Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Metropolitan Areas
I find this discussion of metropolitan areas vs. the rest of the country somewhat unsettling. The 9/11 attacks were an attack on the United States and in that sense and attack on all U.S. citizens. We as a nation will decide how to respond to that attack and to the threat of future attacks. We don't parcel out responsibility for national defense to the people who live in the most threatened locations. I don't think much of federalism on any issues, especially this one.
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4 comments:
They were indeed attacks on the United States. But the vew point of urbanites and in some cases September 11th survivors, is that Bush is not making our cities and our nation secure. I lived in NYC on September 11th and I now live in DC blocks from some notable targets. The chances of a terrorist attack directly effecting my person is significantly greater than it is for someone who lives and works in Casper Wyoming. That's a fact. Like many others who live in NYC, DC, Pittsburgh I'll be voting for John Kerry in large part because I don't believe that George Bush has made our nation and my city a more secure place to live. When you live the fear of a terrorist attack daily, every time you hear sirens blaring you wonder if this is "it", then your perspective on our current president's record is much less glossy than those who simply fear a News Bulletin on Fox.
I think many of us view Iraq as a distraction from the fight against Al Qeda. Each day that grows more clear as we see that less and less of the President's claims about Iraq were true. Osama Bin Laden is still alive and active today. It's been more than three years since September 11th illuminated the kind of enemy he is and yet President Bush has made Iraq the focus of his war on terror. He has essentially wasted almost two years that could have been spent on less costly missions to crush Al Qeda.
It's not to say that the folks in Nebraska shouldn't have a say in who leads our nation in this fight. But I do wonder if they understand how those of us who witnessed September 11th feel about President Bush's leadership.
While I agree completely that "we as a nation will decide how to respond to that attack and to the threat of future attacks" I think it's worth adding that Homeland Security money should NOT be distributed equally. Large cities with likely targets should receive the lion's share.
Solomon
Sorry to have to say it, but the retro Nebraska and Kansas are, their university towns excepted, deeply insular places where the people have low levels of information and high levels of suspicion about the outside world. If approved sources--Bush, Fox news, evangelical ministers--say something is untrue, then those folks KNOW it is untrue. Their blinkered view of the outside world is a recipe for disaster. Sadly, It is their kids--from Fargo, Topeka--who are getting killed in Bush's grand folly. I am sorry for them but, in a serious way, it is their fault. They have gotten exactly what an insular and ignorant vote is likely to get. By the way, I was born in the Middle West.
I live in NYC, but I travel to the south about once a month. After the 9/11 hijackings I was moved by the solidarity the rest of the country seemed to feel with us. They had always seemed to view NY with such suspicion or hostility!
But almost immediately, the things I heard from family & friends in the South took a bizarre turn, & made me feel more separate from them than ever. Someone who visits NY often asked if I still took taxis, since so many of the drivers were Muslims. For me and my friends it was a matter of principle to continue our lives normally, taking the subway & going to work & shows. But people in North Carolina were telling me that they weren't going to let their children trick or treat, for fear of terrorists poisoning candy, or that they weren't going to the mall on a particular day because of a rumor. When I argued that we should have sent ground troops after BinLaden immediately, or, later, that Sadam & BinLaden were more demonstrably enemies than collaborators, my conservative southern friends thought I was obsessed by some arcane detail.
I disagree with the previous poster. People in the "heartland" are not stupid, & they don't deserve to lose their children any more than the Iraqis (or NYers) do. But there is a constant barrage of propoganda & fake news & misinformation out there. And of course for the last 3 years peoples' fears have been constantly stoked & manipulated, instead of calmed & counteracted. I'm nt sure why I think these things control people's thinking in the south, but not in NY. Though it definitely seems there is more to counter the barrage here.
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