YOUR PAPERS PLEASE!

Most times I write about Health Care Law issues. Today, I find myself increasingly disturbed by a trend in this country that demands the glare of public knowledge and opinion to make its ends clear.

Last month, Arizona passed a bill to allow police to stop someone because of “reasonable suspicion” and demand that they present identification papers proving their citizenship or legal residency. Now, Joe Lieberman, from whose cultural heritage the words, “your papers . . .!” should revive memories of the horrors of the holocaust in Nazi Germany, is considering a bill that would allow the State Department to strip terror suspects of their citizenship, and thereby allow then to be held indefinitely, without charge, or placed in front of secret military tribunals rather than given the full protection of the Constitution, to which they would otherwise be entitled.

Abraham Lincoln once said that if America is ever to be destroyed, it will be from within, not without. I see us now on that (not so long) slippery slope toward the destruction of the ideals that have not only been the underpinnings of our republic, but the very issues that resulted in our independence from the British Crown and the long, bloody war(s) that followed.

Imagine; John Doe, a fourth generation American, who returned from a visit to the Middle East about a month ago (where he has relatives) is stopped while walking down the street in Tucson, Arizona, because his swarthy appearance and furtive glancing around at unfamiliar landmarks gives the police “reasonable suspicion” that he could be illegal . “Your papers please!” demands the police sergeant. John has a photo ID driver’s license from New York on him, but the police think it looks suspicious, so he is taken in for “questioning.” On initial questioning, asked about his recent Middle East trip and not realizing the “trouble” he is in, he is somewhat “flip” with his inquisitor who decides that his answers are inadequate and that he needs to be held for further interrogation. From the local jail, he is taken to a federal holding area where, along with several others, he is classified by a nameless State Department employee as someone who supports terror, and is thrown into a holding cell. So far, even his family doesn’t know what has happened to him. He has one thing that keeps him from panicking though; he knows his rights and knows he’s innocent.

“I want a lawyer,” John demands, but no one listens. Having been reclassified by the State Department, his citizenship has been revoked and he is now being held incognito awaiting a military tribunal while undergoing “zealous” interrogation for answers he never had and can’t give. Sometime later, his family is told he is being held as a terror suspect, but can get no more information about where he is, cannot contact him, and can do nothing to help him. Five years later, John is still in a cell.

Yes, this sounds like a bad script from a WWII movie, but it has become a possibility in the United States if we do not reverse course. We all understand that our government needs tools to fight terrorists and prevent their violence, yet even the most ardent right-wing “hawk” will admit that it is impossible to stop all terror because it is impossible to stop one man with a bomb if he is willing to sacrifice his own life. The purpose of terror is to change the behavior and the lives of the people being terrorized. In adopting these measures, we have proven to the terrorists not only that they can succeed, but that they already have succeeded to a degree which most of us would have thought impossible only a decade ago. Benjamin Franklin, when faced with those who would have given into the British Crown in order to stay safe rather than fight, commented that, “[p]eople willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.”

ARE YOU READY FOR A MAN IN A BLACK LEATHER TRENCH COAT TO TAP YOU ON THE SHOULDER AND DEMAND; “YOUR PAPERS PLEASE?!”