That’s what terrorist do, they terrorize and I refuse to be terrorized.
Carlos Mencia, Performance Enhanced.
On the train station I notice something unusual. Today is September 11th and there were guards in tactical equipment with assault weapons looking over the passengers. I couldn’t shake the thought that the terrorist have won the war on terror, for we are now afraid of an elusive enemy in far off foreign lands.
That enemy blames us, the citizens that elected the officials that conducted what they claim are a series of transgressions against those foreign lands. From a point of view of vicarious responsibility, they are right we put elected officials to their place the government and we pay the taxes that were used to finance aggressive actions. Now we are reaping what we sow with our votes. We are now a nation full of scared citizens.
As I walk thru our nation capital I witnessed an army of paramilitary personnel. These people with weapons and tactical wear do not inspire confidence. As an advocate I have gone to the nation capital with the best intention to improve the lives of the people of our country. I find it distressing all the “security” measures that I am subject to every time I must pass thru the entrances of the federal and congressional buildings. They tell me that they are protecting me by doing this. Yet when I pass this mellow down military check points I get the sense that things are not going well.
Is this how bad things are going? That we need a small army to protect our capital is only a testament of the triumph that terrorist has had over us. We are now afraid, and need to be protected. Now we have nicely disguised check points in different areas of the country.
Yet the check points are even worse in the airports. Where the fear goes to the point that you cannot look at one of this person in the eyes for you are being disrespectfully suspect. You can’t talk or make a joke at the silliness of the situation. The extremely oxymoronic statement “We take bomb jokes seriously” is a witness to the stupidity of stirred up fears.
We forget that real terrorist will not bring attention to themselves, they operate in silence and will not claim a right to dignity. We forget that they have something that we don’t, they have no fear of death. They have religious nuts as leaders who exploit their willingness to die. You can’t fight a war on that, especially when you are not willing to die for some idiot in a leadership position or for the profit of others.
But our natural unwillingness to die for any reason that is not our own gives power to the zealots. They have made us afraid of everything that is different. Because been different is been suspect, and anything different is the enemy.
As the Gestapo did in Nazi Germany and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution do in Cuba, we are compelled to report anything out of the ordinary to protect our selves. But anything out of the ordinary is nothing more anything that is not like me. Anything that I do not recognize as part of myself is suspect. And such any person that is not me is suspect of being a terrorist and I must report it.
Our fears have changed us. In that change the terrorist feast their victory over us.
This is how the terrorist have won… our life style has changed… the communities are divided… and we are afraid…
If we ever want to win the war on terror we need not be afraid, we need not change our life styles and put Wal-Mart’s, McDonalds and Starbucks next to the terrorist training sites…
