I wish I didn't have to think these things.....but I'm cursed with a need to know.

I was recently watching a television program that dealt with the rise of the Party that dare not speak it's name in Germany in the late thirties; and in this particular program, I began to see a pattern emerging that I thought curious.

Let's be clear: I'M NOT COMPARING THIS COUNTRY TO GERMANY IN THE THIRTIES. ON ANY LEVEL. EVER.

At this point, I would also like to point out that I am not an expert in Geopolitics. I only know what I hear and read and such.

But it continues to astonish me that most people I deal with on a daily basis don't see that one thing invariably leads to another.

Case in point: At my place of business, there is a controversy surrounding the use of identification to achieve entrance. Based upon our decade of experience, it wouldn't seem outrageous. But some people object, on the basis that it violates a constitutional right. One passenger referred to that right as "the pursuit of happiness."

I didn't want to waste the time to explain that the phrase actually appears in the Declaration of Independence, but that's a subject for another time. Truth is, I can't recall an Amendment that relates to access to secure areas. I DO recall an act passed by Congress in 2002 that states that there are rules about access to the secure areas.....

My point is convoluted, but here it is: We have this "Constitutional Violation" because of an act of Congress in 2002, which was predicated upon the fear and anger from an attack in 2001, which was based upon the perceived bias caused by the association we had with a peacekeeping force in the area in 1990, which was based upon the invasion of an allied nation that same year, which was based upon the perceived interference of a sovereign countries internal workings in 1978, which was based upon the documented interference of the succession of a monarch in the middle part of the last century, which circumvented a cycle that had existed since before the last time the ancestors of us tried to interfere with the ancestors of them.....

Yes, some of this material predates other material, but perhaps you see my point.

Back to my original statement about Germany in the thirties: If the winners of The War to End All Wars had taken a slightly different approach (other than revenge and such) upon the country that started it (and they didn't start it alone. I encourage you to read THE GUNS OF AUGUST), it is possible they wouldn't need that strong leader to bring them out of economic chaos, thus giving over to him the power to do whatever he liked....and the world would have been greatly different.

And the fear and anger that we've felt in the early part of this decade made us do a great many things.......

And the animosity continues, at home and abroad.

And the really sad part is, the people who advocated conversation over carpet bombing are the ones that were asked, "Why do you hate America?" or, "Why do you side with our enemies in this time of war?"

When all I was really asking was, "Where is my country's memory? It's conscience? It's tolerance? It's hope?"

And that's when I woke up.

Tune in next time for another episode......