I remember sitting in Social Studies class in high school in 1990 or so, hearing about the Japanese Internment during World War II and McCarthyism. I remember thinking that I was happy we were now such an enlightened people that we would never allow something so foolish to happen again. We had learned from the mistakes of the past and were no longer doomed to repeat them.

Then I hear callers to a local radio station calling for the banning of face coverings in the name of protecting us from terrorists. The irony of this being a Canadian station, a country where it is necessary to wear a scarf much of the year or risk frostbite. The lack of terrorist attacks from both the masked and unmasked should perhaps be a clue that this is an issue that does not need addressing.

Certainly the need to positively identify individuals in certain situations is necessary, although those situations are very rare. Religion does not grant additional rights.

Much of what the Burka represents is the antithesis of a secular, free and equal society. However, banning such things is only treating the symptoms and does nothing at all to deal with the issue. As usual, it is a solution that is clear, simple and wrong.

Terrorism is our generation's witch trials, our Red Scare, our Japanese Internment. When my children's children learn of this time in school, they will look back on our paranoia and shake their heads, wondering how we could be so foolish.

I Have Seen Beyond

I have various thoughts come to me "out of the blue." What follows is one of those things. Well, the first line came out of the blue. The rest just naturally seemed to follow.

I have seen beyond the little things
Seen freedom's end on broken wings

I have seen beyond the hate and fear
The terror that colors all we hear

I have seen beyond the lies we're told
That break our will, which we have sold

I have seen beyond the ignorance
The ever louder song and dance

I have seen beyond, and so I tend
To fear our world is at an end

I had intended to make these lyrics. While a competent musician, I doubt I will ever be able to bring myself to release a recording of myself saying them. I really don't like my voice that much. Perhaps some day.

Although I often think of myself as optimistic, you can probably tell from the above that I'm fairly pessimistic about America, its people and its government. Not actually being American makes it worse. There is next to nothing I can do to change the course to destruction that they are on. I despise them, pity them, love them and fear them. I am afraid for them, and I am afraid for us all.