October 28, 2001

Armageddon

Sooo... Here we are. It's been about 6 weeks since hijacked airplanes ended some 3000 lives in NYC and Washington DC. It's been a fascinating and painful 6 weeks, and I, like most people, are still reeling from both the emotional and intellectual impact, and I am still buffeted in a sea of implications. "National security". Biological warfare. Civil Liberties. "Homeland Security". "Acceptable Collateral Losses". Thousands of bereft families, father and motherless children, entire companies literally ceasing to exist as both their offices and employees vanish in a giant swirl of burning jet fuel, smashing concrete, and shattering glass. 6000 people missing, and in six weeks, fewer than 500 bodies recovered. Rudy Giuliani an instant national folk hero. Almost unprecedented heroism and self-sacrifice by literally tens of thousands of otherwise "ordinary" people. Almost universal world mourning and solidarity, at least for a few moments. George W. Bush's approval rating hovering in the low 90s. The Red Cross saying "We don't need any more blood right now". Dick Cheney living for a month in a secret cave somewhere. 280 million people afraid that Osama bin Laden himself is, as we speak, sending them an envelope full of Anthrax. "Material witnesses" detained semi-secretively now for 6 weeks without charges filed or legal counsel permitted. Gerry Adams calling for disarmament of the IRA. Yassar Arafat ordering the arrest of Palestinian militants for assassinating an Israeli. 2/3s of the American Public saying they are willing to give up significant civil rights in the interest of security.

Wow. Where do I begin? How does anyone make sense of it all?

I'll start with the thing that's on my mind just this moment.

Choose your enemy carefully, for you will become him. Wise words. I never understood what that meant, but I was always respectful of it. It touched a nerve, even though I didn't really understand why. It's beginning to make sense to me now.

It's ironic that we (we the righteous, self-absorbed, arrogant American general attitude, that is) crow about how we're spreading freedom, Democracy, and general goodness throughout the world, (if only the world would listen, of course) yet 70+ percent of us is willing now to forego our own civil rights because somebody blew up some buildings. Suddenly congress is seriously considering (Senate already approved) laws making sweeping reductions to restrictions on wiretapping, restrictions on detention of individuals without cause and without time limits, restrictions on unwarranted searches, and so on, and nobody seems to care. Nobody is up in arms about it. Nobody is questioning at all, it would seem. These things are passing through to congressional votes without even debate. Without even assessing their usefulness, *much* less their risks. It's been six weeks. Isn't it time our National Knee stopped jerking? Isn't it time for considered thought, introspection, historical perspective on the 20th century, root-cause analysis, and long term planning?

Here's a news flash for you 70-percenters: You can't lock down a nation of 280 million people like a top-secret military site where perceived intruders are shot on site. Even if you WANTED to you can't. It doesn't work. Even if you were willing to make the sacrifice and throw the roots of our democracy to the four winds, it still wouldn't work. In Israel you get your handbag or briefcase searched even going into a department store, and yet in Israel, terrorism is nearly a daily event. If a government with the massive civil authority of the Israeli government can't secure a plot of land the size of Massachussets (both about 8000 square miles), just how far are you prepared to go with this reduction of civil liberties before the US government is going to effectively secure our 3,537,441 square miles and 280 million residents against terrorism?

Consider this: It's perfectly reasonable to imagine that the terrorists who hijacked those planes on September 11th had never committed a crime up until the moment the stood up out of their First Class seats holding a box cutter. That's right. Except for the nebulous, mostly undetectable and strangely ethereal crime of "conspiracy", they could easily have been 100% law-abiding right up to that point. Most were in the country legally, the box cutters they carried onto the plane met current FAA regulations (blade under three inches), and so on down the line. Just how unbelievably repressive must a government be in order to be able to "catch" someone like that before they actually commit a physical crime? Think it through. Are we going to say that anyone who has any ties, ethnically, religiously, politically, or by place of birth, to anyone nation or group who has any negative views towards the US will be arrested, detained, interrogated, deported, wiretapped? It's just not possible. It's not going to happen. The answer lies elsewhere.

It's a very dangerous and slippery slope we're look down, and there's little or nothing to be gained by going down it. Even if you don't share my fear of undercutting our civil liberties, at least make a reasonable assessment of whether or not there's any possible benefit. Before we try to turn the entire nation into some kind of hardened bunker where we hide in fear of the evil world outside, let's all take a deep breath and consider the alternatives. Alternatives like reassessing our foreign policies. Alternatives like honestly and thoroughly examining why such hatred for the US thrives. Instead of building bigger and bigger fences, maybe we should try to understand our neighbors so we can learn to coexist better. Just a thought. I can go on about that for hours. I will, but not today.

But before I go, here's one other thought: This Anthrax thing is quickly whipping up a serious amount of hysteria, and I'm genuinely scared. Not of Anthrax, I'm scared of the effects of the hysteria. So if you're feeling fear about it, here's my reality: You're not going to get Anthrax. OK? Deal with it. You're not going to get it. Not going to happen. No chance. Even if you *don't* take precautions, the chances are so slight as to be ridiculous to even consider. Yeah, a few people have gotten it. A couple have even died, which is tragic. But you won't. Get real. You have a 1 in 4 chance of getting seriously injured in a car accident during your lifetime. Do you lay awake at night worrying about it? Maybe you should, but I bet you don't. I bet you don't sit in your car every morning trying to work up the strength of will it takes to brave the dangers of driving. If we did that, we'd be paralyzed with fear from wake until sleep. That's just silly. Anthrax? PULEEZ! It's difficult to prepare, even poorly, for "delivery", it's not contagious, the most likely method of infection is entirely harmless and trivial to treat, and even the OmiGodIt'sSoOverHypedByTheMedia "airborne infection" is often curable if treated in the first few days of the onset of symptoms, and now that country is in a panic over it, everyone who sneezes will get tested, so early treatment is likely. Statistically speaking, you're almost as likely to be killed by O.J. Simpson as to die of airborne Anthrax. So get a grip, relax, open your mail, and ignore EVERYTHING you see on the Moron Network News programs on TV. If you're afraid, go read a decent newspaper. Know what things really are and aren't scary. Anthrax should be way for down the list.

If you've read this far, you're obviously as demented as I am, so here's some more punishment. These articles are well worth reading:

Candy

Here's a charming and colorful example of how quickly and easily our assumptions about our rights to civil liberties, due process, habeas corpus, presumption of innocence, and probable cause can be shattered. Consider that this is happening before the latest Senate-approved attack on the Bill of Rights has even gotten through the House.

http://www.bergen.com/news/candy1200110207.htm (link no longer works)

Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition

Obviously the growing hysteria is contagious, and has reached not only the outermost fringes of the public, but also the innermost sanctums of the government, the supposed bastion of reasonable, considered, rational (and legal) action. It's stunning to think that on September 10th, like every day preceding it for the last 50 years, the American people, government, and news media were decrying the horrible assaults on human rights that take place all over the world, and condemning the governments that perpetrated and/or condoned them as "uncivilized" and "criminal". How naiive we were to think that there's anything wrong with torture, coercion and murder. What WERE we thinking. This next article takes my imagination in so many simultaneous directions... My favorite concept in it is that while torture (of unconvicted suspects, I might add) isn't allowed (today) in the U.S., extraditing suspects to a country that will torture them FOR us is a considered a viable and defensible solution to the pesky laws preventing it here.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/nation/specials/attacked/A27748-2001Oct20.html (Link no longer works)

The Matrix

This is an uncharacteristically meandering Washington Post article which illustrates a number of things, but what it illustrates best to me is the fact that there really is no way to lock down and protect a country, particularly a free society, but in point of fact, even a moderately totalitarian society. This goes straight to my belief that we need more focus on rethinking foreign policy, and less distraction from bombing shacks and tents.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27452-2001Oct20.html (Link no longer works)

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