Thursday, July 15, 2004
Dying to be PC
After reading some intial reports after 9/11 on the degree to which racial-sensitivity affected FAA security rules and contributed to the slaughter of 3,000 of us, I had thought that once Americans learned about it, they would be as disgusted as I was, and in the very least, there would be a return of common-sense to security rules.
Of course, I should have realized that the media would be interested in exploring culpability for 9/11 in many areas, particulary within the Bush administration, but the media had absolutely no interest in exploring how politically-correct restrictions on security might have played even the slightest role in failing to stop the massacre.
Nevertheless since 9/11, Homeland Security has instituted some stronger rules, such as finger-printing all vistitors from some foreign countries as they enter the US, but any tightening of rules has been followed by some media hysteria about unfairly targeting innocent people, or accusing Bush of scaring the public by hyping the actual threat level.
Now read this first-hand account of a flight from Detroit to LA last month. Then ask yourself if you are prepared to die or sacrifice someone in your family, so that we don't risk offending young, male, Arab visitors to our country. (In this account we are not even talking about American citizens!)
Blame goes all around on this issue: Bush needs to be a leader, take stronger security measures, and be willing to stand up and defend them. Democrats need to stop accusing Bush of using the threat of terrorism to frighten voters. The media and left-wingers in general need to stop criticizing common-sense security precautions. And the American public needs to hold all of the above accountable, or we will get what is coming. Lest we forget, we are at war with crazy Islamists publically sworn to destroying America and killing Americans.
Update: This story is getting a lot of attention in the blogosphere, see here, here and here. Is it too much to hope for that some of this publicity could effect some official policy change?
