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It is still dark, not sure what time it is, and someone is knocking at the apartment door...and a chill and terror make you suddenly wide awake, heart pounding. It is the secret police again, hunting for a family member they believe to be a danger to their government and state. You go to the door; in a rush, the police push in and search every nook and cranny. After they leave, you shakily make a cup of coffee and try to calm yourself down. That was the life of my mother-in-law, Baba, as the Yugoslav Communists took control of their lives post-WWII. It was still a problem when two of my pre-teen children spent time with Baba, and once again, the banging in the night, as the secret police demanded ot know what foreigners were staying with her. Baba produced my two very frightened children, and they went away. I had flashbacks to what happened to Ilhan Omar, a congresswoman, when Trump's police minions, ICE knocked on the door to search for evidence to justify their suspicions that, sometime when she was 12, she lied to get her citizenship. No evidence yet, but surely they will find it. Why? Because she was deemed an enemy of Trump: black, Muslim, immigrant, woman, and an outspoken critic.....Welcome to Yugoslavia in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.
