"'Papers, please': I smell the long-forgotten rot of fascism"

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"'Papers, please': I smell the long-forgotten rot of fascism"
-Doris Colmes

Those were the magic words of the time: "Papiere, Bitte."
(Translation: "Papers, Please.") Hearing those words, even now, causes
dull echoes of sounds akin to bodies hitting dirt, or bullets
penetrating flesh to thud into my mind. Because, if those papers
weren't correctly in order, or, if you were a Jew sneakily present in
any place (including the grocery store) which displayed the usual "NO
JEWS OR DOGS ALLOWED" sign, you were dead meat--literally. And, yes,
of course I'm talking about my childhood as a little Jewish kid in
Nazi Germany.

No one ever forgets stench. Whether it is a long-forgotten encounter
with a ripe skunk, or a ripe egg, or a ripe decomposing body, once one
of those odors has been brain-documented, then even the slightest
tinge of such an aroma pops back up immediately, along with the
circumstances under which it first offended the nostrils.

And, that's what's happening now. I smell the long-forgotten skunk,
the long-forgotten rot of fascism. What is happening all around can no
longer be denied. What I ran away from so desperately in 1938 is
coming back full circle. Only the jack-boots have not yet arrived.
America quite literally saved my life. The love and gratitude deep in
my heart for this country will never go away. But I'm scared now.
Haunted by deep fear for the generations to come, who may wind up as I
did -- looking over their shoulders, scurrying for cover, mute with
terror. And it hurts.

Think I'm some kinda elderly nut-job neurotically manufacturing
dictatorship? Well, let's look at the 82 billion dollar defense bill
passed just a few weeks ago, which (with a vote tally of 100 to 0) had
the Real ID Act hidden inside it. This law allows a national
identification process in which each and every person in the U.S.A.
will be on computer.



This ID will be based on driver's license applications, although it
isn't just for driving. Just like the infamous "Internal Passport" of
Nazi Germany, no one will need it unless needing to fly, cash checks,
apply for jobs, walk the streets, enter federal buildings -- or drive.
As stated in TIME magazine on May 15, 2005, "If you are a wealthy
recluse with liquid assets, it doesn't concern you." Everyone else
better watch out! Well, maybe that wealthy recluse had better watch
out also. After all, he/she might be of a forbidden religion, or of
suspicious racial origin.

Legal "ID Theft" and legal "illegal surveillance?" [1] The Real ID Act
links driver's licenses of all states, creating a data base including
the private details of every single U.S. citizen. It mandates that
your driver's license share a common machine-readable digital photo of
you, all the better to track your every movement. It hands the federal
government unfunded mandate power to dictate what data all states must
collect for license holders, including everything from fingerprints to
retinal scans". And, if you don't drive, you'll still need to submit
to the national ID card. How else, after all, will the cop who doesn't
like the shape of your face, or the fact that you are (God Forbid)
wearing a turban get to arrest you? Yes, "Papiere Bitte" has come home
to roost.

And, folks, that's only the beginning. More technically sophisticated
techniques will be implemented as they occur. If the Nazis had had
electronic surveillance, phone bugging and all else that the Patriot
Act not only condones but advises, there would have been an even
tighter grip on the populace.

After all, the Patriot Act is modeled directly after Gestapo methods:
Those 3:00 AM home intrusions -- without warrant or reason for arrest
-- will get our undesirable "domestic terrorists" straight to the
nearest version of Guantanamo with no need for trial. The USA is
currently building thirty seven "detention centers" nationwide, and
they'll soon be filled with persons who protest too much, or are
simply of the wrong nationality. After all, it worked very well in
Germany, successfully eliminating Jews, Gypsies, and anyone willing to
stand up, and refuse to "Hail Hitler."

What's next? Well, it's already happening: The Geneva Conventions were
initiated after WW II to prevent the insane war crimes and crimes
against humanity perpetrated by Nazi Germany from ever happening
again. Now, with blithe disregard of all of the above, the U.S.A. not
only institutes torture (not just physical, but deliberately mental
and emotional) on its prisoners, but actually exports these folks to
countries in which such torture is governmentally approved. What the
U.S. domestic prison system has kept hidden for years, is now right
out there for everyone to applaud. How long it will take before the
prison guards tie together the legs of a woman in labor and then make
bets on how long it will take her to die? After all, that's what
guards did for fun in Nazi Germany. Abu Ghraib, anyone?

So, you ask, "If that's all true, why doesn't the media expose it
all?" Now, that's such a classic example of Nazi strategy, it's almost
funny. The Nazis took over the media, folks. No newspaper published a
single sentence without governmental approval, and propaganda was fed
to the populace instead of news. Sound familiar? A TIME magazine
article, (April, 2005), gave illustrated examples of how the current
administration administers this process.

And, last but certainly not least, the Nazis took over the German
government in its entirety with one simple maneuver: They simply took
over the courts. You know, like it's happening right now, today, even
as we speak: Our filibuster was busted, and those neo-con activist
judges are a-sittin' on the bench, ready to take over the Supreme
Court. Because, once that Supreme Court is co-opted, hey, driver's
license ID cards are gonna be the least of our worries. Ask me. I
know!

[1] Jim Babka, Canyon Lake Week, Canyon Lake, TX 5-11-2005

Doris is an independent writer and may be contacted at:
dhcolmes@msn.com