Terror for Breakfast

Ever since America woke up on September 11, 2001, we've been force fed daily doses of terror. The government and the media have ceaselessly prattled on about possible terrorist threats, likely terrorist targets and suspected terrorist activity without pointing to any actual terrorists. We've been made to pay attention to a threat level indicator, bizarrely colored and completely divorced from any generated data. How often have we seen some meaningless shade flash across the TV - TERROR LEVEL: ORANGE - without any reference to what contributed to said level? We are told of endless terrorist plots against our country, yet the government hasn't identified or uncovered a single one in the past six years. Bush keeps telling us that the war in Iraq is somehow part of the "War on Terror," but no one has ever been privy to a scrap of evidence that shows there is any truth to this assertion. The evidence we are overwhelmed with shows that Saddam Hussein terrorized his own people, could never have been a threat to the U.S., and had no part whatsoever in 9/11. Iraq was not a breeding ground for terrorists until we installed an ineffectual government in transparent pursuit of stability in a region that will never know it. I assume at some point will we actually have to ship them WMD's.

The majority of us now realize that there was no reason to invade Iraq, especially under the banner of fighting terror. More and more people are also waking up to the fact that our government, with the help of their pet media, are the real terrorists. That sounds like a radical statement, but consider: After 9/11, if American citizens had been completely cut off from the media, how long would we have felt terrorized? Without constant alerts and misinformation, without Fox News and hysterical Homeland Security briefings, would any of us have been this afraid for this long? Who is responsible for our fears in a country that has only suffered a handful of terrorist attacks in its history, and zero after 9/11?

The government. The media. Without their constant and inaccurate representation of a very low-level threat, we would have felt much more secure over the past few years. Of course we were scared after 9/11, and we had a right to be. There is absolutely no shame in the American reaction the days and months following the attacks. The shame falls on our leaders, and our media conglomerates for exploiting our fear long after it should have been put to bed. The Bush administration saw a way to maintain a profile of strength and leadership and the newspapers and TV channels said "Yes, Massah. We sho gonna help. You just tell us what you be needin."

Naturally, there are plenty of terrorists out there. Folks who truly have it in for us and would destroy our country if given the chance. While they have not been given the chance, they have been given further reason to hate us. The invasion of Iraq, unconditional support for Israel, refusals to even speak to Hamas or Hezbollah about their legitimate complaints; all these have served to strengthen foreign terrorists' resolve rather than shake it.

However, they remain a very unlikely potential threat right now. Not to say the situation isn't worsening every day, it certainly is. The overseas terrorist threat is going to have to be addressed after the miserable debacle in Iraq is abandoned and we can step back and survey the total damage. But right now the terrorists are already here. They hold public office and edit major newspapers. Obviously, we're not going to stop paying attention to the news. But we don't have to rely on the administration's crooked bullshit as trumpeted by our sensationalist, gleeful, fear-mongering media. It's easy to find news on the internet, whether it's international, untouched by our media (the BBC online), or reported by people concerned with facts and not spin (e.g. Media Matters, Media Channel, BuzzFlash, the Huffington Post, Consortium News).

Your government needs your help in the fight against terror. It needs you to ignore the New York Times and the Washington Post when they report baseless, amorphous threats. It needs you to become an informed and educated citizen, willing to work a little harder to get news untainted by its meddlings. It needs you to vote against its criminals and thugs draining our national finances, killing the poor and reinforcing the rich. It needs you to rail against its empty promises; expose its clumsy lies; destroy its strangling influence before Big Business and Big Brother eliminate you entirely.

Our government has terrorized us long enough. Our way of life, a way they claim to represent and defend, is something they will never be a part of. We're not all wealthy, white, privileged kids whose power and influence are cemented by a long line of wealthy, white, priveleged ancestors. We're Americans, struggling for health care and jobs that haven't been outsourced yet. We're Americans, striving to show our children that there are leaders that can be looked up to. We're Americans, smothered by low wages and resigned to poverty. We're Americans still shattered one year after Katrina, unhelped and forgotten. We're Americans told that the next nightmare 9/11 is right around the corner.

And yet...I'm around that corner. I'm looking at the street and it occurs to me that I'm pretty safe here. I'm pretty safe and I can be happy. You know why? Because I'm a fucking American. The government will bow to MY will, not the other way around.

You're an American, too. Don't let the bastards tell you it means something it doesn't. You were born from rebels, people who fought the government and drove it out. They installed a better system that gives you power and safeguards your freedoms. Two hundred thirty years later it looks like it's time to do some more overthrowing.

On September 11, 2001, we were the victims of a hideous terrorist attack. We will never forget it, but we won't let our government make us victims every day.

Wake up and resist.