Ever wondered what it feels like to be arrested by the FBI and Homeland Security? Me neither, but I just read a gripping account of the experience over here.
The author, who describes herself as a dark-skinned half-Arab, half-Jewish American citizen, was hauled off a domestic flight, handcuffed and tossed in jail because some of her fellow passengers thought she was engaging in 'suspicious activity.'
Her account:
"I could not fully grasp what was happening. I stared at the yellow walls and listened to a few officers talk about the overtime they were racking up, and I decided that I hated country music. I hated speedboats and shitty beer in coozies and fat bellies and rednecks. I thought about Abu Ghraib and the horror to which those prisoners were exposed. I thought about my dad and his prescience. I was glad he wasn’t alive to know about what was happening to me. I thought about my kids, and what would have happened if they had been there when I got taken away. I contemplated never flying again. I thought about the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars in conducting an operation like this. I wondered what my rights were, if I had any at all. Mostly, I could not believe I was sitting in some jail cell in some cold, undisclosed building surrounded by 'the authorities.'"
Like too few Americans, I privately disagree with the policy that we so aptly term 'racial profiling.' I've yet to see any concrete evidence that the positive counter-terror achievements of racial profiling outweigh the real ill will engendered by this policy around the world, as well as the purely psychological tragedy of violating the civil rights of our citizens in one of the few countries on Earth where those rights actually mean something.
For a few brief decades, America was synonymous with diversity. Today, it is synonymous with Islamophobia and financial selfishness, a deadly combination. In international negotiations, America is as likely to be a stumbling block as a mediator. Regardless of how you feel about issues like climate change, the United States' unwillingness to consider the broader implications of its actions has in many ways engendered that country's demise in the eyes of other nations. In the end, it doesn't matter if the "Age of America" is over - perceptions, after all, are key. If the world did not perceive that America was losing its way, I doubt our country would be in the sustained financial depression it is in today. The world's expectations of America have shifted.
But really, who is to blame for that? The underlying tragedy in the entire Detroit case isn't that the author was pulled off the flight and harassed by the FBI. The real tragedy is that her fellow passengers found the mere presence of three non-white people seated beside each other on a plane to be suspicious. Are we going to have to edit Emma Lazarus' famous poem so that the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp beside "the golden door" of a dank cell in urban Michigan? I sincerely hope not.
It was another great American thinker who once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear." But in the decade since 9/11, it seems fear has become intrinsic to the American way of life. Fear of nonwhite people, fear of globalisation, fear of outsourcing...our national rhetoric has become dominated by fear. Fear is a part of our politics, and it has become a part of domestic and foreign policy. (Read more about how fear has led America's foreign policy astray in this brilliant article.)
I'm not the first person to point this out. But I think we, as Americans, need to take a long hard look at where we are headed, both as a nation and as individual decisionmakers. The people who reported the woman on the Detroit flight ought to be publicly shamed, not privately lauded. They wasted the resources of the state on what almost anyone could have seen was a completely bogus report. Who cares if it was 9/11? Why has the legacy of 9/11 become fear rather than strength?
So many people displayed courage and strength on September 11. Many of them died, but not all. What happened to that legacy? Why are we, as a nation, still running from "ghosts," as the FBI agent terms them? There are two competing narratives to emerge from 9/11: A) There are bad people out there who want Americans to die and B) America is a worthy enemy for anyone who opposes freedom. It seems some people have learned the first lesson at the expense of the other, and those people ought to called out for their unpatriotism, rather than heeded, elected and/or admired.
But also, it serves as a reminder that we all of us need to ask ourselves whether we make decisions out of strength and conviction or out of fear. It's not enough for the Dept of Homeland Security to issue apologies for mistakes made, after the mistakes are made. That's good, and in time I'm sure the author of the post above will recover from this case of mistaken identity (or maybe not.) But can America so easily recover from mistaking its national identity?
JFK famously said "ask what you can do for your country." That's another civics lesson we all seem to have forgotten. What can we do for our country? We can be better, stronger and braver citizens. We can be people who don't run away from ghosts or even from real-life terrorists. We can stand up for our neighbors, no matter how unconventional their choices and lifestyles, rather than denounce them for living differently from us. That's the choice we all have to start making every day, to live more bravely than the day before. After all, it is these people - the ones who strive to create a world free of fear - who will lead the world in the years to come. They could be Americans, but they don't have to be. That last will depend on us.
The author, who describes herself as a dark-skinned half-Arab, half-Jewish American citizen, was hauled off a domestic flight, handcuffed and tossed in jail because some of her fellow passengers thought she was engaging in 'suspicious activity.'
Her account:
"I could not fully grasp what was happening. I stared at the yellow walls and listened to a few officers talk about the overtime they were racking up, and I decided that I hated country music. I hated speedboats and shitty beer in coozies and fat bellies and rednecks. I thought about Abu Ghraib and the horror to which those prisoners were exposed. I thought about my dad and his prescience. I was glad he wasn’t alive to know about what was happening to me. I thought about my kids, and what would have happened if they had been there when I got taken away. I contemplated never flying again. I thought about the incredible waste of taxpayer dollars in conducting an operation like this. I wondered what my rights were, if I had any at all. Mostly, I could not believe I was sitting in some jail cell in some cold, undisclosed building surrounded by 'the authorities.'"
Like too few Americans, I privately disagree with the policy that we so aptly term 'racial profiling.' I've yet to see any concrete evidence that the positive counter-terror achievements of racial profiling outweigh the real ill will engendered by this policy around the world, as well as the purely psychological tragedy of violating the civil rights of our citizens in one of the few countries on Earth where those rights actually mean something.
For a few brief decades, America was synonymous with diversity. Today, it is synonymous with Islamophobia and financial selfishness, a deadly combination. In international negotiations, America is as likely to be a stumbling block as a mediator. Regardless of how you feel about issues like climate change, the United States' unwillingness to consider the broader implications of its actions has in many ways engendered that country's demise in the eyes of other nations. In the end, it doesn't matter if the "Age of America" is over - perceptions, after all, are key. If the world did not perceive that America was losing its way, I doubt our country would be in the sustained financial depression it is in today. The world's expectations of America have shifted.
But really, who is to blame for that? The underlying tragedy in the entire Detroit case isn't that the author was pulled off the flight and harassed by the FBI. The real tragedy is that her fellow passengers found the mere presence of three non-white people seated beside each other on a plane to be suspicious. Are we going to have to edit Emma Lazarus' famous poem so that the Statue of Liberty lifts her lamp beside "the golden door" of a dank cell in urban Michigan? I sincerely hope not.
It was another great American thinker who once said, "The only thing we have to fear is fear." But in the decade since 9/11, it seems fear has become intrinsic to the American way of life. Fear of nonwhite people, fear of globalisation, fear of outsourcing...our national rhetoric has become dominated by fear. Fear is a part of our politics, and it has become a part of domestic and foreign policy. (Read more about how fear has led America's foreign policy astray in this brilliant article.)
I'm not the first person to point this out. But I think we, as Americans, need to take a long hard look at where we are headed, both as a nation and as individual decisionmakers. The people who reported the woman on the Detroit flight ought to be publicly shamed, not privately lauded. They wasted the resources of the state on what almost anyone could have seen was a completely bogus report. Who cares if it was 9/11? Why has the legacy of 9/11 become fear rather than strength?
So many people displayed courage and strength on September 11. Many of them died, but not all. What happened to that legacy? Why are we, as a nation, still running from "ghosts," as the FBI agent terms them? There are two competing narratives to emerge from 9/11: A) There are bad people out there who want Americans to die and B) America is a worthy enemy for anyone who opposes freedom. It seems some people have learned the first lesson at the expense of the other, and those people ought to called out for their unpatriotism, rather than heeded, elected and/or admired.
But also, it serves as a reminder that we all of us need to ask ourselves whether we make decisions out of strength and conviction or out of fear. It's not enough for the Dept of Homeland Security to issue apologies for mistakes made, after the mistakes are made. That's good, and in time I'm sure the author of the post above will recover from this case of mistaken identity (or maybe not.) But can America so easily recover from mistaking its national identity?
JFK famously said "ask what you can do for your country." That's another civics lesson we all seem to have forgotten. What can we do for our country? We can be better, stronger and braver citizens. We can be people who don't run away from ghosts or even from real-life terrorists. We can stand up for our neighbors, no matter how unconventional their choices and lifestyles, rather than denounce them for living differently from us. That's the choice we all have to start making every day, to live more bravely than the day before. After all, it is these people - the ones who strive to create a world free of fear - who will lead the world in the years to come. They could be Americans, but they don't have to be. That last will depend on us.
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