Re: Worlds... But not Hearts... apart (2 of 4)

Phil

I am an immigrant from Scotland.

America has a set of values about innocent until proven guilty &
constitutional rights ... if those values have to be removed in the interests
of state security, then perhaps the terrorists have won.  We need to
re-evaluate how to find an alternative solution to the equation.

Liberties x Security = a constant
(increase one, decrease the other)

Just as I believe it is possible to have a good clean environment and a good
strong economy co-existing, they do not have be adversaries, so do I want &
dream & pray that it is possible to improve security without sacrificing
liberties.

Today I posted my suggestions to the FBI web site about improvements to
airport security.  I talked about photographing us when we buy our tickets,
and again when we surrender our gate pass, and software compare photos to
make sure person using ticket is same as who bought it.  I talked about bar
code on ticket that matches bar code on luggage.  I listed many holes in
airport security systems & suggested how to plug them.

I was ever considerate of how this could be accomplished at minimal expense,
maximum security, minimum interruption of liberties.  Prior to Sep 11, when I
traveled by air, it is a fair representation that Airport Security was an
Oxymoron, but did not need to be.

Different people have different life experiences that lead to different
conclusions.

Every sub group in history has had people who have done atrocities.
Every sub group in history has had good people whose sense of morality I can
identify with.
Ever sub group, that is that I have learned anything much about.
There may be some exceptions of which I am unaware.

When I was in high school I was assaulted by Gays.
I did not hate & fear all gays because of these individual criminals.

I drove a motor scooter to high school at a time when you could get a drivers
license for one a few years before eligible for auto license.
There was an epidemic of other teenagers seeking to joy ride the vehicles of
fellow students whose economic circumstance or whatever meant that they came
to school in something other than public transportation.
I saw this as a serious problem that many but not all children go through at
a particular age.

Then there was the Civil Rights Movement starting at a time when I was in
College.
There were people who hated the Blacks with a passion.
There were arguements why they should not have equal rights.
I could not reason with those people.
They had firm beliefs.
I thought of them as mentally diseased trolls, and hoped that with
integration & new generations growing up side by side that those bigots would
die out as being the dominant portion of the people of my race.

I was appauled at the statistics on the numbers of lynchings, so commonplace
that they were rarely mentioned by the news media.  Basically it was enough
for a black to be accused of any crime, for the white citizenry to execute
that black.  It was a popular form of racial profiling.

Considering the history of oppressed peoples in other nations, whose only
recourse was to rise up & overthrow the government, what happened in the USA
with the Civil Rights Movement finding & implementing an alternative to the
past equations of history, it was a miracle, this was America's finest hour,
so far.

Eventually it inspired democracy movements in other nations to also implement
America's alternative to violent revolution to solve problems.

A few years ago I had the misfortune to be crossing picket line to work
regularly.
The union picketers seemed to be comprised of several sub groups of people.
There were those with rocks & bullets & molotov cocktails & run you off the
road.
There were those who were so opposed to the violence that they sought a court
injunction against their own union to put a stop to it.
The union dealt with this by having different philosophies on picket line at
different times ... so sometimes we had the peaceful law abiding ones & some
times we had chaos army.

So Phil, we have had different life experiences that have led to different
viewpoints about people who are different from ourselves.  I cannot identify
with yours, and possibly you cannot identify with mine.

MacWheel99@aol.com (Alister Wm Macintyre) (Al Mac)