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our defense (Re: profiling and my arabic friends)

i wrote about profiling:

> >country.  if it is, i'd say it's more intense b/c
> of
> >the gravity and wide-spread threat of this
> situation. 
> >the scale is much larger than one murderer who
> >murdered one person.

and smitty said:

> So, because a serial killer in Alabama was a
> middle-aged white male, we 
> should look at all such individuals as potential
> criminals from this 
> point on?

i think it's fine to say that more need be done in a
situation like that (also with the oklahoma city
bombing which don mentioned).  i don't disagree.  i'm
the _last_ person trying to preserve white patriarchy
:)  still, i wouldn't compare a serial killer to 9/11.
 much bigger scale.  much bigger threat.

as for the comments made about defense spending (holly
and steve i think?), i don't agree that we should cut
back.  i am not defending past wrongs by supporting
the need for our increasingly enhanced military to
stay on top.  b/c of familiarity with what happens in
other countries, i don't trust human nature anywhere. 
not anywhere.  

to suppose that we would be left alone if we were to
let down our guard and to focus more locally is naive
i think.  the reason we have such a great military is
b/c we do hate the violence and opression.  few of us
here have been hungry or fired upon.  few americans
venture out far enough to see what poverty and
opression actually are.  no one here has had their own
leaders unleash biological warfare on them.

i think if we let up, we'd get some invasion or
something.  we could talk about fairness day and
night, but i don't think it can be discussed
presupposing the goodness of people.

my dad lived in saudi arabia for over a year.  he
worked with a lot of civilians and military personnel
from a variety of arab countries.  he got a copy of
the quran to understand their religion and culture
better.  he is not an intolerant man.  he'll criticize
the inconsistencies with christians and their/our
beliefs as well as any groups'.

but he came back from the middle east with an
impression: that the way to keep peace is to have
strength enough that it need not be used or that it be
used rarely.

> There is a quote that's oft-repeated in a few
> circles that I'd like to 
> point out now:
> 
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
> little temporary 
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
> 
> -- Benjamin Franklin, Historical Review of
> Pennsylvania, 1759.

and how did his great country of ideals gain its
independence?  i'm sure there was plenty of the
unpleasantries and compromises made.  then look at the
two world wars.  rationing.  the draft.  times change,
and so i guess the appropriateness of certain
inconveniences do too.  people made sacrifices, and
i'm not opposed to them.  franklin is not all that
specific by using words like "essential liberty" and
"temporary safety."  we have to take him in his
context, just like anything else.  i don't feel sure
he'd interpret them this way in the light of today's
situations.

with regard to stealing countries and oppression: it
grieves me.  it's probably part of why i chose to
study what i did in grad school.  where i target my
frustration and disappointment is called the falleness
of man and the evil that brought him down.  i don't
blame certain people groups.  and anyway: look at
those indigenous groups...they could be just as
territorial and bloody.  they were not all peaceful
_at all_.

i believe in ideals too, but they must be balanced
with a realistic endeavor to do the basics of
protecting the same people who hold them.  do you know
how cruelly dead you'd probably be if you lived in
most other countries?  karin and linford probably too.
 the people potentially threatening some personal
rights are protecting the "essential" and "basic"
rights that give us a chance to even discuss such a
matter.  you know, a.h. maslow's self-realization
chain, right?  in order to be more actualized, the
most basic of basic needs are to be met...food,
shelter, safety.

i don't think constraints like ours (which i think
should be temporary) are as bad as we think they are. 
i agree with don that caution is important.  i think
we should read, investigate and communicate with those
in lawmaking positions.  and vote.

even though i have hope, it's not in mankind.  that
may be were some ideologies diverge.

take care,
j. marie

=====
All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and the change is painful. -Flannery O'Connor

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