Preparations for the Terrorists

My mother called me from North Carolina this morning, demanding to know if I planned to take the subway to work. When I pointed out to her that I had never taken the subway to work, and that, in fact, was only a ten minute walk from work or about a 30 minute subway ride, she sighed with relief, then said, "Well, just in case, don't take the subway ANYWHERE, and the minute you get home tonight lock the doors and shut the blinds."

I was fascinated. Truly fascinated. What did shutting the blinds have to do with anything? Looking out my apartment window into the courtyard provided next door I wondered if my mother geniunely believed that the terrorists would be on the prowl for me, to the extent of peeking in windows. Just waiting for a Southern girl to pop into one.

I didn't take the subway to work this morning. I walked, as usual, and called to leave a message on my boyfriend's voicemail that they would probably be checking bags and to allow more time for his own commute in for work. Ironically he went carrying a duffel bag full of laundry as well as his "man-bag" and no one even looked his way. Does he look that innocennt or do they just think that a bomber wouldnt' be that obvious. I think that if I were a bomber I would be completely obvious, say wearing a backpack duct-taped to me that read TNT or BOMB. Remember how in the Warner Brothers cartoons we were always made aware of these things? Like it would read, "Acme TNT" or "Ketchup" or whatever, and yet the cartoon character would still open it up and blow himself sky high. I wonder if they still even show those cartoons anymore, or if they've been archived for being too violent or unethical or politically incorrect.

Terrorism in itself is an interesting concept. Americans are terrorized in a way that no other culture has been in many years. While we consider ourselves above the "third-world" countries, Communism, and ethical cleansing, we live in fear of one or all of these things. Whenever I watch the news I'm fascinated by how they choose to portray it, as some bad guy,good guy thing. We of course are the good guys. While that wouldn't be obvious to me it seems to be assumed by the majority of the population. When I mention sometimes that I used to live down the road from a government/CIA sniper whose entire career consisted of assasinating people, they seem shocked and go, "Oh no, our government would never do that." But it does, and has for centuries. Admittedly we've PUBLICLY TRIED to assasinate Castro on several occasions. While we have failed, doesn't that lend us to wonder who else has died at the hands of Americans trying to change the world?

But in other countries Terrorism is treated differently. It's probably not even spelled with a capital T. This summer, as I was traveling from country to country I was amazed to find that the only times I had problems at customs was in America and in England. There I was grilled for nearly fifteen minutes on what I was doing, why I was going, where I was staying. There was a fear in the officers eyes that maybe I was the trouble they had been waiting for. That maybe I was a problem. How exhausting to treat everyone in this way.

It reminds me of Anne Frank saying that at the heart of everything, she believed that people were generally good. This said from a blacked out apartment above a company, crowded with people who did not want to die at the hands of Hitler and his buddies. This from a girl who was starved and probably raped and eventually died in a concentration camp. But most Americans, even without having had any "terroristic" experience, assume the worst automatically. Anne Frank could have chosen to assume the worst, could have wailed about how they were coming for her and her family, how they would be seperated and stripped and possibly put in "showers" they would never come out of. But we, fat and happy and driving huge cars, are constantly afraid that the terrorists are coming.

Bush has done little to assuage this fear. From saying that the war in Iraq would only be a few months (doesn't this remind us of Vietnam?) to assuring us that "The ones with evil in their hearts would be caught and punished" he attempts to rally us against a group of people we can't even recognize on the streets. They certainly aren't labeled and only seem to come out after their bombing or kidnapping or other "terrorist" act. We assume they are the ones terrorizing us. But wouldn't we look the same to them, as we bomb civilians and rape women and yell and scream and point firearms at them?

It is a curious thing that the more people change, the more they stay the same. We're not that much different than the soldiers who fought in the Revolutionary War, or those who saw what happened during the Battle of Hastings. Yes our weaponry has gotten more sophisticated, and we are more likely to bomb than come in contact with those we kill but the message still remains the same. That we are unable to share and therefore must scare people into doing what we want them to do.

As is the message the terrorists are trying to send to us, by frightening us off from the biggest PTA system in the country and attempting to control how we work our days out. The question is, will we let them?