A few years back, if anyone had told me that I would become a toothless old crone, lecturing away about the importance of due process, I'd have said they were nuts (not to mention, mean). That's the funny thing about life (or fate, if you wish to call it that). It has a way of surprising me. 

Yes, a few years back, I did write some cautionary articles regarding the potential abuse of authority, under the P.A.T.R.I.O.T.  Act, and Homeland Security. ( See? I told you so! )

This tale is a little bit closer to home. And that's what makes it so scary.

"Fifty years ago, they would have just strung them up on a lightpost, and been done with it." he spoke knowingly, as one might expect of a World War II veteran marine. "I got news for 'em.  If they're not wearing a uniform, the Geneva Convention does not apply!"

Even the conservative old man listening, cocked an eyebrow and shook his head. In the body language, I read disbelief. Perhaps the speaker saw assent in it.  I reminded myself that on September 11, 2001, this boy would have been almost fifteen. An impressionable age. 

Fifty years ago, the speaker's father was only nine years old (and I was but a toddler); too young to remember whether they were then performing public executions upon utility poles .... but I think I later read about a guy named Joe McCarthy -- and that was scary enough!

 

 

I opted not to join in the ongoing conversation, but listened instead. The young man sincerely believes that the Constitution of the United States of America may sometimes be justifiably suspended. Torture, a viable interrogation tool.

 

It came to a point where I knew I must either speak up, or leave. I exited, stage right. I couldn't get the "conversation" out of my mind. If I thought for a fraction of a second, that any of those ideas were mainstream, I wouldn't sleep at all. A bit later, it dawned on me; if the young guy's ideology had been the order of the day, not fifty years ago, but thirty-some; he would probably not exist, now.

 

Memory flows back to a certain period in Vietnam era local history. Somebody blew up a civic building in the community: The draft board office, to be precise.

 

I don't know whether that mystery was ever solved. At the time, it didn't seem like local law enforcement put a great deal of effort into finding the perpetrator(s) of the bombing. Since the incident had occurred in the very early morning hours, and nobody was injured, I suppose it was viewed as a more-or-less harmless prank, or political statement. No doubt, insurance covered the property loss. The Vietnam War was halted soon thereafter, and the office never resumed operations.

 

One "person of interest" in that case was known to have had access to dynamite, AND had been turned in by a film-processing company, when he and some friends sent in a poster of themselves in front of a huge poster of Hitler, apparently rigging a bomb. They told the cops that it was just a gag, and the explosive was really just "broomsticks made to LOOK like dynamite").

 

After the fear of incarceration faded, I overheard a couple of the poster boys talking about it .... they remarked about how their poster had been intercepted by a vigilant film-processing agent, and turned in to the authorities. Big Brother, it seemed, had his eye on them. Surveillance - legally obtained.

 

I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out on the bombing, by now ..... but just imagine, if that incident had happened now, with Homeland Security and domestic terrorism laws as they are. If the police had been under pressure to solve the crime, or anxious to make their case, and had in that process resorted to "extreme interrogation methods" to extract a confession, I would expect that every one of those boys would have rolled on the others. They might all have spent their youth languishing in Gitmo, or some political gulag, deprived of due process.

Given that the above-described proponent of "extreme interrogation methods" shares at least nine epithelial markers in common with the above-mentioned "person of interest" ...  well, isn't "fate" just the funniest thing! A certain seed might never have been planted.

Young man, I don't know where you learned your history, but please, please do a little more research on the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. I know they don't require you to recite it anymore, but when I was in school, every day began, ".... with liberty and justice for ALL."  If common human decency does not apply to everyone, it may not apply to anyone.

Then, please study up (some more) on all the infamous extremist regimes (Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Saddam Hussein ......)  You will find one common denominator among them: the overt use of torture.

If our country fails to take the moral high ground; if we become no better than the barbarians we purport to oppose, they will have defeated us completely. A free America will not exist.

America is not place. It is (we are) a set of ideals and standards after which struggling new democracies used to pattern themselves. Every time our basic freedoms and standards are violated under the canopy of our flag - whether within our geographic borders or beyond; whether the rights violated are those of free-born Americans, or foreign subjects, every one of our freedoms are diminished. With every violation of the ideals and standards upon which this nation was founded, a piece of the fabric of our democracy becomes more tattered. Every time liberty is curtailed in the name of liberty, our light becomes less bright.

Our greatest threat is not from bombs and terrorists, but that we might succumb to the easy temptations of circumventing our own values. ("The end justifies the means.")  If this land were reduced to rubble and ash, America would still exist as an ideal. But take away the basic freedoms upon which this country was founded, and the devastation of democracy is complete: The strongest fortress in the world cannot preserve and protect the fruits of freedom spoiled from within.

When a person advocates the suspension of basic human rights "under certain circumstances", they must then be willing to accept the same, on their own accord. I would caution the young patriot; in the vigilante environment you claim to espouse, the incubator is rife for the time when the  hate-spewing youthful follies of the father, might indeed be visited upon the son. Sow hatred: reap contempt.

NOTE: I am by no means suggesting that the "persons of interest" actually perpetrated the bombing incident. There may be no connection whatsoever. I truly do not know. I do believe, however, that a certain outcome might have been effected, had certain factors converged.

PS -- Young patriot, you have a great deal more confidence in the competence and integrity of authority figures, than my experience has given me.