Masked men with guns in our cities show that we don’t live in America anymore | Opinion

You can learn a lot from the women in your life. My Aunt Ella was a spunky soul who wasn’t afraid to speak her mind. Her confidence came partly from traveling around the world. After one trip in the early 1970s to South America she said something to me that stuck: “If you ever see men with masks carrying machine guns on our streets, you’ll know that you don’t live in America anymore.”

We don’t live in America anymore.

Everyday across this country masked men with automatic weapons driving unmarked vehicles abduct people off the streets without warrants or probable cause.

The New York Times has documented at least 15 U.S. citizens who have been arrested and detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) or Border Patrol. People like Leonardo Garcia Venegas, Andrea Velez, and George Retes, an Army veteran. There are likely many more.

Some were imprisoned up to a week despite proof of citizenship. Others who were here legally have been arrested and deported to faraway countries and imprisoned without charges.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller has said anyone protesting the government’s actions is a terrorist who must be dealt with as such. ICE officers have attacked and beaten peaceful protesters in Los Angeles and Chicago. In Chicago, an ICE sniper intentionally shot a pastor in the head with a pepperball rifle while he was praying, knocking him to the ground. The ICE agents laughed.

When a leader turns the military against his people, you know you don’t live in a republic anymore.

Another hallmark of authoritarianism is rampant corruption, and Trump’s second Administration is the worst since Trump’s first. Here are three examples out of dozens: In May, the Witkoff family announced that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) was donating $2 billion to World Liberty Financial, a cryptocurrency business owned by the Witkoff and Trump families. Steve Witkoff is Trump’s Middle East envoy.

Two weeks later the Administration announced that it was giving the UAE access to the world’s most advanced computer chips. The UAE had been prohibited from obtaining these chips because of fears that the UAE could give those chips to China.

While there is no evidence that the chips were explicitly given in return for the $2 billion (said Pollyanna), the Constitution prohibits the president from receiving any benefits from foreign governments—such as a $400 million dollar airplane from Qatar.

Customs and Border Protection director Tom Holman was caught last year on video in an FBI sting taking $50,000 in cash in a bag in return for help obtaining government contracts in the new Trump administration. When Attorney General Pam Bondi discovered the investigation, she ended it. Where’s the $50,000?

My mother was another remarkable woman. She had emigrated here from postwar Germany after having lived under the regimes of Josef Stalin and then Adolf Hitler. As her Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) eased, and we could discuss the horrors she had endured, afterward I said, “well thank goodness that can’t happen here.” She looked at me with the wisdom of the ages and said, “Henry, don’t fool yourself. It can happen here. It can happen anywhere.”

When Mother and the remnants of her family were forced to flee the advancing Soviet army for the final time, they became lost on the streets of Berlin. Soviet artillery shells exploded around them. A German officer and a few soldiers appeared out of the thick smoke. “Please help us,” Mother said. The officer turned and pointed. “Go to the American lines,” he said. “They will help you. We cannot even help ourselves.”

Mother followed the officer’s advice and eventually came upon solders whose uniforms she did not recognize, though one soldier spoke German. Mom and her family were taken to a camp and given food, water and first-aid. High over the camp flew a flag. It was the most beautiful flag that Mom had ever seen. It had red and white stripes and a blue square in the upper corner filled with stars.

Who’s going to save the world the next time the world needs saving if Americans aren’t the good guys?

Henry Riekert is a former Herald-Leader contributing columnist living in Jessamine County.