Like everyone else, all of us here have been glued to the
television watching the events in New York City and Washington
unfold before our very eyes. I’m certain that all of us find this
almost too horrible to bear. The images that we have seen time and
time again are forever fused into our brains whether we like it or
not. I suppose we are all going through some sort of national
shock that comes over us in stages. It appears to take the same
general path as that of some terminal illness. I think we will now
be entering into the “why and how did this happen” stage followed
by the anger stage. Let’s hope the anger stage is well thought out
and has some semblance of planning. What I’d like to get us
thinking about today is the “why and how did this happen?”
stage……I’m saddened and amazed that some of the talking heads
we’ve been subjected to in the past week have been weeping and
wailing about the possible loss of some civil liberties as a
result of increased security where it relates to terrorists. I’ll
bet any one of those people in the Pentagon, the World Trade
Towers or on any of those 4 planes would have gladly given up any
of their civil liberties that would have helped to prevent their
untimely deaths. What concerns me is that we open our borders to
known criminals and allow them to roam about our country
unhindered and without any supervision. I’m reminded of an
incident many years ago when I was working on a project that
required all of us to have a secret clearance in order to enter
our facilities. After the Dept. of Defense checked all of us out,
we received a piece of paper that said we were cleared. I was
expecting maybe an identification card or something that you would
have to fork over in order to gain entrance to areas that
contained classified materials. When the DOD agent came to inspect
us, I asked him about this oversight. He explained that we were
forbidden to make a copy of the clearance and if we needed to go
into some area of the facility that required clearance then we
would be required to sign a log that certified that we had
obtained the necessary clearances. When I made the statement that
it seemed to me that this policy seemed rather loose and not very
secure. He informed me that these logs were checked every six
months and that if you lied about having the clearance when you
really didn’t…”It was a federal crime and you could be sent to
prison.” Well, that made me feel better…I mean surely some
terrorist wouldn’t lie about something as serious as having a
secret clearance when he or she didn’t, especially if those logs
were going to be checked every six months. What a joke. It has
been reported that several of the plane hijackers had entered the
country on tourist visas even though the INS had them on their
records as suspected terrorists. I suppose they were questioned
about this and probably got by the examiners by saying…”No, no,
no, we’re just here to visit Disney World…” Is this insane or
what? We have to wake up and realize that the people we’re dealing
with aren’t playing by the same rules that we try to adhere to.
This has been called a war and it certainly should be treated as
such. We cannot afford to play nice with people that are committed
to destroying our way of life. We must rethink how we respond to
this danger and we have to do so in a realistic manner that will
allow us to stop this cancer before it spreads any further. We
cannot rely on technology alone to solve our problems. Computers
are wonderful tools, but in some instances the human element is
needed and required in order to get the job done. We need to free
up our law enforcement agencies and let them do the work they are
created to do. If someone gets their feelings hurt or is
inconvenienced as a result of protecting the majority of our
citizens….as far as I’m concerned…so be it…If you don’t like it
then move to someplace like Afghanistan or Libya…see how many
civil liberties you get over there. Comments go to
www.pearyperry.com
