{"id":8039,"date":"2025-08-05T10:20:27","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:20:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/?p=8039"},"modified":"2025-08-05T10:20:30","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T14:20:30","slug":"down-a-dark-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dahlman.online\/index.php\/2025\/08\/05\/down-a-dark-road\/","title":{"rendered":"Down a Dark Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Camp Night<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Last night I drove out to the Watkins Cross Country team\u2019s summer \u201ccamp\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s a tradition, three decades old, that we started to \u201cbuild a team\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u00a0\u00a0wasn\u2019t just the workouts on the hilly dirt roads; it was spending time together, cut off from the rest of the distractions that day-to-day life brings.\u00a0\u00a0It worked:\u00a0\u00a0our teams learned about each other on the steep climbs, runs through wooded paths, playing \u201cMarco Polo\u201d in the pool, and cooking dinner in the dining hall.\u00a0\u00a0The current coaches are carrying on the tradition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My role now is the \u201cghost of cross country past\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s actually kind of \u201cdeep\u201d, to these kids I bring half-a-century (damn, we got old) of Watkins Cross Country history, lore, and stories.\u00a0The kids are incredibly polite to the old man sitting in front of them, telling tales of their parents and their current coaches.\u00a0\u00a0It\u2019s good to let them see the threads that bind them to the teams of the past, the woods at Watkins, and the failures and successes of those who ran before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s more than a trip down memory lane, though, as I turned into the camp road I was welcomed by a young buck deer, antlers sprouting, as if to say \u201cWelcome back!\u201d  It\u2019s a chance to enjoy the ride, literally.  It was a beautiful August day, blue sky with temps in the low eighties.  The top and doors were off the Jeep \u2013 a perfect drive in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Headed for Home<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We ate dinner and talked; and I caught up with my old friends on the coaching staff.\u00a0\u00a0The hardest part of the night is when my \u201cbit\u201d is over.\u00a0\u00a0The kids and coaches went out to a campfire (it is a \u201ccamp\u201d and \u2018smores are involved) and I walked through the night back to the Jeep, headed for home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first half hour or so of the drive is on a winding two-lane highway, headlights on bright to watch for other young-bucks crossing the road.\u00a0\u00a0The wind was blowing, cold enough for a sweatshirt.\u00a0\u00a0But the chill I was feeling wasn\u2019t from the breeze.\u00a0\u00a0I switched on my radio to MSNBC and the \u201cRachel Maddow Show<\/em>\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0And for the first fifteen minutes, she laid out a case for America that chilled me to the bone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(I seriously considered just posting a transcript of her remarks.\u00a0\u00a0She made the case for the reality of American Authoritarianism that was clear and damning.\u00a0\u00a0But the transcriptions lag days behind the broadcast, and the emergency is now.\u00a0\u00a0If you have the time, I strongly urge you to watch the first twenty minutes of\u00a0\u00a0her broadcast \u2013\u00a0Rachel Maddow Show 8\/4\/25<\/a>).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her case was clear.\u00a0\u00a0There are\u00a0\u00a0more than \u201csigns\u201d of a democracy changing into an authoritarian regime.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It already happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cartoon America<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

She explained, that if you imagined a \u201ccartoon\u201d version of an authoritarian America, it would have the following components:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. A secret police, anonymous and unidentifiable, that could make arrest without warrants, detention without bail or counsel, and secret \u201cblack site\u201d imprisonment.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. A scapegoated minority which can be blamed for every wrong and failure (migrants).<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Shows of maximum force (threat to feed migrants to alligators) made into a spectacle, \u201cbuy your Alligator Alcatraz T-shirt right here!!!\u201d<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  4. Multiple prison camps to put the scapegoated \u201cenemy\u201d in.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  5. Stripping \u201chomegrown\u201d Americans of their citizenship.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    That\u2019s all happening right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    America Today<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

    The military forces are turning inward against American citizens.\u00a0\u00a0Military \u201czones\u201d are being expanded beyond existing bases to put greater areas under military jurisdiction.\u00a0\u00a0Plans are already in the works, to permanently integrate the military into immigration enforcement, and to put down protests against government actions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    The US in NOT building death camps.\u00a0\u00a0But we are building huge \u201cblack site\u201d concentration camps throughout the country.\u00a0\u00a0The bids are already out for construction.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n