Originally posted by GreatTech
Justin [Oldham], you are a very smart man. Which four, and only four, ways do you propose that the USA prevents 9/11 from reoccurring?
Any changes we make to prevent another terrorist attack need to begin at the grass-roots level.
1. As indivudual citizens, we need to make up our collective minds that we're just not going to settle for sub-standard leadership any more. To
make that work, we will need to understand and accept that we...individually...bear some responsibility for our own safety and the swafety of the
people around us.
Example: A few years ago, I witnessed a mugging in broad daylight. The female victim put up a good fight, and the people who walked right on by her
tried to shame her for it. "Give him the purse so he won't hurt you." The mugger did get the purse, and he did run...after a lot of pain from the
women he'd just robbed. He didn't get far. When I stepped in to his path to offer a litlte "counseling,"
he gave up. He gave up becuase he was afraid that he'd be confronted by another citizen...and another one...and another one.
2. We need to vote in much greater numbers than we currently do. The days of 10-30 percent voter turnout need to be a thing of the past. Even if we
can muster 50 percent, we will be sending a message to our social and political elites that their days of selling us down the river for a quick buck
are over. Increased voter turnout will also have the long term net effect of setting bar just a little higher for the "character" qualifications of
our future leaders.
Example: Here in my home State, the incumbent governor was defeated as he tried for a second term. As a career politician, he's one of the
wealthiest men in the State. He spent 24 years in the Senate, and he's always crushed his opponents. the word "no" is not something he hears very
much. He was defeated by a two-term small town mayor who could barely raise enough money to keep her campaign afloat. She won the primary on the
merits of character and good citizenship.
3. We should go back to teaching civic lesson in our schools. I do not know of any school district that does this, anymore. Today's student
government classes teach our kids about the basic anatomy of government while they instill the notion of "entitlement." It is in these classroom
settings that our kids learn that they should stay quiet, be docide, and wait for the government to come to their aid in any crisis. Fixing this will
provide us with many future generations of good citizens who will consider it their duty to stop terrorism when they see it happening.
Example: I was invited to be a guest speaker at a high school here in my State. I spent half of my time talking about civics only because the
students who asked hadn't heard about...what was that word again? When I spoke to a U.S. Government class, I was surprised to learn that they had no
textbook for the class. When I showed them the textbook I had used...they were amazed.
4. Our leaders need to embrace points 1 through 3 and tell the world that this is the wa it's going to be. By default, this new wave of social
reform will put an end to some wars of adventure as well as many forms of war profiteering. It will also give our enemies food for thought.
Example: When people overseas turn on their t.v. sets, they don't hear a coherent message from America. The people who don't like us choose to
interpret that as a sign of weakness. It's worth noting that when our enemies speak, they use small words and short sentences. They make their
points very clearly. Because they don't parse their words, our politicians assume they are just kidding.
We can't stop each and every single terrorsit attempt on our citizens, but we can transform our citizens from victims in to fighters. If we don't
demand stadnards of behavior from ourselves ,we have no right to demand them from the people we send to high office. If we do demand some level of
civics from ourselve, then we have every right to demand good leadership from the people we put in high office.
Show me a terrorist who is willing to fight ThAT, and I'll show you an uneducated fool who got lied to.