Larry Smith
November 21st 03, 01:50 PM
Osama won, and won big. He wanted Americans to turn on each other after
9-11, and that's what we've done. Our government has turned on us, and in
turn we have turned on each other and are cowering in corners. We are
polarized, full of hate and suspicion, and have given up more of our
precious civil liberties in exchange for the sorry myth of security.
In one of my favorite mail groups a fighter pilot, who escorts Air Force One
and was dispatched to "take out" the Capital-bound airliner which crashed in
Pennsylvania, wrote a condemnation of the ADIZ and asked, "What happened to
American Courage and Grit?" Try selling a highway ADIZ to American
motorists, the pilot asked, and see their immediate reaction.
So, 9-11 was in reality an act of sabotage against our way of life, against
our Constitution which balances the interests of the state against our
innate personal freedoms. And as we watch the state push back our rights
and restrict us with the ADIZ, the TFR, the assault on due process of law, I
must admit the terrorists have won and we are all cowering in the corner.
****************
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and
hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H. L. Mencken
9-11, and that's what we've done. Our government has turned on us, and in
turn we have turned on each other and are cowering in corners. We are
polarized, full of hate and suspicion, and have given up more of our
precious civil liberties in exchange for the sorry myth of security.
In one of my favorite mail groups a fighter pilot, who escorts Air Force One
and was dispatched to "take out" the Capital-bound airliner which crashed in
Pennsylvania, wrote a condemnation of the ADIZ and asked, "What happened to
American Courage and Grit?" Try selling a highway ADIZ to American
motorists, the pilot asked, and see their immediate reaction.
So, 9-11 was in reality an act of sabotage against our way of life, against
our Constitution which balances the interests of the state against our
innate personal freedoms. And as we watch the state push back our rights
and restrict us with the ADIZ, the TFR, the assault on due process of law, I
must admit the terrorists have won and we are all cowering in the corner.
****************
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and
hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary."
-H. L. Mencken