They Thought They Were Free

It was a time when the local police
were being heavily militarized,
marching around in new uniforms
and new weapons.
Racism was endemic in the language,
and de facto segregation was everywhere,
although nobody used that term for it,
but hate crimes were clearly increasing,
although the state called them
civil forfeitures.
And the legislators keep passing
new laws
restricting where people could go,
what they could do,
and most importantly,
what could be taught in school.
Voting district lines were redrawn
and strict identification papers were
required,
to keep the poor from voting.
The main newspapers were all
propaganda,
and any dissenters were quickly
marginalized.
Real estate prices soared,
and the gap between the rich
and the poor grew worse.
Even making rent became
impossible.
The bureaucrats blamed the homeless
for being poor
and left the problem to the police to solve.
The churches remained silent
or joined the right wing
and grew prosperous.
All limits on buying politicians
were removed,
and eventually
the banks and insurance companies
controlled every aspect of business
and every politician.
But the most prosperous industry of all
hidden under a million different names
so that its magnitude was totally invisible
was the war industry.
Business was good
and the stock market soared
while the homeless and the disenfranchised
and the masses of expendable workers
suffered, fell ill, and eventually died,
somewhere out of sight.

And the weirdest thing of all
was that it all felt normal.

It was Germany, 1939.

Welcome home.