do you want?
@ShamelesslyRed - As many as you (or anyone else) want to provide. I got tired of spoon-feeding folks (thanks for that, @trunthepaige).
When they want spoon fed, they don't REALLY want the info. Well, they do, but they don't do anything with it.
People say thinking like that is paranoia but we are closer to that happening than any of them realize.
@firetyger - It has already happened. Maybe not to you, maybe not to me, maybe not on a mass scale. But I assure you, things of this nature have happened to American citizens. More than once.
@radicalramblings - I believe it.
Why is mistrust of our own, democratically elected, government on the rise?
How has the government ridden roughshod over your rights?
Please list a few unjust, undemocratically enforced laws.
Has our (The US) government recently abrogated any citizen's rights? Which? When?
Do you think government is necessary? Why not?
@tychecat - Do you really want the answers, or are you just asking for the sake of conversation?
You don't produce and sell unpasteurized milk products, do you???
Reading this doesn't help after just seeing the movie Rendition...
I absolutely think it's possible. And sadly, I don't think the military will offer any protection to the many home-schooling, right-wing conservatives who serve -- after all, we're "theeeese close" to being terrorists, ourselves, according to the current administration.
Look, I'm not paranoid. I don't obsessively lock my doors or keep all shades pulled over my windows. I'm not even all that upset by the fact that the military keeps tabs on cell phone conversations on bases. But when I look at the course of events over the last 20 years, when I look at how those who have fought for liberty have been demonized in society as "paranoids" and "reactionaries," I can't help but think they know something that people don't want us to know.
I'm sure it's already happened. And when I say "sure", I mean, it's quite likely that it has.
I feel much safer now than I did during the Bush years. I was on some sort of watch list, which made traveling through airports a bitch. I'm not exactly sure what for, other than being outspokenly liberal. I've never been arrested or anything.
@GodlessLiberal - If you think you are safe now, you are deluding yourself. Wake up and smell the coffee - the danger doesn't lie within party lines.
@radicalramblings - Hence the "R" at the end of "safeR."
@GodlessLiberal - Why would you be safe(r)? Is it a matter of degree based on which "side" you affiliate yourself with? I don't feel any less safe with Obama, than I did with Bush, because I realize that at the end of the day the only purpose of party affiliation is to divide us all so much that we lose sight of the real issues. Case in point... nowdays a cursory glance at blogs will make it appear that conservatives are the great champions of freedom. But in a time not all that long ago, it was liberals screaming for rights. I may be young, but I've read the history books.
Oh it's possible. Heaven forbid we show patriotism by wanting to be heard when we are unhappy.
@radicalramblings - Because the only reason I would have been put on a Bush-era security list would be because of my liberal beliefs. I have no criminal and/or violent past. Plus I see Obama scaling back the threats to freedoms I've seen, and I believe that America is moving in the right direction (although much slower and in a much more convoluted path than I think it should be taking). Since Obama has not declared that anti-war activists should be monitored as potential terrorist cells, I feel safer. Do I think America is all the sudden 100% blameless? Absolutely not.
Well, it certainly happened in Germany, and many things in the current admin are reminiscent of pre-war Germany. I'm reading a book about that right now, and find myself horrified. Why Americans are so blind is beyond me. I guess the dumbing down of the schools has finally produced its fruit.
@GodlessLiberal - There are many, many "conservatives" such as myself who have no violent past, no criminal history, and have done nothing to indicate they might become such yet are finding ourselves on these lists for no reason other than our beliefs. I don't know how you feel about that now, but I know that when Bush was in office I screamed loud and often about the injustice of the patriot act, and related tactics that amounted to profiling citizens based on belief and otherwise violating civil rights. I can only hope that those who found themselves on the other side of the coin then, will do the same for us now.
@agnophilo - To your first comment: I am certainly no fan of Bush, or the administration before that, or the one before that... And most of the dissenters who are finding themselves on "lists" now, are saying nothing different than we have for the past twenty years. The government as a whole - not one administration or the other - is out of control.
To your second comment: Everyone except those who dare to disagree with a policy or voice an opinion contrary to it. Then we're either terrorists or racists. Or both.
@homefire - It ain't just the current administration. See above.
@tychecat - Do you really want the answers, or are you just asking for the sake of conversation?
As usual, both. I am trying to make a point. I don't suppose many of you have ever been on a far-right hit list - but long ago (1960s) as a young teacher I managed to make the John Birch Society's list - as well as that of a couple of politically powerful local hate-monger publications in South Florida where I was then teaching. Fortunately tenure meant something in those days, so all I had to put up with was a little vandalism of my car and house and some impassioned speeches at school board meetings. I was much amused at being compared to Max Lerner and Henry Steele Cominger ( a couple of very well known Liberals of that long-ago time).I feel safer when Liberals are politically ascendant simply because their basic philosophy (Liberalism) is much more tolerant of differing political views than the - to my mind - strange and intolerant viewpoint of what passes for the GOP nowadays.If we want to live in a fairly crowded and developed society, we have to put up with some social restrictions and obligations. As Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr said: Taxes are the price we pay for civilization@tychecat - You present the issue as two options - liberals, or the GOP. Yet, in your haste to make a point, you seem to have closed your mind to the possibility that both are equally wrong when they profile citizens based on beliefs, and treat those who disagree as criminals.
It will happen full circle soon enough. And unless we do something about it now it will become out of control. But once we finally get to it, it'll be to late. And then the national guard, which was put in place by our founding fathers as a militia to arm help arm the people in the case of the government becoming too tyrannical, will be used against as a weapon against our freedom. That's when we know we've passed the point of no return. Grab your passport, pack your bags, get out lol
@radicalramblings - I'm curious if you know of anything like this happening under the new administration. I'm not aware of any, but if I hear about it I'll scream loudly. I know that message about worrying about ultra conservatives as possible terrorists raised alarm bells in my head, but after hearing about all the talk of succession I wonder if it wasn't the tiniest bit founded. Still, if Obama acts on these things the way Bush did, you can be sure I'll be pissed and vocal about it.
@GodlessLiberal - First of all - the only talk about secession has come from the government's response to states affirming their constitutional rights and that of their citizens. The Contitution specifically spells out that powers not granted to the federal government are reserved to the states and the people. It seems obvious to me that states affirming their rights under the constitution intend to stay in the Union which is governed by it.
That being said... there are literally hundreds of links that I have posted here, and on my facebook page, dealing with exactly these types of situations - no, not as dramatic and all-encompassing as the one described here, but peices of it - happening under both the current and last administration. And the one before that, and the one before that. Here's my links page...CLICKY ... it should be public, but you may have to have a facebook account to view it (I don't know if they allow non-members to view profile pages or not).
There you will find things like an article about a driver who was pulled over and detained - not because he had violated a traffic law, but by the officer's admission because he had a "don't tread on me" bumper sticker on his car. A video about a sixteen year old boy who is being held under the patriot act without being charged or having access to his parents or an attorney to represent him. The story of a family whose home was raided and whose children were terrorized because they participate in an organic food co-op. And so on, and so forth.
You recognize that the government did things under the Bush administration that are absolutely wrong. You seem to have no trouble believing that these things could have happened under his rule. Yet for whatever reason, you seem to blindly believe that electing a democrat magically made all of this go away. Please, for your own sake - do some research. Again, I urge you to consider - it ain't about party lines.