by Gary Rushworth

Created on: December 11, 2008   Last Updated: December 12, 2008

Are we safer than before 9/11? Not by a long shot. More vigilant? Perhaps. But safer? There were over one hundred terrorist plots twarted in the US last year alone. Police and Fire departments get warnings all the time. I know, I am one of them. Think of a 1500 gallon fire engine with a deck gun that can spray a 200 yard stream from 100 feet above the ground. Then think of that same fire engine filled with a liquid, one drop of which could kill 200,000 people.

Now-a-days, we are weak and vulnerable. I firmly believe, it is not a question of "If" but more of "When" and "Where." Financially, the country is a mess. We are in the midst of political upheaval. We have a lame duck president who has been that his whole term. We are in the middle of a two front, possibly soon to become a three front war. But the idiocy of it all, is that we are told we are "doing well." Worse, many believe it. We cannot win here. We cannot win because to win we would have to become just like them. We would have to fight on their level. It is against our moral fiber.

A reporter gets kidnapped by terrorists. They terrorists demand all the captives at Guantanimo get released. We say, "We don't negotiate with terrorists." Bang! Bang! THe reporter is dead. Why did they want the captives released? Could it be that they needed one or two specific people there? Possibly to mastermind another plot againsty us or implement one. What about saying, in response to the kidnapping, that we are going to line the detainees up and shoot them one by one every fifteen minutes until the kidnapped victim is released and that if that person is killed by the terrorists anyway that ALL the prisoners would be executed immediately. Do you think they would think twice before they tried it again. Instead, we opted for fair and legal representation. Does anybody know that we are at war. We can't win this war because we cannot, as a people, condone what we would have to do to win it. When, and if, we did, how could you then look in a mirror and like what you see.

We can't take care of our own people's healthcare. We are in danger of becoming a 100% "buy-from-others" nation with bad credit to boot. Yet, CEOs of the major financial firms and the auto industry walk away with billions of dollars. They should be tried for treason. No Joke. How can one think we are safe in this environment when greed has brought us to the brink of financial ruin? We are spending trillions of dollars to finance this war of money borrowed from the Chinese and others. I am not particularly interested in learning a new language. Yet, we are letting these bastards off with what amounts to a slap on the wrist.

We think we are safe because it is our way of pulling the covers over our heads and thinking everything will be all right in the morning. It won't be. What will you do when you wake up and find that you were travelling on busness in Florida and a Nuclear Bomb explodes in New York, making the area unihabitable for 500 miles in all directions for 100 years and that is where all your family and friends are. It can't happen, you say. The minute you think that way, you are well on your way to being one of the first suicidal casualties of the event. We are not conditioned for chaos in the streets. The sad reality is, however, that we better be.

In a few weeks, we will have a new president that appears to be heralding a light in the darkness. There was another, once, not so long ago, who brought that light only to have it put out in Dallas. The lame duck? He's safe. He is too stupid to get shot. Please, for the sake of our children, prove me wrong. Let the light shine, so we may find our way home.

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