America the Fearful

In a way, I'm glad my Dad died before he could see what is happening to his beloved country. He fought in World War II and very much believed in America and its Constitution. He believed that the freedoms of speech and press were all important. He thought the flag burning debate was silly. While he thought the act of burning the American flag in protest was abhorrent, he felt it was the right of every American to do so if they wished to. He knew that being an American isn't easy. You must protect what people say even if what they say is not what you want to hear.

That's why I get so mad at politicians when they say that if you criticize the president, debate the Iraq war or express the wish to have our troops come home you are emboldening the enemy. I could care less what the enemy thinks. If we are so scared of what the enemies of our country are going to think, then they've already won. Few people realize that terrorism is only successful when people are terrorized. Nothing actually has to happen like a bomb or a plane crashing into a building. If people do what they want just by them laying down a threat, then they've succeeded as a terrorist. One of the greatest journalists of our time (this was back when journalists investigated and reported the news instead of just repeating what people, read White House, tell them), Edward R. Murrow, said, "No one can terrorize a whole nation, unless we are his accomplices."

I was in London just a few months after the tube (what they call their subway) and bus bombings in 2005. I expected the tube trains to be empty and everyone in London very fearful. The reality was, while people were wary, they went about their business as usual. Passengers are reminded constantly over the subway station PA systems and by public service posters to watch for any unattended bags or suspicious behavior but the trains were as crowded as they've always been. I myself discovered a backpack that sat by itself in one of the stations. I alerted a policeman and as it turned out the owner had wandered away for a moment to get a candy bar out of a vending machine and had stopped to talk to a friend. Once the police were satisfied that the bag belonged to someone and was quite harmless, they thanked me for being alert and everyone went about their business. In the U.S. it would have been breathlessly reported on a CNN breaking news bulletin and I probably would have been interviewed by Diane Sawyer. The British, like most Europeans, are very pragmatic about security and safety. They want it just as much as we do, but they also know that there are bad people in the world who will do violent things. You can take precautions and do your best to prevent violence from happening but you still have to live your life.

During that 2005 trip to England, I was invited to a dinner party at the home of a British friend of mine. Being the only American, I was surrounded by mostly British and a few attendees from other European countries. They all questioned me about what Americans really think is happening in Iraq and how in the world did we put a president like George W. Bush into office. I assured them that while Bush won the last election it was only by a slim margin. I also told them that the war in Iraq was increasingly unpopular and becoming more so. They seemed to visualize Americans as overtly religious and paranoid. It was hard but I think I persuaded them that most Americans are just like them, wanting safety, and security and that not all Americans fall into political extremes. I also told them that, for Americans, being attacked on our own soil was a new and very disturbing thing. Terrorist attacks were something that happened in other countries. One party goer quipped, "Well, I guess America had to grow up some time."

But have we really grown? Daily I hear about how some politicians feel we shouldn't debate the president's foreign policy. The so-called journalists lets the White House repeat the old saw of how we should trust them, allow them to spy on other Americans without a warrant or oversight, and torture suspected terrorist so that we can get unreliable information from them. They want us to continue to condone secret interrogation prisons, and holding people without charge for years in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. We're losing our freedoms daily in this country. Hopefully the newly elected Democratic congress will provide some oversight and staunch the bleeding away of civil liberties. We need to openly debate and criticize our leaders actions because they are servants of the American people, and not the other way round. Hopefully we'll become a real democratic republic again and not give in to terror. Still, I'm glad that Dad can't see what a fearful, freedom compromising, world-bully that our country is becoming. It would break his heart.