If America’s defined by how we treat distressed people we’re in deep sh*t—CrankyYank Vol. 92

Call this what it is: state-sponsored terrorism.

After approving executive order 9066, regional armed-forces officers were allowed to use military facilities to house prisoners. Although some were already detained, a greater number were forcibly removed from their homes and workplaces to be housed in squalor and shame, held in what amounted to state-sanctioned torture and crimes against humanity.

If you think I’m speaking of 2018’s undocumented immigrants you’d be wrong but forgiven for the confusion. President Roosevelt was the one who signed that EO sending more than 100,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps after the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941.

With today’s Trump regime “running” the country we’re officially in a modern-day equivalent of Japanese Internment. Based on a first-hand account by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D.-Oregon)—and many other reported stories since—young children are being ripped away from their parents and people are being treated like animals. The similarities are truly chilling:

In 1942 the military set up “exclusions zones” where people could be held or relocated; today, Nazi Keebler Beverly Lesley AG Sessions has added 35 new assistant US attorneys to adjudicate immigrants at the border. Due process for detainees evaporated for Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor, but today racism is the driving force behind it. (To be fair, under the Obama administrations deportations increased dramatically and he earned the name “Deporter in Chief.” Toward the end of his second term he issued his DACA decision, which Trump promptly canceled—because we can’t have lasting accomplishments from That Black Guy Before.)

RELATED: AG SESSIONS IS VIOLATING INTERNATIONAL LAW (SLATE)

Today, infants are being ripped from mothers’ breastfeeding arms; back in 1942 “those who were as little as 1/16 Japanese and orphaned infants with ‘one drop of Japanese blood’ were placed in internment camps,” according to a good summary via Wikipedia.

Here’s the important thing to remember: Japanese internment was investigated by the Jimmy Carter administration and was found to have been a product of racism. His Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians issued a report entitled “Personal Justice Denied,” which advocated that the government pay reparations. The Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed into law by President Reagan, apologized for imprisonment and, in total, eventually disbursed $1.6 billion in reparations to more than 80,000 Japanese Americans victims and their descendants.

I’m highlighting this Wikipedia entry intentionally because, with the benefit of hindsight a generation from now, we could be repeating the same justice loop experienced by Japanese Americans. I hope it happens sooner. (Back in 1942 we didn’t have state media like Fox News, Brietbart and Infowars blaring cultist propaganda 24/7, so the jury’s out on how long it’ll take for justice to be served.)

Call it what it is: U.S.-sponsored terrorism on our own soil, codified by the silence of congressmen and women who took an oath to uphold American laws and ideals. Terrorism committed against people who are trying to seek a better life. In a country that used to be the promised land—reduced to broken-promises rubble. If a country’s defined by how we treat our most distressed citizens America’s in deep shit. 🔵

 

Boy hey howdy do we need a Cure Your Crankies after all that nonsense. Well I’ve just the thing: Stoneman Douglas High School students sung “Seasons of Love” from the blockbuster musical Rent at this year’s Tony Awards. It was a short snippet, but a moving moment still the same. Among the performers was Cameron Kasky, who’s been out front leading the charge against gun violence in America. Like here:

These kids are our future. And in many ways, the future is right now.

Writer’s note: I’ll be taking the summer off to work on other projects, but will be poking my head back in for special interviews, one-off reports and more. As a reminder if you’re a whistleblower of any kind I can help get your story told. My Twitter DMs are open and you can find my secure contact info here. I’ll be back up and running after Labor Day! In the meantime, get involved: volunteer, donate and adopt a voter. 

 

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Will Pollock is an Atlanta-based generalist freelance multimedia journalist covering pop-culture, politics, journalism & media, retail, real estate, travel, politics, and human interest. 

He is the author of two books (Pizza for Good & Leaving Triscuit), with more on the way. Sign up for the mailing list, follow on Twitter and Instagram–and check out the book links below.

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