Last week, conveniently timed to deflect attention from his refusal to debate, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced a terror alert. It turns out that the whole thing was a hoax, but according to the polls, that doesn't seem to matter to New Yorkers. By an overwhelming majority, New Yorkers seem to think the alert was the right thing to do.It wasn't.
America is supposed to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. But since September 11, 2001, that seems to have changed. Instead, we cower behind concrete slabs, shoe checks and bag searches. We accept invasions of our privacy and our rights without comment or question, because we are told that they are necessary to combat some vague threat of further attacks.
But the bag searches being forced upon New York City subway riders do absolutely nothing to stop terrorists. All any terrorist has to do is go to the next station. What's worse, nobody in a position of power has the courage to state this obvious fact. We have a mayor who is trampling on the U.S. Constitution, and a challenger afraid to challenge such a blatantly un-American practice.
Half a century ago, an intrepid reporter and his staff decided to take on a hugely popular but blatantly un-American elected official when he abused his power to destroy our freedom. Who in today's media will do the same thing now?
Sadly, it is probable that nobody will step up. Today's self-proclaimed "journalists" have nothing compared to the professional independence of past generations. All too often, their definition of "fair reporting" is merely parroting both sides' press releases. Telling the truth is something journalists used to aspire to; now, that's not so much the case. Nobody seems to remember that Sprio Agnew, the first man who made a major political career of attacking the media, finished his career behind bars as a convicted felon.
Were cynics like Mark Twain and H.L. Mencken merely ahead of their time? Are Americans, and even New Yorkers, so easily duped by the right-wing propaganda machine? Have we lost our ability even to see, much less fight back against, the systematic stripping of our freedoms that our forefathers pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor to defeat? Are we doomed to an endless cycle of phony terror alerts, followed by the loss of more of our "unalienable rights", simply because we accept it without question?
Not to sound melodramatic, but it isn’t too large a stretch at this point to foresee a second American Revolution. Historically, freedom Is lost a little bit at a time, but gained by violent overthrow. If we continue down the road we are traveling, our Constitutional freedoms will whither away, bit by bit, until they won't be worth the paper they're written on. At that point, it will require bloodshed in our streets and our farmlands in order to turn back the tide of scripted fear and mounting tyranny.
We're not there yet. There is still opportunity for people to gather, write and speak in opposition to what is happening. But if more people don't stand up for our freedom, and soon, this opportunity will be lost.
Stand up for America. Do it now.
Copyright 2005, Dan Jacoby
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