First off,I completely agree that the idea of a hate crime is a form of profiling: it is crazy to me that murder is categorized as better or worse depending on race or religion or class of victim or perpetrator. So I am not the hypocrite you make me out to be.
Yes Sue, it is an absurd leap from profiling protocol to McCarthyism tactics to the insanity of waterboarding innocent bystanders. But the sad truth is we as a nation took that absurd leap, or have you forgotten: the wiretapping, illegal survellience, and yes the waterboarding of those in the wrong place at the wrong time is not a figment of my imagination. It is a part of our history. In case of the wiretaps and secret survelience it is with us still. That’s not spewing anti-Cheney rhetoric, that is a statement of fact.
And as absurd a leap it was, it all seemed so natural and reasonable at the time to overlook our laws, our restraint, our compassion. I mean in the interest of national security, of course, to protect us. And how quickly we went down that slippery slope, from profiling to witch hunt to outright torture, in the blink of an eye.
And yes, it is completely unrealistic (downright crazy, really) to expect to live in a colorblind, religiously neutral society. We are humans, after all, with all the imperfections, shallowness, and outright fear that is all too prevalent in our species. But God (oh yes liberals dare use the Word!) gave us hope too, did He not? And faith. Faith that tells us that as quickly as we can fall down that slippery slope of fear and mistrust that with a little compassion and understanding we can climb back out again. Hope that drives us towards the colorblind, religiously neutral perfection and love that Jesus (and yes, by God I’ll use his name too!) showed us, despite our limited expectations of the future and our flawed past.
So, for purposes of airline security, and all other worldly goings on in general, I choose not to see US vs. THEM, but only US. It’s a copout to think we cannot reasonably protect airline passengers without giving into our worst fears. God gave us imagination and ingenuity along with hope and faith. Surely we can apply it to this situation.
Call me crazy and unrealistic if you must. I’ll be in good company, at least.
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well, surprise surprise, I disagree with much you say. First of all, we didn't profile ( I believe Bush was against this practice) in airposts which then resulted in wiretapping and waterboarding. These actions were a result of wartime activities and intelligence reports having nothing to do with airport screenings (and I am most certain we NEVER waterboarded innocent bystanders as you purport)so your leap remains absurd. As to the accusations, I do not believe that 'enhanced interrogation activities' are torture, and I think that if performing these acts saved American lives, it should be permitted under certain circumstances. 'Illegal' wiretapping (hmm BO still does all these things BTW) again a judement call as to what is legal, I believe it was overseas calls from known enemies coming into the US, this practice was no and is still not 'illegal'. As for the actual 'torture'- We waterboarded 3 (yes THREE) people who were known ememies, not people "in the wrong place at the wrong time", should we have? I dunno but it seems clear that all our tactics worked pretty well to keep us safe from another terrorist attack under that policy. It is also been reported that a great deal of important and vital information was discovered by using these tactics and many American lives were saved as a direct result of these actions. SO now here we are. 11 months into a new administration, one who threw the intelligence community under the bus; one who has projected an image of weakness to the world, and one who has treated terrorists like mere common criminals or people who were 'lone wolves' and who are not part of a larger WAR ON TERROR (a claim which gets disproven each time) and this policy has produced 3 terrorist attacks. I know what method I prefer and I do not think it makes us resort to our worst fear nor into depravity, (that would entail strapping bombs to oneself and blowing up airplanes) it simply makes us intelligent adaptable people who learn from mistakes and do their best to protect themselves.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Maybe you should re-name the blog "Arguing with my Conservative Cousin" Kinda catchy huh?
ReplyDeleteOne more thing, actually 2. You never addressed the gun rights and hoops owners have to go through for Constitutionally protected rights.
ReplyDeleteBut more importantly, I was thinking about this whole "us vs them' ( did you means United States?) at any rate I have to defer to the mentality of war. If would be lovely if we all could just get along, perhaps share a meal, break bread, regal each other with wonderful stories from our past but truth be told is that Islamic Extremeist WANT TO KILL US. Period. There is no middle ground. So if my family is on one side and a terrorist is on the other- There is no 'us' involved in that. It is 'us vs them" plain and simple, and if the choice is our life or theirs, there is no question in where I want to err on the side of. But call me crazy.
cheers