Posted on 12/29/2003 9:18:12 AM PST by NorCoGOP
MESA, Ariz. -- There appears to be a trend emerging in modern Western society. It is something that has been noticeable in the past, but is something that I think has become more prominent and disturbing in recent years. It is the habit we have developed of sacrificing personal freedom and convenience in favor of increased security, almost always in reaction to an isolated incident which we are afraid to treat as such.
Periodically, and with alarming frequency, something tragic will happen that will be greatly publicized. Perhaps this event injures or kills a person or many people; and, whether it is the media-driven American people demanding a change or elected officials eager to look like they are making a difference, precautions are put in place which restrict those very American people to the point that such an event recurring is nearly impossible.
The most dramatic of these events, with the most far-reaching internal effects, has been the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. I recall when our leaders assured us that the best way to fight the terrorists ourselves was to continue to live our lives normally and enjoy the freedoms that our enemies would wish to take away from us.
But our fear became a far greater opponent to our freedoms than any band of calculating psychopaths could ever achieve. And so things began to change.
As if to protect us from the inevitable eventuality of further hijackings, soldiers with machine guns took the place of obnoxious airport metal detector attendants. All luggage needed to be unpacked, studied, and repacked before transport on a passenger jet. My small Swiss army knife was instantly transformed from a personal convenience to a deadly weapon for terrorist use. Racial profiling became a very real law enforcement technique. And I can't get on a plane without taking my shoes off at the terminal.
Is this our normal life? Am I safer in my flight because my family and friends can't come and meet me at the gate? How has America gotten through 70 years of commercial flight without needing machine guns at every terminal? Are someone's socks really a threat to the lives of everybody on that plane?
As if this wasn't enough, our leaders drafted and almost unanimously passed the USA Patriot Act, 342 pages of knee-jerk legislation which has been adequately covered by this publication. For our own good, they removed any privacy that we think we have in favor of allowing the government to take any measures it deems necessary to discern any malicious intent any of us may harbor. I believe that all who study this act will be stunned at the constitutional rights the act takes away.
I don't want to be that safe. And an event occurring doesn't necessarily make it any more likely to occur in the future. Someone blowing up a plane doesn't mean that "people blow up planes now." I don't expect it. I am not afraid of it. And no amount of gun-toting servicemen or phone-tapping FBI agents will make me less afraid.
No amount of security is worth my freedoms, nor is it worth my ability to lead a comfortable, normal life. We have no alternative but to build our world to accommodate normal people. We can and should take reasonable precautions to protect ourselves from the dangerously insane. I think metal detectors are a great idea. But at some point we have done all that we can reasonably be expected to do and can only hope for the best.
For over 200 years, people have been giving their lives to obtain and protect necessary freedoms for the people of this country; because freedom is possibly the only commodity more precious than life itself.
If having someone look up your ass all the time is ok with you, then you have got a strange idea of freedom.
It was a joke. But, it takes a lot of the fun out of life, when you are so paranoid that you can't go anywhere without all this stuff. I have a brother at DIA, and his assessment is that all of the measures, are not going to stop another 'incident'. He has the expertise, to know.
As for the flight attendants, being armed, I prefer the old-fashioned kind, in reality! The guards with light machine guns, by the cockpit, would be more than enough, to keep order!
I don't bother to look over my shoulder, or keep watching in my rear view mirror, for the bad guys, either! They are going to get you, if they try... and there isn't much to prevent it. If you doubt that, look at Israel, with their frequent human bombs. (BTW, when was the last time you saw an El Al flight hi-jacked?)
It is amazing to me that all of these incidents have been "prevented". If not amazing, it is at least 'convenient'! It provides further justification for all of these actions, which reduce our ability to live a free life. I am not so sure, that we are in the danger, that they indicate.
We had a '9/11'. Osama won, when we instituted all of the BS, which is costing $zillions, in money, paranoia, and time...
"Your papers, please", used to be reserved for the communistas! Now, it is the domain of Tom ridge, and John Ashcroft! The sheeple are happy, about the things they are doing, 'for the chil'run'!!
You're correct.
In fact, most of the "mass homicide" events in the last decade have occured in "no gun" zones, such as airplanes, schools, and workplaces.
Imagine these guys with smallpox, or even a nuke. 3000 is chump change compared to how bad things will get if we don't aggressively pursue this to the end.
Sometimes I get the feeling that there are people in our government that would just love for something like that to happen because it would make them so much more important. If they were serious, they wouldn't be making noises about amnesty for illegals and they would clean up the INS and the border patrol and station troops at the borders. They would stop visitors from militant Islamic countries.
Why do they give me closer scrutiny than someone who comes across the border illegally
I don't know about you, but I just don't feel like I'm in good hands.
Who will be watching you?
Did you miss this part?
Earlier this year, when he tried to get a job inspecting the D.C. Cook Nuclear Power Station near Bridgman, where he had worked before, his application was turned down because of the worn-down ridges on his fingertips.
I'm not fan of Bush, but he's the only sane game in town. Remember how close we came to having President Albert Gore, and remember what actually happened under President Clinton, and Bush looks like a God-sent blessing.
I'll resist the urge to bring up the American citizen, Jose Padilla, not charged with any crime and in jail for over 2 years, and point you to this:
In fact, most of the "mass homicide" events in the last decade have occured in "no gun" zones, such as airplanes, schools, and workplaces.
Yes. Terrorists don't like to work around people with guns. Our most recent terrorist, John Muhammad, drove all the way to Washington DC, where guns are virtually outlawed.
Here's the infamous "being forced to drink your own breast milk story" that you are ignoring:
Don't forget the 14-year old bioterrorist forced to drink dirty stream water:
From Investors Business Daily:
The Patriot Act declared: "The intentional transportation into or out of the United States of large amounts of currency... is the equivalent of, and creates the same harm as, the smuggling of goods." Congress never explained how a person became a smuggler merely by transporting his own money.
Customs inspectors have used this provision to confiscate the money of over 600 outbound travelers - many, if not most, of them American citizens.
While federal officials perennially portray these seizures as strikes against terrorist money, the government has offered no information linking the confiscations to terrorist activity. Most of these "forfeitures" have nothing to do with terrorism and everything to do with tightening controls on peaceful citizens.
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