The story goes like this: you're told you can no longer work at your current job and you can no longer find employment in your profession because your name is on a government list. The government won't confirm or deny it, so you can't go about demonstrating that you've been falsely put on it because you have no idea of what you've been accused of or why -- or even that the list exists. As far as you know the list is only there to keep you from working.
No, it's not a newly discovered Franz Kafka novella, it's the story of Erich Scherfen, a man who served honorably in the US military and during the Gulf War. He's currently employed as a regional airline pilot, but has been told that he can no longer fly because the TSA has him on a "terror" list -- a list that no one is allowed to see, not even to demonstrate that it's all a mistake.
But wait -- aren't we guaranteed the right to confront our accuser? Don't we get a day in court? Doesn't the government have to show we've committed a crime before taking our rights away? Hell, no, not in the Republican fascist hellhole full of apathetic consumers and mewling, cringing cowards that we used to call a free country. The "terror" list itself is the most terrifying thing about our pathetic pretend democracy and more pathetic for the fact that the only organization anywhere who will stand up for this man, the ACLU, is the favorite demon of the ruling party.
Of course they know why Scherfen is so terrifying and so do I -- he's a Muslim and his wife, an American citizen, was born in Pakistan and came here as a kid. His crime is flying while Muslim. Our crime is not giving a damn. Our crime is not storming the Bastille, dragging the bastards out of their offices and pillorying them. But we don't, we mumble about the Pledge and God on the money and them damn "Libs" in the ACLU and how John McCain will deal with "terror" much better while freedom itself is on the "terror list" and cannot fly.
Cross posted from The Reaction
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5 comments:
I've raved and written about crap like this until I'm almost, but not quite, numb.
Here's what strikes me though.
It isn't a Republican thing any longer. It isn't a conservative thing anymore.
Two years ago a hopefull America placed the Democrats, so called liberals, in charge of the House. They gave them parity in the Senate.
Not one damned thing has been done to rectify this shit. In fact, the situation has only grown worse.
What in the hell does that say?
You're dead right. Our crime is not giving a damn and that's what lets them get away with their crimes.
I agree with both of you. This is not a Repub issue anymore. It's an American problem, caused by and shared by all. Maybe its the only non-partisas problem in American. The problem of being too lazy, too dumb, too ignorant, too pompous and too selfish to to recognize and take action against the dictators that have taken over the country.
That said, I do enjoy when you get a little hot under the collar Fogg.
"Hell, no, not in the Republican fascist hellhole full of apathetic consumers and mewling, cringing cowards that we used to call a free country" indeed.
Erich is my brother and he has worked so hard, since he was a teenager, to become a pilot. But beyond his livelihood, this is about justice in America. Do something about it. Write your congressperson: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
Or, write to Robert Casey, Pennsylvania senator: casey.senate.gov/contact/
Annaliese,
Thank you for your reply - in the last few years I have had several replies from people I have written about and it makes this enterprise worthwhile.
Rest assured I do write congressmen and I do vote and I do have a long memory. I hope I have prompted a few people to do that as well.
Best wishes
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