Hiding Places by Shannon Heuston

Author:Shannon Heuston [Heuston, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Sixteen

Ursula

My composure held until I heard Maggie’s receding footsteps. Then I dropped my head into my hands.

Following his experiments on obedience, Stanley Milgraum’s ethics were called into question. Many saw his subjects as victims, manipulated into displaying a dark side of human nature rarely acknowledged. Their involvement in the experiment wounded their self-esteem irreparably, as they had to confront what they were capable of head-on.

Since its inception in the conference room of Baylor University, the ethics of the program had presented a grave question. The candidates were actual human beings whom the government regarded as throwaways. An alarming similarity to the European Jews of World War II. No one cared what happened to them.

Like the Jews, these illegal immigrants were being cast out and driven from country to country, welcome nowhere. Like the Jews, they were accused of bringing crime and degradation wherever they settled. Like the Jews, they were regarded as foreign and scary, with their different dress, their different religion, their different traditions, even their different language. Like the Jews, the government was intent on branding them criminals and expulsing them through whatever means necessary.

I knew there were plenty of counter arguments against that perception. I found all of them faulty because of one underlying fact, they were being dehumanized. Desperate people with few choices were being driven into a corner and attacked.

I stumbled upon a poll online. I usually try to avoid them, but this one managed to seep through my filter. The poll claimed that fifty percent of Americans surveyed were in favor of incarcerating illegal aliens in prison camps.

Concentration Camps. Change one little word and all the Americans that claimed to be disgusted with the crimes of Nazi Germany were in favor of them. And they lacked the self-awareness to see it.

This re-education program was the first step towards achieving that end, and I was a part of it, a cog in the machine. I tried to tell myself it wasn’t quite on the same level as a concentration camp. There would be no slave labor. The candidates were being housed in a wing of a Baylor University residence hall. The quarters may not be as comfortable as their own home, but they were miles beyond the freezing cold barracks of Auschwitz, and probably better than the hovels they’d end up in, if deported.

They would have access to bathrooms, be provided with three square meals a day, and medical care through student health services. They would be treated no worse than the typical student, except they would be restricted to campus, unable to leave without an armed escort. They weren’t even allowed to walk into the village for a slice of pizza.

Leaving campus would result in automatic expulsion from the program and deportation. The candidates were trapped like bugs in a bottle. Their surroundings were pretty, but they were in prison nonetheless. They couldn’t leave.

I rubbed my temples. A migraine was starting. I wondered if the candidates should wear uniforms. Dr. Heinrich said it was up to me.

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