America
I absolutely cannot think of a more succinct way of phrasing the state of America in 2007 than Derek Balling of Hurley, N.Y., did Friday on the Daily Freeman Web site. I am envious for not having written it myself because he sums up my feelings on the matter entirely.
Here are his comments presented as they were on the morning of June 15:
The Terrorists Have Won
… and nothing we do in Iraq or Afghanistan can change that. Why? Because we live in “Terror”.When people are so scared of the possibility of a bomb-scare that they don’t just look at something like a record player themselves, then we are effectively “in terror”.
When the city of Boston can’t figure out that a bunch of LED screens depicting cartoon characters from an extremely popular grown-up-cartoon show are “viral marketing” and not “some crazed bomb plot”, we are effectively living in terror.
I guess some people enjoy living in fear and feeling “safe”. Here’s the thing, though, I *already* feel safe. Well, except when I fly overseas because we’ve made the world hate us, but around town, I don’t feel especially worried that a small suitcase with some old wires sticking out of it is a bomb or anything crazy like that. I’d be more curious to see what junk someone was throwing away that might have some useful parts for other projects.
To live in fear is not to live at all.
Derek Balling, Hurley, NY
June 17th, 2007 at 9:21 pm
This is all too true. Unfortunately, it’s going to get worse before it gets better, especially because Rudy Giuliani is running for president. His whole strategy to win is to remind everyone of 9/11 because that will remind everyone of his leadership during it.