Hi! I'm back. Sorry, I've been overbooked lately. And with work being hopping as well, all my blogging time seems to have disappeared! But I'm going to make a point to get back at it, as I thoroughly enjoy my blog...and I'd hate to lose all my devoted readers due to inactivity (hi mom!).
Anyways, today I wanted to talk about the Boston Marathon bombing. I have to say, the whole thing kind of pissed me off. But not in the way you'd think. Yeah, the bombing was rough...the pictures coming out of there were pretty gruesome...and the idea of bombing people who have just completed a marathon just seems wrong to a runner like myself. However, I found myself much more offended by the aftermath of the bombing.
The part of this whole thing that gets me is Boston basically shut itself down for a week...and allowed, ALLOWED, themselves to become a police/martial law city. And the people never questioned why their freedoms were being taken away. Not once. They hid in their houses when told they couldn't come out. They praised the military units and police SWAT teams as they ran roughshod over the city and its surrounding communities. All in the name of "safety." Basically, fear caused them to hand over their freedoms to the government. Hmmm...where have we seen this before?
Its the politics of fear, ladies and gentlemen! Plain and simple. The government has been using fear for decades now to grow and increase its own power! Think about it, we're perpetually in a state of war...meaning the President's enacted "war time powers" never seem to expire! So we have an executive that can basically act unilaterally. We have a military with no checks. And we have a populace more than willing to let the government do this to them...as long as they are being placated in some way. Kickbacks, free services, the illusion of safety.
And while I do not believe the Boston bombings to be a work of the government or anything like that...I do think this population is ripe for something like this to happen. Movies are movies...but the best of them have a message...a point...and the movie I'm thinking of right now is V for Vendetta.
Fear being used to seize control of a country? Fear fueled by the media? Driven by the government? Used to expand their powers? This is obviously an extreme example in cinema used to entertain the masses. But it's not such a far fetched idea when I look around at where we are at this country. We aren't there yet...but I fear we are entirely too susceptible to it. Is it really that far fetched?
Boston was a true tragedy. No one should have to deal with the horrors of a bombing, have body limbs torn off, or lose a child, because some crazy guys have an issue with something. However, I'm willing to put up with the odd tragedy (which seem to be more prevalent the more control our government has over the people) if we retain that identity that made us such a great country to begin with...the freedom of its people. Boston citizens freely gave up those freedoms rather readily...and no one questioned why an entire major metropolitan area needed to be shut down and paralyzed, and why millions of citizens needed to be kept on house arrest, because of a hunt for a 19 year old kid. One who people even claimed shouldn't be given due process under the law.
I fear for this country if this is the way people respond to tragedy. Its a dangerous road we're blindly marching ourselves down. Bringing those who wrong us to justice is all well and good...I'm all for it...as long as our laws and our freedoms are respected in the process. I'm not about to be ok with sacrificing my freedom in the name of safety and fear.
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