reply to post by ReadyPower
The Past is Prologue. Time to ask ourselves this question. Why, if America is the Greatest Nation that God Ever Created On the Earth, mightiest
in armed forces, investigative abilities, and moral certitude, are Americans so oppressed with false fears and neurotic impulses to run for the hills
whenever some minor threat occurs? In the Fifties when I grew up it was the Red Scare! A commie under every bed! People began to build fall-out
shelters for the coming Atomic War with Russia. The facts were the Russians developed nuclear weapons to defend themselves from the old people on
earth NOT AFRAID to nuke two cities...that would be Americans. We destroyed Japan in two days. The Russians were right to be afraid of us. We would
most certainly nuke the Kremlin if it were in our best interests. And there were men in power at the time who wanted to do just that! Once the
Russians got nukes though, things did not go so easily for us. Then we became afraid. All right, we were afraid of nuclear detestation (as well we
should be, but we need to see it is US who provoke the rest of the world into trying and vying for nuclear weapons...)
But the idea that the Russians were going to contrive a "take-over" in secret of our country, was the vision of one drunk Senator named Joe
McCarthy, "Tail-Gunner Joe" and his cronies literally made up false documents accusing nearly everyone and their brother in the US of being secret
commies. They called it a "Witch Hunt" and it was, just like those of the Middle Ages, people turning in their own parents, teachers,
pastors...actors were tossed out of work, writers fired, black-listed so they could never work again, in Hollywood, and in newspapers, tv and radio
all over the country! When people say conspiracies in the govt. are never real or powerful, I laugh. I know about the Reichstag Fire. So did Joe
McCarthy! He used the same sort of propaganda machine Goebbels had developed to round up Jews, so Joe could round up commies! Turned out the Russkis
didn't have the man-power, will or even the real missiles! They were a bankrupt country that had to come to us for their daily bread. We had nothing
to fear from them, even in Khrushchev's day. They had a finger on a button that wasn't even wired to anything! Trying to bluff us, who they KNEW
would eradicate them from the face of the earth given a chance.
Now we live in a time where nations like France, Germany and Israel have faced numerous bus, restaurant, office building bombings. In Israel rockets
are fired almost every day from Syria and elsewhere into Israel, destroying people and property. I have a friend there who suffered through ten years
of bus bombings by suicidal Muslims. And yet these people did NOT become afraid and outlaw their own freedoms in order to be "protected" by fascist
dictatorships!. Here in the US however eight men with some knowledge of flying jumbo jets and a couple of box-cutters have seemingly terrified us so
much we have to start questioning Mexicans in Arizona, Mormons in Tennessee, and public librarians in order to get a handle on the "terrorist
menace" from Al Qaeda! When in fact we've had more openly public terrorist bombings from crazed "Preppers" and religious cultists than we have had
from Muslims. And yet men like Glenn Beck were eager and adept at showing the "links" to every conceivable nutbar with a gun to the Muslim
Brotherhood...or whatever. Are we this pissing scared as Americans that we will once again disable our freedoms and railroad our own people into FEMA
prison camps because of eight guys carrying box-cutters and the meanderings of phony pundits like Beck?
If we had made locking steel doors on our aircraft, as the Israelis did in the 70's, there would have been NO hijackings. But no. We are cheap,
retarded and goalless. We have no idea we even have an enemy until one steps on our gigantic toe. Then like the proverbial elephant terrified of a
mouse, we go insane with fear and start duct-taping everything! It's time we repaired our brains and started seeing that the threat really is our
lack of common sense.
Three thousand people were killed in the 9-11 attacks. While cancer from smoking cigarettes, a useless product and disastrous health risk to everyone,
kills fifty thousand a year or more! Yet do we declare R.J. Reynolds and National Threat or a Terrorist Cell? Our priorities are all skewed. And if we
fail to recognize the patterns of fear and xenophobia which drive this country towards Fascism, we will go down in history as the Dream Nation that
Failed from Fear. I say when we think someone fears or hates our "freedoms" we become MORE free! And that we Live free or Die! I am so tired of
living in a country of cowards.