Imagine city leaders throwing stacks of books from your public library onto a bonfire. Or a police force interfering with the music you stream onto your devices and replacing your favorites with propaganda. Or soldiers marching into the local newspaper and arresting the editor for speaking out against government policy. Or a theocratic government imprisoning people for not worshiping in a state-sponsored church, mosque, or temple.
Horrific
as these scenarios sound, many people around the world -- from China, Russia, Iran,
North Korea --do not have to imagine similar injustices, they live them. Thousands of men and women who can escape, seek asylum
in democratic societies, such as the United States, Canada, France, and other
European countries.
When he was a teenager in Greece, Kansas elder, Myster E also experienced diminished freedom during an authoritarian rise to power, called the Greek junta or “Regime of the Colonels." The dictatorship lasted from 1967 to 1974.
Myster E immigrated to the United States in
1972 and received his citizenship in 1975. For over fifty years he has lived
the American dream in Kansas as a science teacher and has often mentioned how
most Europeans admire the United States. His warm smile grows warmer and his
eyes brighter when he speaks about his adopted country.
“Our democracy,” Myster. E
says, “is a sacred institution and a beacon to the world. The world's stability
and security depend on it.” He knows
what he is talking about after living under the dictatorship of a right-wing
military group that overthrew the Greek government. Scenes of
the January 6, 2021, insurrection of our U.S. Capitol brought back memories of
the chaos in the streets of Athens in 1967.
“The threat to our society is not the invading aliens,” says
E, “but the
destructive rhetoric and demagoguery of our leaders. How many of us realize the
overwhelming implications of a dictatorial regime?
"I lived under a dictatorship in Greece for five years. The environment was so fearful and repressive you did not dare to listen to the wrong song in case someone turned you in and you ended up in jail. You were fearful to express any anti-government sentiment since you could not trust others. There were no newspapers that did not support the regime and no opposition party. The prisons were full of anti-government suspects and there were students killed while demonstrating in the streets."
Myster E is concerned about anyone saying that he would be a dictator only on the first day of his second administration. Don’t believe it. With retribution in mind, the would-be authoritarian dictator will probably want more than a day, more than a second term--he will want the Presidency for life.
-- Elder Myster E (with Grandmother Windsong)
