Being a codger (a.k.a. an old fart), I grew up watching World War II movies while that conflict was in progress.
Even as a boy, I joined in the snickers that always greeted the repeated depiction of a Gestapo or SS officer somewhere in Nazi occupied Europe demanding that some hapless civilian show us your papers.
The scene was absurd to Americans, who as free people were confident that they could go wherever, whenever, and however they pleased with explaining anything or showing any official authorization or other papers to anyone in order to do so.
Well, that was then and this is now . . . and the changes have been profound.
We have become the omnipresent authoritarian surveillance state against which we fought.
The former land of the free and the home of the brave truly has become the land of the servile and the home of the fearful.
And the transition is notable for our now having a ruler who advises young citizens to ignore voices that warn a tyrannical government is just around the corner -- voices like those of the nation's founders . . . those who signed the Declaration of Independence.
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