September 23, 2002- Protection From Who?
Once again, the title of today's column may be misleading to some. There might be those that think that I am about to write about protecting people from The Who, but that is not the case, the only ones that The Who need to worry about harming is themselves, as their reputation as greedy frauds grows with every show that they play nowadays. No, I am speaking about all the blather that is coming out these days about those that America needs to be protected from, you know, those terrorist cats. Everywhere you go , you have some sort of added security measure to face that has been put there to help protect you, the innocent civilian. Airports have been turned into virtual bunkers, public events have become Pig fests, the government has added a new division to the President's cabinet to deal with issues of Homeland Security, laws have been passed with frightening speed that restrict freedoms, even the media is not anywhere near as open as they used to be, all in the name of security and safety, to protect us all from the evil terrorist crowd. All of those that were responsible for implementing all of these new measures have told us all that over and over again. They are all changes that are necessary in America to protect us from terrorism, they say. The American people have gone along with this pretty well for the most part. They have not complained too awful much about these new security measures, because most of them say that they do make them feel safer and more protected from terrorism. This is exactly what the powers-that-be want to hear, so they can implement ever more of these measures. Since there has not been any further terrorist activity in over a year now, these measures seem to be working. But are the American people any safer now than they were then? Recent events seem to indicate that they are not. A few night ago, there was a baseball game (match) here in Chicago at Comiskey Park, the Chicago White Sox against the Kansas City Royals in a late season game that meant absolutely nothing except raising revenues for the teams. And they weren't raising very much as it was. It was a very nice late summer night in Chicago, and there were a few thousand fans enjoying the game. Suddenly, near the end of the game, something happened. Two dudes came running out of the stands over by the first-base side, and went straight at Tom Gamboa, the Royals first base coach. These two proceeded to attack Gamboa, hitting him on the had and shit, until they were overwhelmed by the rest of the Royals team that came running out of their dugout and jumped all over these two dudes. Thge 7basically beat the shit out of them and held them until the Pigs came and arrested them. This turned out to be a father and son combination that did this, dad is a 34 year old dude, and sonny is 15. As the Chicago Pigs were escorting Daddy to a Pig car, the medias asked him why he did it, and he said that Gamboa gave him the finger or some such shit, a charge that Gamboa denies and there have been no witnesses that have come forward to corroborate the attacker's story. Now was this father and son team some sort of evil Islamic terrorists like the ones that America is supposed to be protected from? No exactly. These were two white American dudes from the South Suburbs of Chicagoland that live in an apartment (flat) that had an American flag proudly flying from the balcony. The dad supposedly lost his infant daughter earlier this year and also lost his job a few months back, so he has had a rough time, a very American story. Yet, he turned out to be someone that was far more dangerous to society and Gamboa in particular than any Islamic terrorist. All of the Homeland Security and draconian laws and extra Pigs and everything else that America has put in place to protect Americans like Gamboa seem to have worked to protect him against Islamic terrorists, but they seem to have not worked so well in protecting him from Americans. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated incident, Americans attacking other Americans. It happens every day .America is one hell of a dangerous place, and it was that long before the terrorists crashed those planes that morning last year. It has been a very dangerous place for a very long time. America is a land of plenty and of convenience too. There are 24 hour stores all around the country that offer the consumer the opportunity to go and buy Ho-Ho's or Ding-Dongs or Twinkies or dog food at any hour of the day or night. Problem is, that this can also be a very dangerous thing to do in America depending on when you do it. For if you have that massive craving for Ho-Ho's at, let's say ,Three AM, you are risking your life getting them from the 24 hour convenience store, and it has nothing to do with terrorists of any kind. For the only Islamic types that you will generally see in the convenience store at that time is the clerk behind the counter, and most of these stores are pretty good at screening terrorists out of potential employees, so you are safe there. The problem arises with your fellow American. Specifically, the one that smokes crack or shoots heroin or some other such thing and does not have a job or any legitimate means of income and needs money to support his habit and to survive in general. This guy is likely to take advantage of the easy availability of firearms in America and get himself one and use that firearm to rob that convenience store at Three AM when you are in there buying those Ho-Ho's that you craved so much. Your chances of getting killed in a scene like that in America are very much greater than those of being killed by a terrorist act of any kind. So are the odds of getting caught in the middle of a drive by shooting perpetrated by Americans. Or of being killed by a drunk and/or reckless American driving a car. The list goes on and on and on. Your chances of being killed and/or maimed by another American in America far outstrip those of what the terrorists can do to you. So, all of this new security and laws and other related bullshit that we have seen in the last year has not really helped make Americans safer and more protected in general, for the ones that they seem to need the most protection from are themselves. How does the government deal with this?
They deal with it by admitting that there is indeed a security problem within the ranks of the American people. They admit that they do have to do something to protect Americans from other Americans. So they do their part. They do this by making sure that they have a part of their security apparatus that deals solely with the American people. However, this security apparatus is not the Department of Homeland Security. No, that apparatus is far to recent to be able to serve that function. Rather, the Pigs have has this security apparatus in place for quite a while. It is known as the Narcotics section of the Pig scene. This is the section that the Pigs insist will help protect Americans from Americans. They claim that what this squad does is helping to make America a safer place. Why, they even claim that it is they that would be the ones that stopped that heinous felon that robbed the convenience store at Three AM when you were buying Ho-Ho's and shot you. The say that if they bust him with his stash of crack or smack or whatever he has, that they have protected you from his violent ways, like robbing the convenience store. However, the Pigs then leave out the fact that there is almost always something other than drugs that drove this dude to do this sort of thing in the first place. But the Pigs shall always focus on the issue of drugs and blame that for everything. There have been other ways that the Pigs say that they have been making America a safer place lately too. They have been doing this by raiding medical marijuana places in California, a state where the voters c;early stated that they approved of this being in their society. In the last few months, the Pigs there have methodically raided one of these places after another, and also raided the places where the marijuana is grown that is sold in these places. Time after time, they have closed down these joints, (no pun intended) and arrested those that patronize them, like a 79 year old man that has prostate cancer, and AIDS patients and glaucoma patients alike. Just the sort of people that Americans need to be protected from. The Pigs insist that we all do need to eb protected from these types, because they have been stepping up the rate of raiding these places. They have been disregarding the essential principle that democracy runs on, and that is the will of the people. For the only reason that these places are in existence in California in the first place is because the voters there approved them. They did os by saying as much on official ballots in official elections, like the American system is supposed to. There was no election fraud on this issue like we had when we elected the last President or anything either. All of this was on the up-and-up, everything was kosher, so to speak. The voters of the state of California, including those that do not use marijuana, spoke, and they said that they wanted these clinics to be able to operate in their state. The Feds did not listen to that though. They have taken it upon themselves to relentlessly go after these clinics and arrest those that run them and use them as well. How anyone is made safer by the arrests of cancer and AIDS patients is beyond me. But that is how the American government is reacting to the problem of Americans needing to be protected from Americans.
So, as anyone can see, the American government is protecting us all from the wrong Americans. Rather than concentrate on those that are violent, they go after the sick and infirm. While guns and other firearms are rampant all across America, they go after those that are ill. They say that they are indeed going after the violent, and they point to the violence that surrounds the drug trade as proof of that. But that violence is caused by the fact that drugs are prohibited, therefore making them more profitable, and that profit is what the violence is really about, not the drugs, they are mere conduits to profit. In the meantime, the citizens that are not involved in drugs are getting wilder everyday. Road rage is epidemic in America now. Any fucker that just drives alongside of you nowadays is likely to attack and harm you if some little thing pisses him off in some way. All sorts of militia groups have been springing up in America these last few years, armed to the teeth and ready for war against anyone that they don't like. The culture of self-centeredness that is promulgated by the likes of Hollywood and the media is alive and well and more powerful than ever in today's America. All of this is pumped into the heads of the populace at all times in so many different ways. Americans are told that their universe extends only from the tops of their heads to the soles of their feet and only what they want is what matters. They are told that all that matters is materialism and what they can accrue, and they are told to do whatever it takes to accrue more than the other guy does. Firearms and other weapons are cheap and easy to obtain, and as a result, life is cheap in America. Murder is endemic and is getting worse. Violence is being seen as a way to resolve more and more problems in American society. Getting your any way that you can, even if that involves violence and/or murder, is more prevalent in America than ever before. These are the things that Americans need to be protected from, yet their government protects them by arresting the ill and infirm and those that are trying to help them out. They spend inordinate amounts of time and money to enact all sorts of things that are supposed to protect against terrorists while they don't do a fuckin' thing about the seeds that spawn the real problems in society, the ideas and ways of Mr. Businessman. For it is pursuit of his ideals that has brought about so much violence in America today, and he is the one that Americans need to be protected from far more than any terrorist, for he is capable of doing far more damage in America than any terrorist ever could hope to do. We seem to be protected enough against terrorists, it would be nice if we could be as equally protected against the Americans that go nuts on the mentality of America and cause damage to us all.