Paranoia in the Post-9/11 World

The terrorists won. Plain and simple, they won. They turned the entire U.S. society into a terrified bunch of pussies, so afraid of our own shadow that we willingly accept all sorts of intrusions of our privacy…all in the name of SECURITY! It’s really pathetic.

There is a blogger – his name is Joe Sharkey. He’s been writing for a while on travel for various publications such as the New York Times. In 2006 he was aboard a new business jet being delivered from the factory in South America when it collided with an airliner in mid-air. Everyone aboard the airliner died; the business jet made a safe landing. While I severely disagree with Sharkey’s conclusions about that accident, he is an entertaining writer when it comes to air travel. And he writes a lot about the ridiculous TSA.

Sharkey’s current blogpost deals with his visit to the World Trade Center memorial in New York City. Of course he ran smack-dab into the type of security we normally see at airports, train stations and cruise ship terminals.  Apparently pictures of the WTC memorial are verboten!  After noticing that he'd taken some, the cops took his camera and deleted ALL the pictures on it, then dropped it and broke it. Read the post HERE. I will quote some of his salient points.

I wanted to tell the hump who ordered me around at the metal detector, Listen, Skippy, you are aware, are you not, that this place has already been blown up? That there is nothing left to destroy? That the threat to American freedoms is from the likes of you in your quasi-military blue uniform and your Guatemala militia manners? The terrorists have moved on. There is no opportunity at this place now.

Doesn’t matter, does it? THEY’LL COME BACK AND ATTACK IT AGAIN! So visitors to the memorial have to remove their belts as they go through the metal detectors. And of course, NO PICTURES! We wouldn’t want anyone taking away anything but memories from the place, which Sharkey notes is not a memorial to people who suffered through that terrible day in 2001.  He says:

No, we have a memorial at the World Trade Center site, the site of such courage and resolve when the enemy was real, and the memorial is to fear. And to the growing security state. And in a very sad way, it is a pathetic tribute to the murderers who sought on 9/11 to make that hideous statement about the vulnerability of America.

…Which is the price we pay for living in a so-called “free society.” Up until 9/11/01 we did not live in a police state. Perhaps the memories of Nazi Germany in WWII were still fresh – or at least still alive - in people’s minds. We cherished our freedom. But those who lived through WWII are mostly gone now. And in their place is a different bunch of scaredy-cats who will gladly trade freedom and privacy for security and the illusion of safety.

Here’s a thought: We still live in a (mostly) open, free society. As much as the government tries to pretend that they can protect us from “terrorist” acts, it cannot. Some lunatic(s) will strike again…somewhere, sometime and in some method of their choosing. It will come as a surprise and shock. And there will be those who will ask in horrified indignation: HOW DID WE LET THIS HAPPEN?!

As if there’s really any way we can stop it.