The reality of Dec 7, 1941, is 2,403 military men growing up during the depression lost their lives for a mere salary of 36 bucks a month. For loved ones, the memory of their loss still deeply hurts on this 81st Anniversary of Pearl Harbor and the war it triggered.
We want to thank Russ Payne for this Op-Ed – Please direct yours to Editor@GraniteGrok.com.
Remembering these realities of that time, one can see how this climate of fear demanded revenge, and Congress declared war.
Consider how this emotionalized traumatic sneak attack threatening our homeland seemed only to have tunnel vision. The whole nation was caught up in vengeance; “Remember Pearl Harbor!”
Even while ignoring that, 120,000 Japanese Americans suddenly lost their liberty. It seemed blindness of hate for all Japanese Americans followed. Protections the Constitution secures for all Americans in the Bill of Rights were denied the Japanese as President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, essentially imprisoning 120,000 people in internment camps from 1942 to 1945, of which 2/3 were citizens. For an unknown sober evaluation of reactions to the fear this event sparked, go here.
Today’s “suspension of civil liberties” has a precedent that was aimed at Japanese Americans during WWII. Only this time, we are at war with not just a bug but the “ones behind the bug.” The president suspended the individual inherent rights of all Americans. And Congress, with their silence, represents the president’s agenda, not ours.
Atrocious violations of civil rights then only affected the Japanese. Looking the other way was easy in the war climate. Japanese Americans became victims of illegal government action that took their natural inherent rights.
Executive Orders, again, have been the tool that violates American liberty today. They have activated a force operating over and above the law in a similar climate of fear as in WWII. The unvaccinated are the enemy of the state.
All Americans must realize that our Constitution was created to control the government, not our people. George Washington’s powerful words warn us: Government is not reason , it is not eloquence, it is like fire a dangerous servant and a fearful master.”
