Warning: Unpopular Opinion Ahead.

[quidditchgrrl]

So, today. Five years later.

Not much has changed for the better.

The terrorists didn't erode our safety, didn't compromise our freedoms. We did that ourselves, through complacency and a feeble sense that we deserve to be safe, just because we're Americans.

It seems like we're ready to believe anything, to give up our reasonable right to live our lives without government scrutiny, in pursuit of something no one is ever promised - tomorrow.

In my state, you can't walk down the street without being required to identify yourself. If you cannot produce papers, you can go to jail. This is supposed to fight terrorism.

It's an insult to every soldier currently fighting, to every civil servant serving, and to every last person who died on September 11, 2001. Heck, to anyone who has fought to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

Am I sad? Sure. Am I still angry? You bet. Do I feel safe? Less than I did before September 11, 2001, but not because of the threat of terrorism.

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty or safety.
--Benjamin Franklin (or Richard Jackson, depending on your source)

Comments

[roguebitch.livejournal.com]

Wordy McFreakin Word.

Preach it, sister.

[avidbeader.livejournal.com]

Yeah, what you said.

[tinyholidays.livejournal.com]

Agreed. Give me liberty or that other thing.

[bunnicula38.livejournal.com]

This targeting of Americans is wrong - we are not the enemy, after all. We are not the ones bombing our own planes. The government needs to target one specific group of people, young males of Muslim descent. It smacks of racial profiling but it's better than having innocent Americans being searched and seized.

Besides, I wouldn't trust a cop with any information without consulting with a lawyer.

[quidditchgrrl.livejournal.com]

I'm not targeting Americans.

I can't IMAGINE why young males of Muslim descent would ever be anti-American - we've been performing racial profiling on them forever.

You and I are just lucky we don't look ethnic - my sister is olive-skinned with almond-shaped eyes and gets "randomly" searched every damn time she takes a trip. She and her husband plan their trips around racial profiling. I don't think my sister or BiL have even had a speeding ticket between them.

I'll never show my "papers" to a police officer unless I know that I've committed a crime, threat of arrest or no. But they could use this in myriad evil ways to keep people out of an area or take the names of people who are in an area for a demonstration, protest, festival, collecting signatures for a ballot initiative, etc., then track their movements in other ways (or show up to their house later for intimidation tactics).

As the saying goes, I love my country but I'm pretty damn scared of my government.

[sarahkitty.livejournal.com]

I agree with your opinion. The fact that we have given up so many freedoms in the name of "security" scares me. I actually feel like I'm being judged everytime I set foot in an airport -- and I'm 9th Generation American.

[katrionaa.livejournal.com]

A-freaking-men. I heard recently on NPR someone saying that terrorists win not just by blowing things up but by forcing people to change how they live. By making all these concessions in the name of freedom, we're losing.

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I've been wanting to make this same post, saying this same thing, using exactly that quote, all day. But I'm too tired from wading through the regurgitated propoganda.

[thalialunacy.livejournal.com]

regurgitated propoganda

YES.

THAT is totally the proverbial straw for me. I can handle being sad, being contemplative, whateverwhatHAVEyou, but if I hear one more person say 'I'll never forget' or 'it's our generation's Pearl Harbor,' I'm gonna take some bitches out. XD

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

I have actually lost a lot of faith in some of my flist since yesterday. People who I thought were a bit smarter, but who are obviously still in the 30% who buy into the "we're gonna go open up a can of whoopass on some random country cause then we'll be safe!"

I had 2 family members on flight 11, and I'm sad, angry, and a million other things.

But I am so much more scared of losing our democracy than I am of losing my life. The next time the President says "we have to protect the American people," I just wish someone would tell him, "Um, that's a nice gesture but I'm fine thanks, and that's not in your job description, actually. You took an oath to protect the Constitution ABOVE ALL ELSE."

And his administration has done nothing but piss all over the Constitution for the last 6 years.

[thalialunacy.livejournal.com]

I like you! :D

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Thanks! I like you too, if you are as frustrated as I am ! :)

[thalialunacy.livejournal.com]

Ooooh yes. Yes indeed. ^^

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry for your loss, but glad that you haven't fallen for the administration's agitprop about 9/11.

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

If anything, it's made us more angry. Our loss has been used a a political pawn.

The admin essentially hijacked our grief, stole it, and flew it into Iraq.

[annearchy.livejournal.com]

Yup, that they did :( And how DARE that $%#%#)&) Ann Coulter say anything about 9/11 widows. Don't get me started on that sorry excuse for a human being.

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

IMHO, she has done more damage to American than Al-Qeada.

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

America, that was supposed to say...

[blue-eye.livejournal.com]

The first thing I thought of was that quote by Benjamin Franklin and there it was at the end of your post. So true. The terrorists are winning because we are giving away our freedoms one by one. And people are too fucking stupid to realize.

[ladyaeryn.livejournal.com]

You know, this may be unpopular, but I still agree with the general idea. I sure don't think I'm that much safer than I was in the days after 9/11, and whatever's been "gained" I don't think has been worth the price. In fact, I probably am more worried about traveling abroad now than I was before, since what our bumfucked administration did after 9/11 has ensured pretty much every country out there hates Americans, whereas before the general belief seemed to be maybe not positive toward us, but certainly not as hostile.

The current administration seems to think that the only way we'll have defeated those damn terrorists is when there's zero possibility of falling victim to another attack, which is not going to happen. Even if the Bush administration throws the entire Bill of Rights into a bonfire in an effort to keep the bad guys out, if someone really wants to, they'll find a way in. And even if they didn't, you don't need to look any further than a mile from where I work to remember that outside is not the only place we're in danger of being attacked from.

Amen to that Franklin quote.

[1anonymous1.livejournal.com]

How is that gonna stop terrorism? Wouldn't terrorists have fake IDs anyway? How do you know when to ask someone for an ID? What is this, Nazi Germany?

addendum:

[thalialunacy.livejournal.com]

HAH how funny (not funny ha-ah, funny grandma's-not-coming-back) that the link is to Fox News. XD

[modestyrabnott.livejournal.com]

Hon, I am going to steal most of your flist if you don't mind, cause I think I might havre the wrong folks on mine. The conversations taking place in other regions sound like Fox news talking points. And it's freaking me out.