9-11

9-11 (9/21/2011) I planned to write this column about three weeks ago, feeling it would be prophetic. However, due to personal time constraints I did not have a chance to get pen to paper until this past weekend. By then my worst fears were materializing; the media created frenzy around “potential threats.” One must understand the premise of false terror and political needs to keep feeding the “monster”. George Orwell explains this in 1984 as Emmanuel Goldstein; America’s Goldstein is Al-Qaeda. My heart goes out to all families who lost loved ones on September 11, 2001. Likewise, my heart goes out to the other losses in the same year and annually since then. Statistics make a case for where real threats lie, not the hype pushed at us every evening and in newspapers. On September 11th there were 3,116 Americans killed in the four airliner incidents. The Department of Homeland Security did not exist, and we were not at war in Iraq or Afghanistan. By comparison in 2001 there were 17,448 alcohol related fatalities and 42,116 total traffic fatalities – more than ten times the number killed the morning of 9/11. In 2001 there were 16,037 murders and 90,863 rapes. The numbers show far more people were killed in 2001 by preventable causes than the significant events of that morning. However, like any tragedy the knee-jerk reaction was to mobilize the U.S. military to capture Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden. History reflects Saddam had nothing to do with the attacks and it took nearly ten years to flush Bin Laden out of a luxury home in Pakistan. Meanwhile twice as many military personnel have been killed as the number of deaths that morning and an unstoppable monster called “Department of Homeland Security” now employs 200,000 and has a budget of $98 billion dollars. Sadly, even with this monumental effort to fight the “war on terrorism” preventable deaths occur and the civil rights of ordinary Americans are violated daily as collateral damage to the Patriot Act and DHS overreaching tactics to ensure safety. I grew up in the Cold War, believing a nuclear winter would start in 20 minutes; similarly our children are growing up in a government induced façade of terrorism occurring any minute. Willfully new generations have learned to submit to security scans at public events, show papers, and give away freedoms. On the twentieth anniversary of 9/11, ten years from now, will we be living a pre-9/11 lifestyle or one of further submission? The next time you see law enforcement violating any American’s 4th Amendment Rights – executing searches of vehicles, bags, and even identification – ask yourself what the real threat is: government or foreign terrorists.