Time to put 9/11 in perspective
Joseph Ellis in an op-ed in the NYT looks at just how 9/11 changed everything. Certainly not for the better. He runs down the precedents and finds America lacking in perspective.
[I]t defies reason and experience to make Sept. 11 the defining influence on our foreign and domestic policy. History suggests that we have faced greater challenges and triumphed, and that overreaction is a greater danger than complacency.He's right. The unreasonable fear of terrorism, aided and abetted by the White House for political reasons, has turned the land of the free and the home of the brave into the land of secret domestic surveillance and the home of the cowering. I have to think the generations of men and women who fought and died over two centuries to keep us free, would not be proud of America today.
posted by Libby Spencer at 6:51 PM
2 Comments:
There is an extremely important point here that gets just a little attention but never the respect it deserves. That is, using fear as a manipulative tool to get the masses to trust the government. It is the same tool used by authorities towards prisoners of war. Quite simply, make the people very afraid, convince them there is eminent danger, then convince them that you, and only you can protect them.
9/11 was the perfect catalyst for implementing this technique and the timing could not have been better. I am not a conspiracist normally, but this happening was almost "too perfect" for the administration as far as getting quick approval for the powers to go to war and to start restricting constitutional guarentees.
Fact is, as said in the post, we have had much greater threats in our history than the current threat of terrorists causing major damage within our borders.
Your blog, and other blogs are so enormously important in getting the public to recognize that they are being led, through fear, to agreeing to give up their hard fought constitutional liberties and rights. This is not a game being played. This is a criminal administration that has a goal of developing and maintaining a strangle hold on the american public for the benefit of the huge, wealthy corporations.
Sound scary? The scariest part is, its working. I said in one of my very first posts, we are sheep and we need to become wolves. True then, absolutely essential now. (and thanks libby for your kind comments on the music blogs)
From my perspective, I fear the economic insecurity in this country more than terrorism. One of my adult children is going through a financial crisis partly of his own making, but also partly because of the economy. We spent the weekend trying to help him figure out the best course of action to take and we also had to help him financially. He has no health insurance, no life insurance, and he owns nothing - not even a car. He wasn't college material and dropped out after 3 years.
Thank heavens we can help him, but the point I'm trying to make is that too many young adults have insecure financial futures - and not just here in Michigan. What is the country doing for these young people?
College is not the answer for everyone, and trades are not a panacea either. I have a friend in S. Carolina whose son went to trade school to learn construction. He can't find a decent paying job because the business owners prefer to hire day laborers for $5 an hour under the table instead.
Extended families are quickly becoming the norm again too. I have many friends who let their adult children move back home again because of financial pressures.
Economic insecurity is the #1 fear among too many Americans today, and the government needs to do something about it now - not later.
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