dave

First off, I wanted to thank you for being more calm that time around. It's easier to read and it helps to keep this from degenerating into a flamefest. I want to hear what you have to say. Really.

Secondly, I apologize for tweaking you. It was unintentional, but I regret that my words had that effect on you. They were not meant that way.

Now, on to your post...

I agree with you. I don't want to see people terrorized. At all. And that's part of my point - I don't think that <b>you</b> deserved to be terrorized just because you pay your taxes. I don't think that Laura deserved to die because she went to work that Tuesday morning. There are a lot of people that seem to not know exactly how to cope with this - and that's normal, it's part fo being human. But they end up blaming themselves, blaming the public... for something they didn't cause.

I agree that our government has done some pretty awful things. I agree that our government is, right now, doing many things wrong. But no matter what they do, no matter what our foreign policy is, no matter where our troops are stationed overseas... that does not justify the terror you were put through. It does not justify the slaughter of innocent civilians. It never will.

Unfortunately, human beings are imperfect. They do stupid things. Like create outcasts. It's a shame that you're treated as one.

I can't say I wholly know how you feel, because I don't have the same problem. My hair is long, my views are what would be considered "less than wholesome" by many in the country... I don't tuck my shirt in... but I have not been treated as an outcast since the attacks.

However, I've spent the entirety of my life being different. Sometimes it's the long hair. Sometimes it's the fact that I only have one eye. Sometimes it's the fact that I was "underprivileged". Furthermore, my sister has been outcast her entire life for various other reasons, such as the way she dressed. I have seen her pain and I have felt my own. I know that it's not pleasant.

In other words, I'm with you on that one.

The sad-but-true answer: If you're pale, never. If you're of middle eastern descent, whenever you make a big enough stink that you get their attention. They might not come and get you, but they'll be watching.

Unfortunately, it's a tough situation and it's one that you need to weigh out carefully. Ask yourself "What is it that I really want out of this?" and then act accordingly. I understand that you want to be free in your speech and relatively free (i.e., not murdering babies) in your actions... but sometimes it's best to know when to quit. I really don't think that our country is going to downward spiral into the hell that it seems you're envisioning (and I'll explain why later), so it may be best to get on with your life and let the message take a back seat. They're certainly words that deserve to be heard... but you don't want to end up under intense surveilance because of them. Or at least, I wouldn't.

And that's the beauty of that one fine document. It won't ever be irrelevant. The Bill of Rights won't be irrelevant. Simply put, the public will not ever let that happen.

It's really easy to give the goahead to hassle terrorists and blow up their shit. It's going to be much more difficult to pull it off against American citizens. For a number of reasons. The first is that public opinion is much less supportive of the idea that American citizens can <b>be</b> terrorists. Especially after Lindh gets acquitted (which he probably will). The public is going to realize that hey, this whole "everyone is a terrorist until proven innocent" thing really sucks. They'll be hassled in ways that make their lives less easy and all of a sudden they hate the idea of this crackdown. Imagine, for example, that the government outlawed SUVs because "those who were driving them were aiding the terrorists". Nevermind that this is actually probably true - the backlash would be substantial because <b>it interferes with the everyday living</b> of many Americans. They'll say "this is fucking absurd" and ignore it.

Some things are going to be okay obviously - increased security at airports, though flawed in its implementation, is a <b>good thing</b>. We really don't need someone flying a plane into the Sears Tower. But when you need to get stripsearched to go into the supermarket, there's going to be some very strong backlash.

The second is that the media won't let it happen to you. As soon as someone is publicly being investigated for links to terrorism, their face is all over every TV news channel and website in the nation. There's way too much attention for the government to make any big fuckups - after all, the other governments in the world will now be able to see it along with the public. The US goverment can't risk it unless they have absolute proof that someone is really a terrorist. Otherwise their story falls apart (as is happening with Lindh).

Maybe it will be illegal to publish against the government. In which case, it will still happen - on the internet, no doubt. And all of a sudden, people are still getting their information. The entire public wants to read about this stuff. And the government is simply unable to lock us all up.

All of this is assuming a worst case scenario. I honestly don't think we'll get there. There are a lot of corrupt people in the government, but it is far from 100%. Those that are moderates (read: those that have not been driven to extremism by emotion) will work to ensure that we don't reach that point. I don't believe they'll have that hard of a time, because I don't think that there are many in our government that really want to see us get there.

This has gotten far too long and I have far too much work to get done before I go to California to continue this post. Let me just say again that I appreciate you stepping back and making a thoughtful post, and I, in turn, will do the same.