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EDITORIAL
Time out for sanity
(Published July 25, 2005)

Fear has long been known to sometimes cause intelligent people to do irrational things.

And, unfortunately, fear seems to be driving many of the security-related measures being taken to protect against terrorism in Washington, across the country and in some other democratic nations of the world.

The most recent security crackdown here has come in response to the July 7 and July 21 bombings of London’s public transportation system.

Initially, "increased security" on the Washington area’s subway system prompted Metro police to tote big guns, apparently meant as a show of force against thousands of commuters who could all be readying to detonate a concealed bomb.

Meanwhile, in London, horrified subway commuters last week watched plainclothes officers from Scotland Yard chase down and execute a "terrorist" who turned out to be an unarmed electrician on his way to work. His apparent sin was the questionable clothing he chose to wear.

So much for "innocent until proven guilty," the standard of justice that has long separated the United States, our British allies and other democracies from nations ruled by totalitarian regimes.

Officials here say they are considering random searches of Metro commuters, a new security policy instituted last week in New York City’s subway system, where persons who refuse to waive their constitutional right and submit to a search will be barred from riding.New York police say sweaty people – in summer’s heat, mind you -- will be among targets of their searches. Will anti-perspirant sales climb in New York the same way that duct tape sales rose nationwide after then Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge made a similarly ridiculous remark?

Television news broadcasts, including man-on-the-street interviews, say that many Washingtonians and other Americans are accepting random searches and other restrictions on free movement and invasions of their privacy as "necessary" actions to keep the public safe.

Curiously, many Americans seem more concerned these days with protecting their computers from spyware than protecting their persons from body searches without probable cause of wrongdoing.

It’s time for a collective deep breath before any government action in the name of "security" gets a free pass from the public – a situation that flies in the face of Americans’ constitutional rights but is already dangerously close to the norm.

Well-informed American citizens who actively participate in governing themselves have always been this nation’s best defense against all enemies, foreign and domestic.

So why have law enforcement authorities become so paranoid that they willingly consider everyone to be a suspected terrorist? And what is it about the term "police state" that otherwise well-meaning and intelligent public servants do not understand?

Fifty years ago, in the height of the anti-communism Cold War and driven by fanatical McCarthyism, Americans jaded by their government’s overreaction joked about whether Bolsheviks were being harbored in people’s bathrooms.

So far, the government’s "Chicken Little" response to isolated terrorist attacks shows that current officials are more than ready to again foment irrational fear among the public and repeat undemocratic mistakes of the past in their rush to wage War on Terror.

Copyright 2005 The Common Denominator