Posted on 10/09/2001 9:46:16 PM PDT by awgie2
9-11 was a historic turning point. My friend Bob had it right. He called me on my cell phone that morning to tell me of the attack. "Our world has changed forever", of course he was right. A cataclysmic event such as this challenges the senses to achieve perspective. Like the "Big Bang", the echo will be heard many years from now.
I am interested in hearing from the creative intelligent minds of Free Republic. What do you see in your crystal ball? What are the many "ripples" and "aftershocks" that will travel outward from ground zero. Where will they go? What effect will they have? How will our world look one year, five years, tens years hence? Will we become a prison state, sacrificing our abundant civil liberties for security, or will we become a gigantic Israel/Ireland, subjected to constant domestic terrorism because we lack the will to make the tough decisions? Will property values in large cities decline as people flock to the countryside for safety? Will the surge of patriotism endure, or will the self flagellating-hate-America liberals succeed in focusing on trying to "understand why they did it"?
There are a million large and small questions like these...some practical some philosophical. What does your instict tell you about where we have been in the past month and where we are heading?
I would love to list and catalog predictions and observations about the impact of this event. Please be as grand as your vision will allow or as cynical and sarcastic as your emotions dictate. Be specific or general, but lets each try to find a piece of the puzzle that will give us a picture of where we are going.
Prediction...Americans will become more aware of how unique and precious our national heritage is. Freedom, liberty and peace will cease to be abstract, arcane concepts.
Observation...I was in an insurance industry meeting today in Florida. Many insurance companies are pulling out of expansion and growth strategies. Major insurance companies dropping major lines of insurance as a direct result of 9-11.
All of a sudden we live in an environment where troops are now on patrol on our streets, in our airports and other public settings. You can't attend a large public event without having your belongings rifled and the possibly the indignant body search.
There are calls to develop a national I.D. card. When it can be facilitated our rights to own weapons will be taken away. The incroachment of incredibly invasive snoopers will excellerate. For very little reason at all we are all going to be suspects. Make one false move and you're in for a real joy ride.
The police state is upon us. Rent a Ryder truck to move your belongings and you stand a very real chance of being pulled over to the side of the road by a squad in riot gear with weapons reserved for war zones. Oh yes, you now live in one.
OBL has been quite successful. Every nervous Nellie or Chicken Little will be dialing 911 on a whim. Those that don't get hung up on will incite activity that will see their neighbors rousted hundreds of times for every single good lead they provide. Sooner or later you will be the victim of this.
Your banking, finance, personal information, credit histories, businesses you deal with, internet sites you frequent, comments you make and literature you read will become the interest of the government.
Your neighbors will spy on you. Note that I didn't say they might spy on you. They will spy on you. The government will urge them to do so. Every little inconsequential thing that you do, will someday seem very significant when someone looks at your profile.
You like to visit FreeRepublic. You are categorized as a semi-fanatic because you stay in tune with world events. You purchase several guns and then your an armed semi-fanatic with and "arsenal." You go to the range and shoot your gun and you're an armed semi-fanatic with an aresenal that's stockpiling ammo. One of your neighbors doesn't like how you look one day and they see you place a long object in the trunk of your car and they make the call.
Cars are dispatched to your residence and you are grilled. On some database it says you had a minor run in with the law twenty years ago. Immediately your suspect. You attended John Birch Society meetings. You protested on the streets. Your picture was taken in a crowd in front of the White House. You wrote a steamy letter to a government official because he voted to curb second ammendment rights.
I don't like where we're headed. We should avoid what's happening at all cost. The military does not need to be on our streets.
Folks, we're in panic mode, or at least our leaders are. The police are capable of handling almost all of what is happening on our streets.
US Citizens have become suspect number one. Foreign nationals are considered good for our nation. They are above reproach. They don't even have to paper to be here.
As I said, OBL has been quite successful.
Only those who do not know Christ need be in a panic mode. This is my chance to go religious again. But Christians need not fear anything that man can throw at them. They have someone who is looking out for them.
Of course in the long run, it won't matter if our lives are cut short here. But family ties and friendships are something most of us are reluctant to let go of.
Things are on a timetable. And it will play itself out. Yes, people are reluctant to let go. But it is those who do not know God who will suffer unrepairable loss.
Loss of individual freedom....growth of the power of the state over the lives of the citizens
I further predict the new version of "Survivor" will pick up that lost "share", and replace anthrax as the water-cooler topic of choice.
Prediction: if nuclear devices are detonated in multiple American cities, and their source is in any way Islamic, it will turn into a war of total extermination
Prediction...This subject will come to dominate our lives in a manner not experienced since WW2. It will not go away soon.
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