Challenge #02379-F189: For a Thousand Years
"I believe there's something good in him."
"That's childish."
"So? Children can be right too." -- Anon Guest
"We're talking about a man who has rounded up millions of people, put them into life-endangering camps when he and his cohort couldn't outright kill them, denied them basic human rights, denied them humanity, cowed the populace with both his super-loyal adherents and threats of physical and legal violence, and is one hundred percent in favour of eliminating anyone who isn't a member of a very narrow idyllic model that even he doesn't adhere to. He's a hypocrite; a dangerous, demented blowhard of a hypocrite and if someone doesn't stop him, he could destroy the world as we know it."
"Oh, he's not that bad," dismissed the devils' advocate, who co-incidentally fit the narrow, idealistic mould to a T. "And he's not doing any of those things you say he is. He's just relocating the undesirables to a more appropriate holding facility. The deaths are incidental and accidental. You're blowing it all out of proportion. This is for the greater good."
"Everyone's greater good? What proof have you got?"
"What proof have you got?"
"Look. I don't have proof... I just know it's wrong to take people from their homes in the night and force them to ride for miles to those camps."
"Temporary holding facilities."
"We've seen the news about the detainments, right? How much news is there about the following deportations?"
"We don't need to hear about that," dismissed the devil's advocate. "It's boring. Making sure that everything in this country is for the people who belong here is way more important than knowing the others are headed on out of here. Besides, it's not like they're real people."
"As opposed to... ersatz people? What makes people real people?"
"Stop talking like that. You're starting to sound like a dissident. There's laws against that, you know. I don't want you to become a criminal."
"There's laws against being like them, too."
"Well, they shouldn't have signed up for a life of crime... It's their fault they're criminals. They made that choice."
"How? By being born? Nobody should be locked up because their nose is the wrong shape or their skin is the wrong colour. Don't you realise what's happening to this country?"
"Yes. It's getting great again. He's upholding his promises and ushering in a new dawn of prosperity. We're taking back everything we've lost to the rot and corruption, and everyone's going to be rich and live in luxury and have a hundred servants each."
"What? Just last week, you were complaining that bread costs twice as much as it should..."
"Ssh. The police are everywhere." The devil's advocate looked around. "You can't talk like that. The price of bread is a temporary setback while we're at war. We have to support the troops."
"Of course you do. You have nothing to fear." The tunnel to the next safe house was nearly completed. Soon, the people hiding in the attic and the basement would have a means to escape along the underground railroad that would not involve the secret police or the networks of informants. In a few days, there would be no trace of illegal people of the wrong race, colour, or creed. Not where the secret police or the political informants could find them. There would be hidden doors and special locks made by clever minds and clever hands.
No human being should ever be illegal. No human being should ever be classed as less than a real human. The people who forget that, in favour of what they can grab in the here and now? History judges them as monsters.
As for the man who has people in camps, who makes it a crime to speak out against him... Do you think you know his name?
Unfortunately, Humanity has so very many of them to choose from.
[Image (c) Can Stock Photo / wellphoto]
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