Census form

[pamagain]

  "Good" Americans ENABLED and HELPED the Army to "round-up" suspected "collaborators" aka anybody from any country we were in a war with by doubting their loyalty to their adopted country and hating them "just because" when just as many of "them" served in the armed forces as "good" americans did and fought and died for their adopted country. Far as I can see for all the spouting off about the constitution etc. ain't much changed.

[Varmit]

You lost me on that one Pam, what are you getting at?

[Judy Harder]

Holy Moly Judy !! How old do you think I am  At the time of WW-II I wasn't nothing but a gleam in my ol Daddies eye !! I have never heard anything about a German camp being down there but that's not to say there wasn't.


Jarhead, because you grew up here and have been known to VISIT with the Older generation at the cafe and through out Longton, I was giving you the chance to prove you heard this.

I know, I know that when I first started going to the cafe the old men sat at one table and the ladies at another. I overheard a lot of "remember when's"
If you don't know just say so. I mean no harm.

No biggie!   (Oh, I am older than you (by a little) but enjoy reading about local history and even stuff that makes your mama blush.
Keep sharing I may yet learn something.
LOL, boy will I learn something.....LOL
Sounds a lot like gossiping at the local cafe, no matter which town it is.

[pamagain]

You lost me on that one Pam, what are you getting at?

just makin an observation about the state of the human race. All yall make statements about what makes somebody a "good" American and it's that very mindset that took japanese americans and german americans and loaded em on buses and shipped em off to interment camps "where we can keep an eye on em"...confiscated their property and money....did everything but brand em and gas em. In a way they WERE branded tho...as traitors just because of their ancestry.

From some of the statements I read.......nothin much has changed. The GOVERNMENT can't do such things without the co-operation of "good" Americans who hate somebody just because of who their ancestors were, what color they are, who they go to bed with at night, their political affiliation, etc. etc. etc. IF it happens again it ain't the government who gonna do it..it's our own "friends" and neighbors, the guy next door who is jealous of what you have, the woman who hates another because she got the man the first one wanted etc. that is gonna DO it to you. THAT'S what I'm getting at.

[Wilma]

Varmit, even though I said I wasn't speaking to you again, let me say this.  When you have a heart attack before you are 65 and have to quit work, you will be very glad to have a monthly income available.  Do you really think that you can save enough to take care of yourself the rest of your life?  Besides, what I am receiving now is just the return of the investment that my husband paid into for 40 years of his life.

[frawin]

Varmit, with rights come responsibilities. Some rights have restrictions such as age of driving, mostly to do with being big enough to see and the judgement to steer, brake and deal with others on the road. As far as I'm concerned, kids don't have too many "rights" , just a lot of privlidges usually granted by parents, laws or both according to their size, age and developmental skills. You make it sound like everybody is born with all rights intact and we nasty adult people spend our lives taking those rights away. I'm sure you would love to be able to use census data to round up and dispose of all the Muslims too. What we did to the Japanese Americans  was totally wretched and a huge black blot on our history. Notice we didn't round up any German Americans...hit too close to home.

It is easy to say now that what we did to the Japanese  and the Germans in the US, almost 70 years ago, during WWII was wrong.  But I think many of you would look at it differently if you were doing so right after Pearl Harbor and at a time when the Japanese and the Germans were making it known they were going to control the world.  You would look at it differently if your sons and daughters had been and were being killed every day by the Japanese and the German armies. There were many Japanese and Germans in the US that were caught spying and aiding the enemy. Not only America but the world was afraid everyday for what the future held under Japanese and German rule. In excess of 56 miliion people died in WWII, if you were seeing the death and destrution everyday that the Japenese and the Germans were causing I think you would look at it differently than to set here now warm and safe and judge what steps the world and individual countries took to halt the death and destruction that was going on.

[Wilma]

Very well said, Frank.  You can't even imagine what it felt like to hear that the United States had been attacked.  This after years of what Hitler was doing in Europe.  Our only news then was what we got over the radio, from newspapers and newsreels at the movies.  When your country has been attacked and your Navy almost destroyed, there is no time to think about whether it is right or wrong to round up all the potential enemies of the country and control them.  I was only 11 years old December 7, 1941, not really old enough to realize what was happening.  But I was aware of the feelings around me.  My father was still eligible for the draft.  Loved uncles and cousins enlisted as soon as possible, knowing that they were facing death.  Not just the possibility of death but the probability of death.  You young ones can only imagine the fear in our lives at that time.  We ancient ones remember that fear.

[frawin]

You are right Wilma, my Mother had 3 sons, 2 brothers and many Nephews and friends and sons of friends and neighbors in WWII and I know she lived in fear everyday. I know people that were children in the US during WWII and they have told me that when they heard a plane fly over they ran and hid because they thought it was the enemy coming to bomb us.

[Varmit]

Pam, thanks for the clarification and I agree with some of it.

Wilma, I understand the plight of some of our seniors and I feel for'em.  However, that does not justifiy theft conducted in their name.  If a person is unable to work thats where their familiy, community, chruch groups etc, come into play.  It is not the job of the federal gov't to take care of people from the cradle to the grave.  The Social Security programs are nothing more than a scheme whereby grandparents can steal the future earnings of their grandchildren.  Thats not an investment.

[pamagain]

  Wilma..Frank.. I  understand WHY things were done the way they were. Wartime or not when fear enters the picture terrible stupid things get done in the name of whatever the cause is.
  For every one that might have been a spy a hundred that WEREN"T were tarred with the same brush just because of who and what they were.
  I was trying to make a point to illustrate the point that if the government was ever to start roundin up people for whatEVER reason like some are always goin off about it AIN'T gonna happen JUST from the government. The government is BASically a small number....without the co-operation of your "friends and neighbors" who will be the ones who "turn you in" it AIN'T gonna happen.
  And that IF it does...........well it ain't like we ain't done it before

  Varmit.......what would you have us do with poor old people?? Put em in the workhouse like they used to? Just send em out to the woods to die? Most people I know take care of their Elders........but what about the ones who have no family and PAID into social security for 40 years or so? Paid TAXES for 40 years or more....they aren't entitled to reap the benefits of a lifetime? Women who stayed home and raised kids and took care of husbands (usually pickin up a little egg money here and there) shouldn't get the money their husbands paid in? I grant you they may not have got all the bugs worked out of the system when they did it but STILL..........