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 by Dr. Bud E. Bryan
Memo To Ourselves: We've Met The Enemy - And It Be Us.
Austin, Texas. I've been sittin' down here doin' a slow burn 'bout what the hell's goin' on in our country right now, and since I'm about to bust a gut about it I figured I might as well write a few of my thoughts down. Since we're in a wartime situation and all, why the hell are half the things bein' talked about on the airwaves and in the newspapers bein' talked about? Yeah, I'm damn well aware of the constitution, so save your emails. The key word here is wartime, folks. Yes, we have our liberties and freedoms to protect, but goddamnit, do we really need to know or announce every single move of our armies in action? Hell no! And do you know why? Because our enemies can watch CNN and know exactly what we're up to, that's why. I mean, what's up with that?
What's up with this compulsive need to beat things to death and run our mouths off to the press and in public about every goddamn thing? Why are we havin' press conferences at the goddamn Pentagon anyway? I don't need to read some reporter's take on things. And I don't need to see our generals wastin' their time answering some inane question for the 47th time, either. I would assume they have better things to do at this very moment, don't you? Do I really need to see diagrams and color illustrations in USA Today of what our Special Forces wear and what they're armed with and what their tactics are? How 'bout this? Why don't we just send the enemy a pre-packaged video while we're at it, describin' exactly what we're gonna do to them and when we're gonna do it?
I mean, does anyone else see the absurdity in all of this? What the hell are we thinkin'?
And just for the record, I frankly don't give a shit what Ashleigh f---in' Banfield's take is on things either. As far as I'm concerned, I could give a rat's ass about her hair color or her glasses and that she's supposed to be the new "media star" of the war, either. That means absolutely nothin' in the larger scope of things, and besides, it's a goddamn insult to all our service men and women who are bein' put in harm's way at this very moment. The question I gotta ask myself when I see her on TV is this: Self, what exactly is she addin' to the coverage? When I ask that question, I come up with only one big fat answer - absolutely nothin' - that's what. Besides, she sounds a little too goddamn sympathetic to the enemy for my tastes.
We need to get acquainted with a term in this country and pound it into our heads - it's called "on a need to know basis." Certainly if it has to do with things to be vigilant about (anthrax, etc.), things that we all should be on the look out for - then, hell yes, we all need to know, and we all need to get on the same page about it. But the rest of the shit that's bein' talked about is like a cornucopia of riches to our enemies. We've got a bunch of media outlets frettin' and whinin' out loud 'bout stuff they shouldn't even be talkin' about. Do we need to know the exact number and type of weapons used yesterday? Hell no. Why? So we can let the enemy have a preview of what we're gonna do to them two nights from now? It's f---in' ridiculous.
We need to start differentiating between protectin' our basic freedoms and security here at home and protectin' the security of our men and women overseas who are bein' called upon to defend those basic freedoms. And I don't really want to hear the media moanin' 'bout the fact that they need to do their job and our "right" to know might be impinged. That theoretical shit is fine for journalism school, but like I said before, the key difference here is that it's wartime.
And when it's wartime, we're all gonna be called upon to make sacrifices. That means you, me, the media and anybody else who wants to be a citizen of this country. If representatives of the media all got together and decided to report 50% less of what they're spewin' out right now about what's goin' on, you have to ask yourself - would you miss it? Seriously, would you?
I know I wouldn't.
I think everyone needs to do themselves a big favor right now and go back on to the Internet and find the video files documenting the events of September 11th. And then put them somewhere easily accessible on your desktop to remind yourself of what the hell happened that day. Go ahead and watch those planes plowin' into the World Trade Center again. See the aftermath of the destruction of the Pentagon. See the World Trade Center towers collapsing - and then think about all the people that died at that very instant. Read about ordinary citizens fighting to take a plane down that would have been certainly used as a weapon if they hadn't acted heroically. Then read the stories of all those ordinary people who were killed just because they were living their lives.
I don't know about you, but when I watch videos of what happened that day it makes me sick. And when I start to hear and read about vague little echoes of voices from the sidelines startin' to question what we're doin' and why, well I get damn mad.
We need to get on the same page here, folks. There are mutant bastards out there right now who would like nothin' better than to bring us down. This isn't some distant video war for our evening amusement, either. Real people have been killed, and real families have been destroyed - on U.S. soil. And there will be more of that to come, unfortunately. That's why we have to be vigilant - not to see that our "right to know" isn't somehow bein' curtailed but that what we're talkin' about isn't givin' our enemies more ammunition to use against us. We need to take a big collective breath as a country and seriously start to weigh what's discussed as opposed to what's held close to our vests. We need to get smarter - and in a big-time hurry too.
As David Byrne said in his classic "Life During Wartime" - "This ain't no party, this ain't no disco, this ain't no foolin' around..."
If we as a country and as a people need to enter into a new reality that's security-driven, then it's somethin' we're all gonna have to get used to. We have to remind ourselves of the Big Picture and not get upset if it takes two hours to get on a plane or to cross a border. And frankly, if the President came on TV tonight and said we're gonna have to end our dependence on foreign oil and we're gonna have to institute some form of gas rationing immediately - well then so be it. We're all gonna do what we have to do.
The main thing is we have to stop tryin' to pretend that this is all going to go away and that we're gonna be back to "normal" soon. This is our new reality, and there's nothin' "normal" in the least about it. We need to deal with it and just keep movin' forward.
And we have to learn - as a country (and that especially includes the media, and the government agencies obsessed with giving the media information)- to start keepin' our mouths shut. We need to stop telegraphin' what we're gonna do and start goin' ahead and just doin' it. And then we can save the hand-wringin' and the over-analysis about it for later.
And when we wake up and get real about what's needed to be done as a nation from here on out, it seems to me we'll be a helluva lot better off for it.
Adios until the next time.
Copyright 2001 Autoextremist.com, Inc.
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