Die Gedanken sind frei

There's an old German song I learned long ago in school. Written in the 16th century, it became popular again as the Nazis began to take over during the 1930's. It's called Die Gedanken sind frei: Thoughts are free. For most of history, one's inner thoughts were the only kind of freedom most people had.

Freedom of thought has always been a precious commodity and back when the United States meant something; back when people used to call it a free country, there weren't any government databases listing what each of us thought about politics and religion; about our sexual thoughts or about the things we have bought.

That was then. That was before the Commander Guy. Our department of Homeland Security is building a database of all airline passengers entering the United States whether they are American Citizens or not and it will include Race, Sexual orientation, political opinions, religious beliefs, credit card records and of course fingerprints.

"We're going to be able to connect the dots more quickly," says DHS's Russell Knocke adding that"it's a powerful tool that really can help to save lives." It can ruin them too. The information will be kept for 15 years although presumably if you fly within that time, it will be kept another 15.

Isn't it time we connected the dots? Bush is doing the same thing they did in Germany to terrify us into submission and to keep such good records that any enemies of the state can be identified and dealt with. Our stubborn belief that "we're the greatest country in the world" may be the deciding factor in our becoming another fascist police state with imperial ambitions and if we don't start looking at where the dotted line is pointing we surely will lose most of our freedom.