HispanicVista Columnists
Notas por La Casa Politica: Your Papers Please!
By Steven J. Ybarra, JD/HispanicVista.com
May 16, 2005
On May 6th 134 years ago, peons in Mexico celebrated the May 5th clobbering of a French invader who, like all invaders, overstayed his welcome. This year Americans are in the process of getting clobbered by a bunch of Iraqi peons who do not like the fact that we have invaded and overstayed our welcome. You see the Iraqis believe that they are patriots! It is all about your point of view.
It has been a fun year watching the fascists get ready to destroy our rights; they truly believe that we cannot be trusted with democracy. A report has finally surfaced that shows that Bush the Lesser planned to invade Iraq as early as Summer 2002. The report shows that the research, investigations, and intelligence about Iraq were to be written to support the policy of invasion.
This week the United States Congress passed another bill to support the war in Iraq by a vote of 356-58. It included the “REAL ID Act,” which provides all the stuff that the troops need to fight terrorism. The essentials are all there - body armor, ammunition, weapons radios, etc., but most importantly a national standard for driver’s licenses. What amazes me is why the ultra-Right is not outraged about this!
Let us take a look at history. The first thing that any government does to control the population is to make sure that they have mandatory identification of the populace. This way insurgents (see patriots above), members of the opposition (see patriots above), undesirables (see patriots above) and enemies of the state (see patriots above) can be controlled.
Here is the question of the day - How long will it be before we will need a permit to travel from state to state, county to county and within the city itself?
I like the history channel, especially all the prisoner-of-war anti-Nazi shows that talk about the “Auswies” (i.e., the permit to travel). You see in World War II the prisoners of war had to have a current “Auswies” in order to be able to travel anywhere. If they did not have one, the government immediately took action to arrest and imprison these non-patriotic people (see descriptions above).
I am amazed that in the last two years, we have gone from getting on airplanes, buses, and trains with a ticket to having to show a picture ID and now, when we make reservations, giving our name and birth date. Let me help all of you out on this point. There are two Steven J. Ybarra in the state of California with the exact same birth date. It is the unique identifier known in database searches. If you want to keep track of a specific individual get their birth date and you will know more about them than they know.
I love democracy, but I fear the government that misuses power to keep control of the populace. We all knew that the Bush/Cheney administration lied to us about Weapons of Mass Destruction and such. We knew that Bush/Cheney wanted to control the oil industry in the world. We knew finally that Bush/Cheney would do anything, kill any amount of American soldiers necessary, and deficit spend any amount of money to accomplish this goal. What amazes me is the fact that the reactionary right is taking all of this lying down.
Me, I am off to Nevada next week to help Andres Ramirez become the mayor of North Las Vegas. I get the fact that it is not big like Los Angeles or pretty like San Antonio, but to the 37. 8% Hispanic population of North Las Vegas who has a 7.8% unemployment rate, it is a big deal. It is all about patriotism.
P.S. - My condolences to the families of the two women from Afghanistan who were raped and murdered for trying to help to rebuild their country this week. I hate it when I am right about what we are not doing (see editorial last week).
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©Steven J. Ybarra JD is a retired civil rights attorney who operates a consultant company in California. He is a member of the Democratic National Committee and a long time political activist. Contact Steven at: sjybarra@aol.com. This article is copyright by Steven J. Ybarra JD, originally published in www.Hispanicvista.com but permission is granted for reprint in print, email, blog, or web media if this entire credit paragraph is attached.