Just looking at her
from across a room can put a smile on my face. Her smell makes me feel at home and
her skin is smoother than silk. I feel electricity when we touch. She is the
girl of my dreams and nothing can compare in my eyes. She was everything to me
and now she’s gone. They took her.
I
live in a world where privacy is outlawed and very few have complete control
and make the decisions for everyone. Things were not always this way. People
today seem to have forgotten the way things were before “The Lockdown.” Privacy
was once respected as a right to everyone in this country and the people had
the power to elect representatives to govern the country. Thinking about how
much has changed so quickly almost makes me want to laugh, but mostly just
makes me want to cry. It amazes me how quickly people forget about the past,
too busy with their meaningless jobs assigned to them by the council, but I can
never forget.
I
have thought a lot about how society could have turned into what it is today
and I find myself always coming back to one word; fear. About ten years ago,
before everything changed, there was a series of terrorist attacks on our
country. It started with bus bombings in major cities and escalated into a
major attack on the white house using a hijacked commercial passenger plane.
Like a growing fire, fear consumed the country. For the first time in a very
long time, the warfront was in our backyards instead of across the globe. The
president at the time declared a “War on Terror” and vowed to put an end to the
violence and to punish the people responsible. Our armies invaded a few
countries in the Middle East, toppling their armies, with the validation that
they were responsible and their leaders were producing and harboring weapons of
mass destruction. On top of the aggressive foreign policy, new laws were passed
making it easier for government agencies to retrieve information from unknowing
citizens and also gave more unchecked power to the president and other top government
officials. People readily accepted these laws because they wanted to feel
protected from the unknown threat.
The
attacks on our cities seemed to slow for a while after the new laws and people
began to feel more comfortable again. The public praised the president for
putting these laws into place and the governing officials were given more power
than ever before, and they liked it. Suddenly massive attacks around the
country erupted and people were driven off the edge. In the name of patriotism
and protecting our country, our leaders decreed complete control and put in
place a mass increase in intelligence retrieval, abolishing privacy. The
attacks stopped but the power was never returned.
We
are always being watched. In public places there are cameras around every
corner and drones constantly hovering overhead collecting data. Our homes do
not offer any more privacy. All of our electronics are always on, always
watching, always listening, and always collecting. Everything we do on these
devices goes straight to massive database collections, waiting to be reviewed
for potential threats. This was what we now refer to as “The Lockdown.”
I
met Mirna years before the events leading up to The Lockdown and since then she
has been the most important thing in my life. She was arrested yesterday
because the government found evidence that she might be a potential threat to
the state. Under The Lockdown decree, any citizen suspected of being a
potential terrorist, or having communications with any suspected terrorists,
will be removed from society. In reality this means that the government can
imprison citizens without just cause. It seems as if almost a third of the
people I know have been taken and never seen again. Most people do not question
anything because they have been brainwashed into thinking it is required to
keep us safe. The word “patriotism” is thrown around a lot in the public and
media. The minority that hasn't been convinced that The Lockdown is the only
thing keeping us from more terrorist attacks is afraid to question authority
because they are afraid to be taken.
Last
night was our three year anniversary and I came home from work early so I would
have time to make a surprise dinner. In the middle of our candlelit dinner our
door exploded open and the room filled with eye-burning white light and an ear-bursting
boom. I was left dazed, stumbling on the floor trying to get up. When my
eyesight focused I saw three men in heavy black swat armor restraining Mirna. Instinctively
I ran at the men dragging Mirna out of our apartment. Before I could get to
them I was tackled to the floor by two other officers that came from behind me.
Mirna was thrashing at the men but it was no use. Pinned to the floor I watched
as they took her. She was crying and looking right as me. My ears were still
ringing so I couldn’t hear anything but as she was passing through our doorway
her lips formed the words “I love you.”
When
she was gone the two burley swat members holding me down stood up and casually
walked out of the room where my door would have been less than two minutes
earlier. I did not get up. I stayed on the floor staring at the doorway unable
to process the events that just occurred. I started to scream as loud as I
could. I felt as if someone ripped a piece of me away. I felt extreme sadness
and rage simultaneously. I felt alone.
