Disturbing

I just read a Baltimore Sun article about plans to install a network of surveillance cameras all over downtown Baltimore. These cameras will be linked in real time to police headquarters, and relayed to cruisers and helicopters. The state's director of homeland security responded to concerns about privacy by saying "we're at war".

Let me correct you, Mr. Schrader. We are not at war. We are engaged in police actions (using our military) to try and defend ourselves against non-state actors (aka terrorists) who are seeking to ruin our open, free way of life. Thanks to our government and their hysterical response, they are succeeding.

We are engaged in one war. That's overseas. Unfortunately, since we bungled it so spectacularly, the same terrorists we are trying to thwart here are hitting us there.

Let me clarify. Wars are fought between states and nations. Granted, there is no real good historical precedence for the network that is Al Qaida, but they are definitely not a state of any sort. I didn't oppose our going into Afghanistan to try and destroy them. I was all for it. But I do most assuredly oppose turning our nation, the cradle of liberty and the world's shining example of the benefits of freedom, into an armed police state. And we're well on our way there.

Is it because our leaders are cynical millennialists who think freedom is overrated? Or is it because most Americans appear to be idiot sheep who will gladly trade in their precious rights for a false sense of security when they go to bed at night?

It must be one of those two, or maybe both. But either which way, this Administration must go and Americans need to wake up and see that, right now, the greatest threat to America lies within. Unlike how they do things elsewhere, we can fix this at the ballot box. Hopefully enough of us have a clue to do so.