Fear and Loathing in America

The culture of fear in America is pushed on its citizens under the guise that we are creating a united front by spying on our neighbors. In fact, the opposite is true. For all our subterfuge and constant vigilance, our cities and towns are no safer than they were before 9/11. Implications by the Bush administration that we are under constant threat of imminent attack and that anyone could be a terrorist has turned neighbor against neighbor. Anyone who may act or look different can and could very well be considered a suspected extremist and be reported to the authorities immediately.

Yes, it is true that anyone can be a terrorist. And we should be vigilant and look out for our neighbor. But when one hears stories like some that have surfaced as of late, it seems more and more people are scared of our neighbors and for no other reason than perhaps their skin is a darker color, they hold particular beliefs, or they appear “different”.

Take Kazim Ali, a poetry professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania, for instance. He had a lot of explaining to do when a “concerned citizen” reported to authorities that a man of Middle Eastern descent had just placed a suspicious package next to a trash can on campus. In reality, the only true crime committed was by the citizen for assuming that the only package a darker skinned person could be leaving would contain a bomb. The suspicious parcel by the trash? A box of old poetry that Ali had left to be recycled.

In another example from British Columbia, there is Andrew Feldmar, a well-known psychotherapist who is highly respected in his field. He traveled to the United States several times a year for work and to visit his family. Last summer, he was permanently denied entrance into the country after a Homeland Security officer Googled his name and discovered an article he had written about his experimentation with and the possible psychotherapeutic uses of LSD. When did his experience happen? Nearly 40 years ago, before it had even been outlawed in 1970. This man is a holocaust survivor and scholar, an intelligent and thoughtful person who has worked closely with the U.N. in Sarajevo and in Minsk with Chernobyl victims. He has much to offer this country, but because the war on drugs married the war on terror and he has at one point in his life consumed an illegal drug, he has been branded a threat to security and is barred from the country.

He isn’t the only one branded a terrorist over an idea or experience. The American Civil Liberties Union has filed a lawsuit that challenges an “ideological exclusion provision” that is part of the Patriot Act. It’s been used to prevent countless scholars and activists from entering the country, simply based on their religious beliefs or personal convictions. When did knowledge, ideas, and the exchange there-of become the enemy?

And finally, six Muslims were removed from a U.S. Airways flight after another passenger viewed their appearance and prayers to be suspicious and panicked. If it had been any other color of person saying a Hail Mary, there would have been no report.

As far as our society is are concerned, the terrorists are winning. They have us in precisely the position they want us to be in. We are allowing ourselves to be terrorized and held hostage by fear. We are so busy pointing our fingers for the smallest differences between ourselves and our neighbors that we have become a country divided beyond any damage political lines have caused. In order to bring us back to a united front, we must stop being afraid, start taking action, and for pity’s sake we have to stop being so paranoid. When an advertisement of a cartoon character that looks like a child’s light-bright toy can be mistaken for an improvised explosive device, we have truly ascended to a new height of hysteria.

This article can also be found at Bloggernews.net

The Thought Police

Terrible feelings of Outrage. Embarrassment. Fear. This Tyee article incites these emotions about our Government. Since when is Google considered to be reliable enough of a tool for Homeland Security to use as a device to determine entrance eligibility into a country? Is all of the information it provides truly that dependable?

Oh wait. Its easy forget that the U.S. has been descending a spiral into madness. No, scratch that: Mind-boggling idiocy. The article says basically that we have gone beyond a state of surveillance, beyond a state of paranoia, we have actual thought police. “These are your ideas? These are your thoughts? No U.S.A. for you.” The words weren’t even threatening in any manner, this was simply a recollection of a memory, not guns, bombs, and blood.

Forget the fact that the specific Google article it brought up (and the one for which he was barred from the U.S.) was about this psychotherapist’s acid trip in the 60’s and his beliefs that hallucinogenic drugs could have therapeutic uses. Who is to say illegal drugs have no medicinal uses? After all, our fair President recently stated that Politicians shouldn’t be trying to make the decisions of Generals. Therefore it should follow that Politicians and Presidents shouldn’t be trying to make medical decisions that Doctors and Patients should be making.

There are far more intellectuals besides Andre Feldmar barred from ever entering our country simply because of the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs they hold. If our Government is so concerned with education, peace, and living as one big happy global family, why are we stopping professors and human rights leaders from coming here?


This article can also be viewed at Bloggernews.net.

I Had a Point Around Here, Somewhere

Since I seem to be having troubles getting this blog off the ground, this post is going to be very frank.

The purpose of this blog is threefold.

1) This will be my own personal writing project to get myself into the habit of writing. I am a writer by nature, but I have been completely uninspired for years. Most of my work as of late has been for job related reasons or have read like research papers. I love constructing informative articles, but I want there to be more emotion to my writing. With a platform such as this, I am giving myself a place that is available whenever (and mostly where-ever) the inspiration strikes. Its quick, easily published, and I can write whatever I want. The bonus is it is public so hopefully people will read it and their comments will inspire me to write even more.

2) This will also be a social experiment of sorts. My friends and I are probably some of the most well-informed people on just about any current or real-world event. We are constantly soaking up information regarding politics, religion, and culture, then sharing and discussing what we learn amongst ourselves. Our sources are varied, and we all have our “regular” sites that always seem to contain information that is useful. I want to see how long it takes for one of my friends to stumble across this blog and link it to the rest of us. That would make me incredibly happy. It wouldn’t necessarily mean that my blog has become super popular or anything, but it will mean that people are finding it and reading it.

3) I don’t want to be a proofreader forever, but a nice place to get my foot in the door to work in the publishing field. It’s only satisfying to a point, however. If I’m every going to move on into writing as a profession, I need to start doing more of it. I’ve used my “slacker time” after college wisely, procuring entry-level jobs that have given me enough experience to command a salary that actually pays enough to cover my expenses. I probably won’t seek a new job for a year or two, as I just started my current one in January, but the next one will be closer to what I want to do with my life and will pay better. No, I’m not greedy. I want to make a difference though, and it seems that nothing can be done in this world without money. Not that this blog is going to fix that, but if it can help me to become inspired or if my experiment works, I feel that it could only help to enhance my writing, provide a public forum for criticism, and give me more practice.

Basically, if this blog accomplishes either 1 or 2, 3 will most likely follow.

Now its time to get ready for work.

Its Been Over A Month... But I'm Baaaaack!

Okay, so maybe creating the blog first and then hoping that I wouldn’t have an excuse to write didn’t exactly work. I still have managed to not write anything. Part of that has to do with a certain on-line game that I have been playing far, far too much of. But, now that its nice outside, that monkey is off of my back.

The rest of it seems to be that I am struck by inspiration when I am no where near my computer or when I am inspired near one, I’m have too much work to do and need to do that instead.

Fear not, I will get it together and get on with my intentions for this blog.