“We have a right to defend our borders.”
….even when we keep moving them so more and more of yours comes to be ours. Ask the Native Americans or the Mexicans. Plus, borders are defended between sovereign states, not between occupied and occupier.
<<In 1939, one minute you are standing in France, and next minute you are in Germany, and you have not moved. People who claim they are defending their borders are mostly engaged in expanding them. USA v Mexico, Israel v Gaza, Nazi Germany v France, New York v New Jersey. Who owns Governor’s island?
Is that what they mean by a borderline personality, someone who goes on and on about border lines?>>
“We must protect the security of our people. We have no choice”
…. even if that means we have to lock half of them up for their own good and lie to the other half why we are doing it. Japanese Americans understand that story well. Slavery is the fast lane to a secure state of freedom. Trust us. Homeland Security is good for business. We can call our prison Freedom Plaza. No one will get the irony. The prison is the model for prosperity, because so long as people are free to shop on line, they don’t much care. Ebay, Facebook, Netflix and Amazon forever. Bread and circuses.
“We will not allow our people to be subject to intimidation or threats.”
…..unless its by us and for their own good. Never judge your enemy by the size or the efficacy of his weapons- judge him by his intent. The slightest hints of bad intention mean you can shoot to kill. Phone or camera looks like a gun, shoot. Tires are burning or being rolled away-shoot. illegal cigarettes being sold, choke him. Their flag- its lethal, shoot. Strolling with a hoody and an attitude in upscale suburb, kill him. That looks like a toy gun but that 10 year old looks as mean as a man. shoot first. That black kid Emmet whistles at that white girl. Get him.
There is the fatalism fallacy where you try to make the effect become the cause. The fact that he is dead means that he wanted to kill you. Why else did you have to kill him? You clearly did the right thing. The Titanic sank, so it must have been designed to sink. The black kid Kadeem whom the police murdered must have been angling to kill. Those peaceful protesters at Kent State we shot and killed were provoking us to overreact. Its their fault. If they did not want to be killed, they would not have walked into our bullets and tear gas. The fact we killed them is their effect that becomes our cause.
Violence makes fear into a fact, and that fact gives everyone something to fear. Did it work? Ask the police in black neighborhoods? Ask the 100 snipers on the Gaza Wall? Ask the FBI after wishing for MLK to be assassinated and when he was, they ran for cover. Be careful if you start the fire, that the wind does not blow back and incinerate you. Walk the U street corridor in DC and you still see the scars.
What were you afraid of? Policeman on the beat? Sniper on the Wall? Border Guard at the gate? FBI on the Civil Rights trail?
What if we deal with our fears first, rather than shoot first? That might make room for more courage on all sides. Violence is the first weapon of cowards. Anyone can shoot at 400 meters, hiding behind a wall at unarmed civilians, but it takes a real man/ a real woman to talk down the fear, face to face. The only thing we have to fear is fear itself, a famous leader once said.
When will we ever learn this?
Add another name to Kent State. Sharpesville. Soweto, Abu Grub. My Lai. Katyn, Croke Park, Sabra and Shatila. Add Gaza.