This repoert of FBI intimidation causes my thoughts to go back to the days of the McCarthy House Un-American Activities Hearings. The FBI played the same games back then.
My dad had been a member of the American Communist Party in the late 30's and early 40's. But by the time Truman declared the Communist Party to be illegal, and the McCarthy hearings were being broadcast across the nation's young TV networks, dad had not been a member for several years.
Nonetheless his name was broadcast and his employer was notified that dad was under investigation. Dad worked for a company owned by two brothers from Germany. They knew intimidation and oppression when they saw it and told my dad that he was a valued employee and his job was safe. But several of dad's friends were not so fortunate.
One afternoon my two sisters and I had just arrived home from school. It was about 3:30 when the big black sedan pulled slowly past the house and parked in front of the neighbor's. After a minute or two both doors opened and two very bulky fellows emerged and stood by the side of the car, looking up and down the street. Then they close their doors and slowly ambled toward our front door. They rang the door bell. My sisters pushed me ahead of them to answer the door.
"Hello," I stammered.
"FBI," they drawled, showing me their official badges. "Is your father home?"
"He's at work," I told them, thinking that they surely must know that already.
"Tell him we'll be back." They both turned and stood on the front porch for a minute, looking around the street before wandering back to their car. They finally drove away, never to return. But several neighbors watched the entire performance from behind their window curtains and later asked my parents what the police wanted with us.
These were tense times for us. At the time my dad was a structural steel draftsman, and if his boss had given into the pressure to fire him, it would have meant that he would have been Black Listed in the entire field.
I'm sure that those two FBI agents felt that they were good citizens, doing a Patriotic job. But they were actually doing the bidding of the Corporate Bosses who were not defending Freedom, but were protecting their own interests.
We have always lived in a divided nation. My people were farmers and more recently from the Working Class. That is where my loyalties remain.
Curious Carl
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