I've expanded my Fear and Loathing in America article because a local magazine would like to use it as an editorial! I've cleaned up some of the wording and lengthened it to 1,000+ words to fill a predetermined space. I'm not getting paid for it, but I don't really care. The fact that an unbiased someone likes my writing and is willing to publish it is all I need right now.
Fear and Loathing in America (Revised)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 and reporting every action that we don’t understand to the authorities. 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. We should be vigilant and look out for our neighbor. But when one hears stories like some that have surfaced in recent times, it seems more and more people are instead 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 for instance Kazim Ali, a poetry professor at Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania. 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. The bomb squad and the state police were called to the scene, classes at the campus were cancelled, buildings were evacuated, and the university was effectively shut down. Colleagues of Ali’s, who had over-heard a description of the “suspect” and his car, were briefly considered to be accomplices when they tried to explain to police that Ali was a member of the faculty. In reality, the only true crime committed was by the citizen for assuming that the only package a darker skinned person could be leaving on a university campus would contain a bomb. And what of the suspicious parcel by the trash? It ended up being a box of old poetry that he had left to be recycled. Who would have ever thought that trash would have been left next to a trash bin?
Last year, six Muslim imams were removed from a U.S. Airways flight departing from Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. They were forced off the plane, searched, handcuffed, and held for several hours without the offer of an explanation. These events happened after several passengers reported them to authorities, as they viewed the imams’ appearance and prayers to be suspicious. If their skin had been any other color and they were reciting a Hail Mary before their flight, there would have been no report.
In another example, there is Andrew Feldmar, a well-known psychotherapist who is highly respected in his field. He previously 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. Never mind that his experimentation and experiences with the drug had happened nearly 40 years ago, before the substance had 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 national 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 basically means that the government is allowed to deny a visa to anyone whom it believes "endorse[s] or espouse[s] terrorist activity" or "persuade[s] others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity." However, the administration is using the provision to deny entry to people with political views that are simply unpopular. It’s been used to prevent countless scholars and activists from entering the country, simply based on their spiritual beliefs or personal convictions. When did our society become afraid of free speech, religious freedom, and knowledge?
The product of this culture of fear in which we live glaringly made its presence known earlier this year in one of the most expensive terror-scares-over-nothing in the U.S. to date. It happened when over $1 million was spent in Boston after “suspicious-looking devices” at various locations throughout the city were reported. Major highways, parts of the subway, a bus station, and various other areas were entirely shut down as police investigated the blinking boxes, at least one of which was detonated by the bomb squad. What the “suspicious devices” amounted to were basically over-glorified Lite Brites with pictures of cartoons on them, meant to be a creative advertising campaign for the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie. In fact, the signs had been placed in 10 cities throughout the U.S. without incident and had been on display for weeks by this time, seemingly unnoticed. The police force of Bean Town made themselves appear as fools nationally, since coverage of the events were broadcast all over the country.
However, even after the true origin and purpose of the curious objects were discovered, the farce continued.
The two men who had been paid by Turner Broadcasting System to install the devices were arrested, charged with placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct, and now face up to five years in prison.
The company itself was forced to pay the city $1 million in compensation and the CEO resigned over what has been dubbed “The 2007 Boston Mooninite Scare.” Authorities in the city known as The Cradle of Liberty have never taken any responsibility for its part in escalating the situation to the heightened frenzy it reached.
The effect of the Bush administration’s fear-mongering has caused troubles that are two-fold.
First, it has set us on such high alert that we are afraid of our own shadows, causing us to suspect and report everyone and everything that is unfamiliar.
Secondly, it creates a situation that is very much like the old story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf.”
When something really happens, will we be prepared after so many false alarms?
Will we be able to find the true enemy through the fog of mistaken accusations?
As far as our society is concerned, the terrorists are winning.
They have us precisely in the position they want.
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 nation divided beyond any damage political lines have caused.
In order to bring us back to a truly United States, we must stop being afraid, start taking action, and for pity’s sake we have to stop being so paranoid.
When fear turns ordinary people and objects into suspects and explosive devices, we have truly ascended to a new height of hysteria.
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