[ WP ] `` At first they came back with nothing , and then they did n't come back at all . ''

In November, the political reformists won the majority they had sought for so long. They quickly turned to their enemies; their own citizens who had voted against them until through machinations and manipulations: the political reformists stripped their right to vote. Insufficient proof of citizenship was the reasoning, protecting the sanctity of democracy was the justification. 
 
 
 Then their gathering places were banned, groups of more than three were forced to register with the national security commission, those found violating the law were shipped to the prison in the desert, the one that used to be reserved for murderers and rapists, now it was bursting with “ dangerous criminals plotting terrorist activities. ” Families bigger than three were forced to split up as soon as the fourth member reached maturity. Homeless youth were rounded up and imprisoned for vagrancy, unemployment, but more often-than-not, terrorism. 
 
 
 Then their money was forfeit, “ gained through illegal means ” was the refrain constantly heard on the evening news. Entire communities were part of suspected wide-reaching complicated Ponzi scheme, overnight middle class communities were stripped of their wealth. First the bank accounts were frozen, and then the justice commission confiscated the money to “ pay for the investigations. ” It was important to the political reformist party that every new security measure was budget neutral: no new taxes for the true patriots. 
 
 
 Then the attacks occurred, at Windy River and Solstice, and they were all taken away for questioning, even the little kids. Those that came home from the questioning wore red crescents pasted onto armbands. They came back with no rights to their impoverished lives. 
 
 
 “ We need to be able to identify the enemy ” The State told us. Those red crescents stripped them of all the dignity they had left. They were subjected to harassment and discrimination whenever they wore them in public: denial of service based on the presence of a red crescent was upheld as legal at the high court as “ necessary to ensure the safety of the public. ” 
 
 
 Then the triple-3 bombings occurred. Once again they were rounded up, brought in for questioning; the thing is they never came back. Their houses and apartments fell into disrepair and were confiscated by the state for being a nuisance. There was nothing left of them but a memory of absent neighbors and lost friends. 
 
 
 Then one day they disappeared from the history books, an entire population of immigrants erased with a single editorial nod, reduced to a single footnote: *Policies enacted by the Political Reformists in the late twenty-first century were vital to the security of the country during the decades of political turmoil that plagued many of the other advanced nations of the world. * 
 
 
 

