As I catch up on the news of the day (I was working), wrapping my head around the details of the "plot" to bomb the airlines, I'm scared not only by the plot iteslf. (London to LA is a flight I make often.) Yes, we do live in a dangerous world. However, I'm MORE alarmed that with each scare, each increase in the threat level, we are eager to surrender more of our freedom, humanity and our way of life, just to have the illusion of safety. The latest no-no's?: water, hair gel, toothpaste, water, gatorade, etc..... We all have to ask ourselves, despite the terrorist risk, where do we draw the line? Am I the only one who would rather risk dying living a life without fear, living with hope for a better future, than to live in the constant fear of this neo-con world currently around us?
(jump)
These knee jerk restrictions bother me on so many levels. First off, how many of us agree that its our damn god-given right to drink water when and where we want!! Now I got some jackass at DHS telling me (or even worse, testing it!!!) explaining how it may endanger the other passengers? Will the airlines carry more water? Lets think about this for a minute. If we REALLY want to remove all potential threats from airline travel, what would travel be like? Do we not realize the BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of dollars necessary to even attempt this? And even with all of that money thrown into the black hole, ii likely would NOT create a system that worked, given what I have seen with the current state of airport security. "Keystone Cops" would be a complitement to the fine empoyees I have seen screening passengers at airports, as anyone who travels thru LAX would be able to tell you. They have NO clue. In fact, todays security measures may do more to give us a false sense of security. THe same percentages of weapons (guns, knives, etc....) get onto airplanes today as did BEFORE 9-11!! All of the money spent has made NO difference.
Lets try this on for size. Of these TRILLIONS of dollars we plan to spend guarding our airplanes: combine that with what we spend blowing up half the middle east (or giving Israel the weapons to do it for us) we could seemingly put the entire region on the payroll, could we not? $500 per year per family, lets say. Half of most of thier YEARLY income. 1/1000th the cost of a single bomb to buy peace with one family. They may even be able to afford a few american exports other than bombs and bullets. INVEST, not destroy thier futures with schools, soccer fields, colleges of higher learning........ a physical and social infastructure to replace the only one that currently exists, and educate people to see it for the fraud that it is..... the one owned and operated by hezbollah, hamas or counteless other radicals most of us have never heard of, and replace it with one that truly teaches the youth of that region to NOT hate us? What if we put a TRILLION dollars into the Peace Corps? Can you imagine the reach?
We need to realize that the battle over terrorism is not ever going to be won with bullets, bombs, and more x-ray machines at the airport. It will only change when the vaccum of ignorance present in much of the world is again filled with true knowledge and integrity. The violence in which we have treated the world is now being directed back at us just as a spotlight into a mirror, blinding us.
The US of A used to be the beacon of the world. The place that all wanted to get to and live the American Dream. From around the world. Where anything was possible. No longer. Today, the greater world shares the view that we are bloodthirsty and intolerant fools. Bullies, eager to impose our cultural and religions mores upon them. We come in with the IMF and the World Bank, and "save" them from themselves, destroying thier economies in the process. Our foreign policy is currently based on the success of businesses in a country, not the quality of peoples lives and thier corresponding view of the USA. Until we guage our success or failure based upon human beings, we are destined to continue our inevitable decline. I am in no way condoning or endorsing terrorism or terrorists. People like bin Ladin are evil incarnate. Barbarians. For the things that they have done, they deserve what ever is coming to them. I would squeeze the trigger myself if I had the chance. However, thier evil is partially of our own creation. And our continued actions thru agression are now pouring gasoline on the fires of hatred worldwide. We must acknowledge the negative impact that our misguided foreign policy has created in order to stop the literal and figureative bleeding and get things back on track.
Lets take some of these Billions of dollars and simply buy some freinds (the good, old fashioned American Way) with the next generation of muslims. It's better than yelling at them from behind the barrell of an m-16 that WE ARE YOUR FREINDS. I fear to say it may be too late for many of the current generation. We must start on the future today. Until then, I refuse to live in fear. I choose life, and feel that life is for the living. I for one think that the odds of me losing my life in a terrorist attack are so small that to continue to erode my freedom to live as an American is not worth the tradeoff. Yes, please give me my bottle of water and toothpast on the plane please. Water is the basis for all life in this world. By (symbollically) surrendering it at the airport door, does that not represent a HUGE sacrifice of our collective humanity?