America- PartII

" The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of people who are evil, but because of those who will do nothing about it."
Albert Einstein
Those words are true. That is a plain fact, no getting around that; no spinning the facts to suit any political agenda. Evil, after all, has no politics. So, let us muse some about evil and its various guises today.
Let us begin with the most obvious, the terrorists, whatever their affiliation. I believe it was Karl Marx ( correct me if I am wrong) who said " The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. " This is true, but a life without a goal is a wasted life, and actions have a life of their own, so if there is no goal, no ends to the means, there is no logic to the action itself. Something like that is, by its very nature, impossible to predict. When the paradigm of terrorist actions changed therefore, the change was not seen. I do not find great fault with the Feds on that score. However, now that we know that the situation is extremely fluid, I would expect that they have the greatest vigilance.
On to the second evil (note no Caps), one that is much more insidious to our collective health. This is the see no evil, hear no evil mentality that seems to pervade members of political parties, rights groups, and some members of the judiciary. These people seem to feel that our "rights" supersede any other consideration today, and I beg to differ. Our security comes first, or nothing else can follow. No rights, no prosperity, no life as we know it can exist without security. In the old days, yes, but then we didn't have maniacs targeting innocent women and children. If there was a war, recognized combatants fought it out on a field of battle. This was the purpose of the Geneva Convention- to lay out the rules of warfare. Terrorist groups, however, didn't sign the treaty, and do not abide by its rules.
Under the rules, in this country, our rights would be largely undisturbed, but the framers of the Constitution didn't know about cell phones, or bomb belts, and they would surely have blanched at the thought of strapping explosives to a child to kill the enemy. To them, that would have been cowardly in the extreme. It is to me as well.
Because we live in a new age, the rules about our rights must be amended as well. I challenge anyone to cite a single case where the NSA wiretapping act has harmed an individual. Go ahead, do a search. Nothing. We need information, and we need it badly. In the Civil War, Henry Stimson once said about spying, " Gentlemen do not read other Gentlemens' mail"- well, a lot has changed since then. Anyone who can't see that should go to Beirut, or Baghdad for a spell. Do we wish this for Birmingham, or Spokane?This country MUST change, or we will fail.
For one thing, we should go after these terrorists no matter where they hide, and not for trial either. We should kill them where they stand, no matter in what country they hide. If the other countries do not like it, too bad- they were harboring terrorists, and THERE IS NO EXCUSE.
Second, we need to hold our politicians much more accountable for their votes. Everybody likes to say that politicians are bought and paid for, but the reality is that the person or corporation handing over the money has but one vote. If everyone votes, then, and only then is true representation achieved, and the money can be overcome.
Only when we as a people demand some actual common sense come out of Congress, will we get it. We must demand the type of security I know we as a nation can achieve. This requires security both in and out of this country, and some will have to be proactive, but if you wish your children to grow up in an atmosphere of fear and death, then just accept the security status quo, and you will get all that, and more, because the terrorists will not stop until we stop them.
That is a fact.

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