I took this photo in November of 2015 in Paris. At the time, I was standing in the Carousel Marketplace underneath the Louvre Museum. I snapped the photo because I found it alien to have armed soldiers patrolling the streets of a city that wasn’t at war. And I was very careful about how I photographed the two soldiers so my action would not alarm them.

This happened just after the Bataclan terrorist bombings in Paris. The soldiers were there—and all over the city—to protect the people, residents and tourists alike. Still, the sight carried reminders of World War II and a time when ordinary people could be stopped on the streets and ordered to show “their papers.”

It did not occur to me by any stretch of the imagination that this might happen in the United States. Ever.

A Sane, Intelligent President

I knew about terrorist bombings in the United States, of course. We were in Paris only four years after Saudi nationals attacked New York City and Washington, D.C. But I don’t live in those places, and no soldiers patrolled the streets of my town, or even of Boston just 28 miles away.

The United States was still a year away from the election of Donald Trump to the White House. Barack Obama, who is sane, intelligent, well-educated, and emotionally stable, was running the country. In fact, he would be among 150 world leaders gathering in Paris shortly after our trip ended for the United Nations World Climate Conference.

At that time, I had nothing to fear about soldiers patrolling American cities.

Freedom from Soldiers in the Streets

In the United States, undocumented workers still went out every day to do the jobs American citizens won’t touch with a ten-foot pole. They didn’t hide in their homes in fear that armed ICE agents would take them into custody and deport them to prisons in Central American countries.

American citizens of color, anyone who looked Hispanic, Asian, Arab, etc. didn’t carry their passports to prove that they are legal and belong in the country Veterans didn’t have to worry about being deported despite years of service and being able to show their “papers.”

So, I took a picture of a different place in a different time, with no hint that what it showed could and would happen here but for a much less benign reason. I also lived my life without the shadow of an autocratic, oligarchic kleptocracy running the country.

That mindset all seems so innocent now. How could I have been so naïve?

It Had Never Happened Before

Except that it wasn’t innocent or naïve. My complacency came from growing up in a country where those things had never happened. All I knew of armed soldiers in the streets came from movies where Nazi troops occupied Paris. Back then, we all hated Nazis. They were the enemy, the Bad Guys, the invaders and occupiers of Europe, the builders of death camps.

There were always pockets of crazy men here who saluted the late unlamented Adolph Hitler, but they kept a low profile. Pundits, commentators and Members of Congress certainly did not come out and say they thought Hitler was right. Had they done so, they would have been fired outright, derided publicly, and rendered persona non grata.

They would certainly not have been able to take over one of the country’s major political parties without even an argument, much less a protest.

That, my friends, is how far this country has fallen.

Pay Attention!

People are asking how we got here, as if they had fallen asleep for 20 years like Rip Van Winkle and woken up in a dystopian future. The answer is simple. If you ask, it means you weren’t paying attention to the first Trump administration (words I never thought I would write) or thought the second one would be no different.

Don’t feel stupid about this, even successful men like Jamie Dimon thought that TrumpDot2 would be about the same as TrumpDot1. No biggie.

But it is very much a Biggie. And it gets bigger and worse every day. I hope you are paying attention now. I hope you (and Jamie Dimon) can finally see what this vile man and his minions are doing to our country.

Photographers can and have taken a picture like the one above right now in several American cities. Only the soldiers aren’t an occupying enemy army. They are us.