2/6/2015

Fear & America
     From here in the Heartland, it looks like the terrorists have won the War on Terror.  For what is the purpose of terrorism after all?  To instill fear in the target, and if the target is a nation or a people, to disrupt their way of life, cause the target to expend money and manpower in futile gestures and to generally raise Havoc.
     On September 11, 2001, the terrorists won.  In one terrible morning, they caused us to panic.  We immediately began to give away freedoms - the right for citizens to travel freely, the right to freely associate, and to a great degree the right of privacy in our daily lawful pursuits. We have squandered both treasure and and American lives in two useless wars.
      Once upon a time, Americans were admired worldwide as a courageous people, quick to defend the right and punish the wrong, and who lived by the rule of law, and fervently believed in Justice For All.  Not so much, now.   The RWNJs (Right Wing Nut Jobs) have shoved their fear propaganda in our faces for so long now that we're beginning to believe their nonsense.  A Department of Homeland Security? Really?  What was it Ben Franklin said 2-300 years ago?  Oh yeah:  "A people who will give up freedoms for security will soon have neither."  Or something like that.
      Remember the heroes of Flight 93 on 9/11?  They took care of business themselves, preventing an airliner from crashing into the White House.  That's the true spirit of Americans:  Don't Tread On Me.
     Oh, and there's a group calling themselves the "Tea Party", who have hijacked the Gadsden flag (an early Revolutionary War flag) and seemingly are determined to destroy American democracy by shoving their extremist right-wing views down everybody's throats.  I would remind them that  the Boston Tea Party (after which they named themselves) was an act of vandalism and destruction of property in which the perpetrators dressed up as Native Americans to avoid being identified.  Not really brave...
     We have allowed the fear-mongers to strip away our freedom to stand up for ourselves.  Now we get the black-helicopter conspiracy theorists telling us the the government is going to come and take away our guns so we can't defend ourselves. As a result you get paranoia-driven nuts walking around in public with their pistols on their belts or even their assault rifles slung on their shoulders.  If there was ever a recipe for a massacre, that's it.  I'm more worried about the "law-abiding gun owners" than I ever would be of terrorists.
     Fear.  More destructive than bombs.