What Do You Think?
Our Schools and Our Citizens Really are not Protected From Terrorists
National security only an illusion
Eric Torres,Daily Kent Slater, October 15, 2004 Columnist LINK When I came to school today, I stopped at the restroom on Satterfield's third floor. After I washed my hands and passed by the mirror, it dawned on me that I was completely alone, and it could have been 20 minutes before anyone came in and found me. In a way, I had total freedom. Maybe it is my cynical or paranoid mind, but I thought about how easy it would have been to leave a bomb in the commode. Like the average American, I don't desire senseless destruction and misery. I left the restroom and continued on to Spanish class. I don't foresee Satterfield Hall as a target for terrorist activity, but my mind raced. I started to think about all the other empty restrooms on campus. Then, I considered all the other campuses in this country and the empty restrooms contained therein. I thought about all the abandoned apartment buildings in my hometown, all the YMCA's and bus garages, gas stations and department stores, middle school classrooms and bars around the nation. I realized we aren't truly secure; we only live within a perception of security. Rape, murder, war, corruption, slavery, hatred - all these things existed before Sept. 11. We give the sovereignty of our numbers away to our elected officials under the false pretense they are working for us. George Bush, John Kerry, Bob Taft, Bill Clinton, you name it, they grew up differently than most of us. These people aren't raised to value and respect the same things that we are. The members of this "Lucky Semen Club" have been given everything they have ever needed their entire lives. Bush and Kerry's weaknesses are that they have never truly faced adversity the way the common person has. They are not our peers, and none of them are fit to command us. Don't let the billionaires from Texas or Massachusetts fool you into thinking they have the answers up their sleeves. The only way to ensure security is to lock down the country and operate under martial law, and I wouldn't want to present a federal ID number and a set of fingerprints to get a couple of tacos. We must not allow our society to degenerate into that. We are privileged to have our liberty presented to us in plain little packaging called the Constitution. The big, bad, brown-skinned terrorists haven't gotten us again, and George W. Bush is a hero and savior to all. What most Americans are reluctant to accept is that George Bush has not made our country any safer and will not do so if given four more years. Neither will John Kerry. We are no more secure today than we were before 9/11. We are at war, make no mistake about that, but it's not the war that George W. Bush would have the naïve majority believe. I don't scare easy, and the rhetoric that comes out of Washington these days isn't going to frighten me into voting for Bush or Kerry. If you aren't a little bit scared, then you're a whole lot stupid. The real world is scary enough without our leaders trying to govern us with fear. Do yourself and your countrymen a favor and refuse to be sheep. Remember, before you enter battle, make sure you can identify your enemy. Eric Torres is a senior English major and a columnist for the Daily Kent Stater. Contact him emtorres@kent.edu. |