America, the land that I admired for its bravery, for its constitution stating and promising equality and freedom for all, no matter which color of the skin, which religion, which beliefs people had.
This was the land that people from Europe chose as their refuge when they couldn’t practice their religion of freedom in Europe. This was the land that young men from Europe escaped to before being sold as soldiers. This was the land where people persecuted by the Nazis were seeking refuge.
This was the land that sent brave soldiers to Europe when Europe suffered under the authoritarian regiment of Adolf Hitler. So many of those soldiers gave their lives believing in what they were fighting for, freedom, democracy, equality, respecting each other for being a human being.
Now, are you ready to give all of that up, and for what? Do you hope some strong president or some strong government can safe you when you give up your constitutional rights piece by piece?
Please talk with the people who have lived part of their life in one of those states ruled by an authoritarian government. Ask them how they lived there lives in fear that the “Stasi” for example, the secret police system of Eastern Germany, would get them for an inquiry about their friends and families or being blamed by someone to be enemies of the state. Many of those came back after the “interview” with broken hearts, not speaking anymore.
Ask how free they were to say what they thought. There was one party, and people were forced to elect this party in an open election, they were watched putting their mark for the socialistic party or communistic party. It they didn’t elect, they were picked up and taken to the election place, especially older people who would have had a good excuse not to go to the election.
There was no free speech, only glorification of the ruling government, no critics.
Children were asked about certain TV series that were broadcast only on Western television, just to find out whether the parents watched TV from West Germany. This was the way to find out about parents so that they could be arrested. Parents had to educate to lie for their and their parent’s safety.
Secretly, apartments, houses, flats were wired. When coming home, people needed to look everywhere to search whether there were microphones hidden somewhere that would be used to arrest the people when criticizing the government.
And when people wanted to leave the state, they were arrested, they were on the so-called black list. If the father was not in the communistic party, the children might not have been permitted to go to high school or to university. Thus, free choice of profession or education was not an option.
When many people finally had enough and went on the streets to change the government, tanks were on the streets shooting into the masses, and after being defeated, people were not allowed to leave their houses in the evenings without permission. Many, of course, were arrested.
America, do you really want to experience all of this, do you want to give up the right of every human being to live and work in freedom, no matter which color, religion, gender, age and … ? Many of you came from Europe or Africa or India or many other nations, and you were welcomed and supported, do you want to pay back with sending people away because they don’t fit your picture of who should live in America? Do you want to create civil war, or total isolation?
Do you want to live in fear that your neighbor is spying on you reporting what you have done or not done? Do you want to give up your legal rights to defend yourself or being defended by a lawyer in court? Do you want to give up your freedom of speech, writing, and expression in so many ways?
What do you fear? You can’t buy safety in turning your rights to a president, a government, you will give up your power, and you will have to be a robot following what you are told, unless the president follows the constitution agreed upon by the people, established by your forefathers.
The Germans turned over their freedom to Hitler when promised to have work, to have food for their families, to have a better life and being respected again in the world, being a “superior race” because of the power of the government. We know what they sold themselves for, who didn’t agree or was not of the “superior race” was either killed or abused as workers in camps without freedom.
We know that after a short time of hope more and more freedom was taken, and it brought suffering and death not only to all the countries that Hitler invaded but also to the Germans, as their cities were destroyed and people including women and children were buried under their bombed houses.
It had started with being economically and politically unhappy people who believed some strong person could lead them to a better life. And some of the already known ideas of Hitler nobody thought would be serious.
Please let us activate our human inheritance of caring for each other, helping each other, respecting each other as well as our right to live our life, to agree and disagree which will bring growth and expansion, when we don’t try to force our beliefs on others but listen to each other coming together in freedom and peace.
Gisela Hetherington is a resident of Kailua-Kona