When a law or political issue arouses our passions, we feel passion because of our background and beliefs about society.

The excerpt below is from an author who was a little Jewish girl when the Nazis passed a law in 1933 called the “Enabling Act”. Some years later, in about 1938, she was kicked out of her school for being Jewish, based on laws passed under the authority of The Enabling Act.

Who among us has more moral authority to criticize the government for oppression than a Holocaust survivor?

The author tries to draw some comparisons between the USA Patriot Act and the German Enabling Act.

The comparisons are not exact. The analogies are not particularly persuasive. But her passion is genuine and her warning is well founded.

Because power corrupts, we should be frightened that our government has the power to snoop into essentially everything we do, without adequate safeguards against abuse.

We should be doubly-frightened that the government is watching what we are reading in the public libraries.

We should be triply-frightened that under the Patriot Act, we must keep SECRET that the government has demanded information from us about other people. So, the very FACT of investigation is to be kept secret. This is scary power. I understand the rationale for the power, but it’s still scary, and should be very closely monitored and reviewed.

In my law practice, I have dealt with thousands of people. Some of those people have been quite controversial and politically active, or otherwise have been vocal dissenters and may have come to the attention of the authorities. As of yet, the government has never come to me and secretly demanded information about anyone. I’ve sometimes wondered how I would react if the Feds ever paid me a visit. Would I risk their wrath?

We still “trust” the government to not become an oppressive police state. We trust that the Federal police forces will not abuse their power. But consider something: How did it happen that the USA came into existence? Wasn’t it because of oppression by the enlightened and Democratic British? Also consider something else: Why did it evolve that the best societies have been the societies that restricted the oppressive power of government?

Friends, we are losing our way as a nation, by giving far too much oppressive power to the government. We are forgetting the lessons of history. “Police state-lite” if you prefer —- that’s already here! One day — when it’s too late of course — we will realize that fact and discuss it openly. I hope it doesn’t get worse, but I am sure it will.

‘Enabling’ the Patriot Act by Doris Colmes
This rejection was based on an edict formulated by the German “Enabling Act” of 1933, which gave the Nazi government incalculable powers over individuals, groups, and targeted population components. As a matter of fact, the German “Enabling Act” of 1933 is remarkably similar to our current Patriot Act, which %u2013 according to an Associated Press release to the Portland Oregonian of June 4, 2005 %u2013 is currently up for revisions not only giving it expanded powers well beyond those it already has, but making it permanent, just like the German Enabling Act was made permanent. (The more one compares the Nazi Germany “Enabling Act” with the U.S.A. “Patriot Act,” the more they appear to be Siamese twins.)