You’ve seen those “if you take drugs you support terror” ads, of course.
Well, if you support the administration’s particular version of a war on terror, this is the sort of thing you support:
Bernadette Devlin McCaliskey, the world-renowned Irish civil rights leader was refused entry into the United States of Ashcroft. At Chicago’s O’Hare, she was told that she presented a danger and wouldn’t be permitted to step foot on American soil. She begged them to recheck their computer. She insisted there had to be a mistake. She told them she came in peace. They said that Tony Blair’s British government had told them by fax a different story. They said she was a risk. Yes, this is the same Devlin who at 21 became the youngest MP elected to Parliament. Deported.
And then there’s this:
Last week, Eugene Angelopoulos arrived at JFK enroute to New York University, where he had been invited to speak at a conference on Philosophy and Politics. The Greek academic was instead detained at the airport, shackled and interrogated. He was asked to explain his views about an American war on Iraq, and immigration officials demanded to know if he was “anti-American.” Ultimately, he found his way back to Athens, but his NYU stint was not to be, and he was shaken to the core.
And then there’s the case of the nationalized Canadian citizen who was deported “back” to his homeland of Syria and has not been heard from since.
Is this the America you want to live in?
Maybe you don’t care, because you figure you’re a good, law-abiding, patriotic, white-skinned American citizen, and it’s never going to affect you. In which case, you will most certainly get the country you deserve.
Strange, though, how so many self-identified libertarians seem unfazed by things like this. Too busy giving toy guns to kids in Harlem, I guess.
Update: here’s a Canadian citizen who was deported to India.
Sad to say, if you’re dark skinned and Canadian, you might want to avoid travelling through American airports.