70 YEARS AGO TODAY

It was exactly 70 years ago today (December 9, 1941) that my father was suddenly arrested by the FBI. There was no forewarning of this. Several agents came to our farm home near Plaza, Washington, and after entering the house and searching it, they put handcuffs on Dad and took him away. My mother, brother and I stood by in shock.
He was gone from us for nearly two years, which, I found out later, was a relatively short time compared to thousands of others like him, who were interned for many years---some for several years after the war had ended. The actual number of ethnic Germans and other Europeans interned on American soil during the WWII years is shrouded in mystery----some say at least 10,000, others maintain the number is much higher. Whatever the number, we know now that these people were innocent of any wrongdoing. They were the victims of wartime hysteria.
In August of 2001, THE WARTIME TREATMENT STUDY ACT was first introduced to Congress by Senators Feingold and Grassley. If passed, this bill would have created a commission to study the internment of Europeans by the U.S. during the WWII years. It would have also created a second commission to study why Jews seeking asylum here were turned away. That bill was subsequently introduced 4 times and despite having been voted favorably out of the Senate Judiciary Committee those 4 times, it finally died in the 111th Congress never having been voted on by the House. Many former internees and/or their families and friends worked on promoting this bill, especially Karen Ebel, an attorney from New Hampshire whose father, Max Ebel (now deceased), was a former internee.
Why did this bill never come to a final vote? Some attribute this to too many other pressing issues before Congress which took precedence. And yet, just in the past month, a bill which would effectively suspend the Writ of Habeas Corpus for U.S citizens accused of the same "crimes" my innocent dad was accused of committing, was quickly and quietly (with very little attention from the media) passed by the U.S. Senate. It will be interesting to see whether or not the President vetoes this bill and whether or not it actually becomes part of the law of the land.
I recently turned 71 years of age. Do the math. and you will realize that I wasn't very old when my dad was taken away. From the time of my early adulthood to now, I've gone through a real metamorphosis in my "political" views---going from very conservative to very liberal. I see the world differently from this age of 71. I see "big money" ruling and ruining our society. I see lying and distorting in the political realm being an accepted part of life. I see so-called public servants only working for personal power and wealth. And, getting back to what happened to my dad, I see too many U.S. citizens having to have scapegoats---people to hate---in order to be truly "patriotic".
Remember F.D.R's famous line: "We have nothing to fear, but fear itself!"? I have always thought that this line was, in itself, a great irony. It was fear that sent my dad and thousands like him away to internment camps, and it is this kind of fear that has motivated our senators to take the first step in removing a fundamental constitutional right from U.S. citizens.