Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I was going to research to find out who was first. What country first began interring segments of their populations in camps? I decided it really did not matter. Something told me it was a practice as old as Civilization was. Concentration camps have been around since before I was born. As far as I am concerned, that is all I need to know.

What brought this to my attention was a MEME a Hoser friend from Canada put up and passed through my Facebook feed. Oh, he is no Hoser. I just like the term, it is so Canadian. My friend is a stand up guy who more than likely spread more good than I ever did.

After considering the MEME, I decided that the point of the MEME is spot on, though one claim was not correct. 

A prison in El Salvador holds our recent deportees. Many, if not most, are held without Due Process. The hope was removing them from within our borders might remove them from our minds as well. "Out of sight, Out of mind" is a tried and true method to help folks forget the unpleasantries they are responsible for. Works for the current administration, or so they thought.

The problem with the MEME I have, is the claim the El Salvador prison is the first concentration camp created by the US government. From what I have sorted out from the mutated history spoon fed me over the years, is we started building concentration camps back in the early 1800's when Andrew "Asshole" Jackson started rounding up Native Americans and forcing them onto reservations. I guess that was better than just killing them, but it was not right then, no matter what the apologists of today would have us believe.

The solution brought about by the reservation system, with some serious genocide mixed in, was ultimately successful. White men had successfully stolen a continent from the original inhabitants and just as the Crusades were a religious excuse to extend White Power over those pesky Muslims, so was the genocide and containment of the American Indian hidden behind an excuse that used in part, the word of GOD. It was our God Blessed "Manifest Destiny" to own both coasts and everything in between. 

We had a system of control, while maybe harsh, it worked. Our country moved forward and began raping and killing the land instead of the Indians. We became a world power eventually and were able to finally pee in the tall grass with the other big dogs from across the Big Pond. 

Life was good, until it wasn't. WWl, the "War to end all Wars", should have been enough warning to the planet; that out of control Capitalism run by autocrats was a recipe for disaster. No, we needed a second lesson. WWll involved more of the planet and killed millions more people, military and civilian, than any war up to that time.

During WWll, the US government was rightfully paranoid.  There actually were enemies everywhere. We were in a two front war with two countries who were bigger assholes than we were. It was indeed a fight for survival. The rights of many people were put on hold. Roosevelt's Executive Order 9066 placed 117.000 people of Japanese descent in concentration camps. They were treated better than the Jews were, but they were still uprooted, moved and forced to live in barracks like so many other concentration camps created by Man to control populations they considered dangerous.

What this leaves me with is sadness, anger, and a feeling that America is no better than any other country. The lie we have fed ourselves for over 250 years that we embody the lofty morals and ethics created by Man for Man to aspire to, are just words. In the scheme of what is important, a country will pursue its interests without much consideration of what will result and who it will hurt. Self interest will always rule the day.

Bottom line. Nobody should be surprised at what Trump is doing. It has all been done before. And he is at best, nothing but a stupid, very stupid, copycat.

I'll stop here and get off my high horse and shovel the dung now.

Later ....................................

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At first, when attempting to pick a song for this post, I was sure it would be a bitch to find one I liked. I first googled, "Concentration Camp music". That was a non-starter. Everything seemed to be in Yiddish. I don't know Yiddish except for a very few Americanized words. I decided then to use the title of the post, "Out of Sight, Out of Mind" music. ......... Jackpot. 

Seems there are a sizable number of tunes with the sentiment at their core. Problem was, the first few tunes were all heart rippers: girls who had left me, boys who jilted me, Life can't go on because you will never be out of my mind, tunes.........

And then I came across George Strait's, a take you back to the good ole days of Country Music tune, "Out of Sight Out of Mind". It's tear jerker, but a good one. Old Skool country music was meant to be tear jerking music.

While I was listening to George, I noticed in the queue of next songs lined up on the right, was a great tune from an English folk punk band from ............... wait for it .......from England. I discovered them a few years back. They are political and damn good musicians. The song is "Criminal Justice".

I have included both. Enjoy.