(Perhaps it would help to view this post in light of the fact that the disinction the talking heads among our media make between a hate crime and terrorism is an almost meaningless one -- that is to say, they usually make their distinctions on a case-by-case basis, ad hoc: occasionally, because the victims are fewer than a score in number, but more often because the victims are of a group perceived as protected, or because the perpetrators are white Americans. Nevertheless, and the language of virtually all hate crime legislation reflects this, a hate crime against, say, a Hmong American is by definition intended to terrorize all Hmong Americans, just as 9/11 was a sort of hate crime against anyone born in this country, as well as any foreigner who works in, or with, or otherwise supports America.)
Now, I have never heard of any murderous gay-bashers or bomber of black Baptist churches being held for years with no right to due process, in secret locations where they'd most likely be tortured. As satisfying though it might have been, Timothy McVeigh wasn't black-bagged and shipped to Uzbekistan to hang from a ceiling fan while his toenails were plucked out.
In spirit, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and all that come with them, are intended to apply to all human beings. In practice, the ideals espoused therein are safest and most secure when in practice they apply to as many human beings as possible.
It may be counterintuitive but I'm pretty sure that our greatest weapons against terrorism are not furtiveness and the abrogation of our rights, but openness and an embracing of the latter; we are most secure not when we abandon the ideals on which this country was founded, but when we cleave closer than ever to them, even at the exclusion of seeking out the illusion of security.
Labels: abu Gonzales, common sense, crypto-fascism, evil, fascism, Glennocidal Tendencies, jingoism, morality, stupidity, war on tair, wingnuttery
