Originally Posted by
König
I really don't understand when people start this old repeated tune "where is the USA I knew?" or "we need to take our country back". Back to where? The 19th century which saw slavery? Early 20th century when women could not even vote? World War 2 when American citizens of Japanese descent were put in concentration camps? McCarthy's 1950s ? Segregationist 1960s when black folks had to ride in the back of the bus? Please enlighten me which one of these you'd like back? I don't like all this post-9/11 security non-sense either, but I will take it any time compared to being a minority and living during the times that I have listed.
Back to 9-10-11, at least.
Other than the Japanese internments, we are far worse off, IMHO.
Women and blacks didn't have equal rights because the power base was male/.white. Women and blacks were certainly seen as useful, just not equal.
Big difference between that and now. Now, everyone is guilty until proven conditionally and temporarily 'not proven guilty'. There's no such thing as 'innocent until proven guilty'.
As an American citizen with 'nothing to hide', I was never afraid of my government before. I was confident I had rights. I was confident they couldn't whisk me away to be finger-printed, strip-searched, and logged into who knows how many government 'lists' - and I certainly believed I had the right to know who my accuser was and to defend myself. Not any more.