Thoughts from the last 10 years

Our modern era split into two parts on September 11th. In the last ten years, like the World Trade Center,  some of our shared concepts about our world have fallen. Collapsed is the notion that the world “over there” has no impact on our own soil. In sad heap is the idea that we can apply kinetic force again ideological force. Fallen is the naiveté that we know how to manage the institutions that have fueled America’s growth, whose complexity and interconnectedness have increased geometrically.

There is an idea that has not fallen and has grown in strength and in implication – the idea that we can be completely safe. This farcical idea is literally destroying our country. This myth bankrupting our nation. This myth is breeding ideologues. The fantasy of complete safety has robbed us our dignity. It has decreased our operational efficiency.

This country is behaving like a child, afraid of the dark, insisting to turn on every light in the house. There isn’t a boogeyman under every bed, in every closet. The dark isn’t inherently dangerous. The dark contains the unknown and the undiscovered; it is in the dark that our future rests. It is only through bravery of admitting that we cannot be completely safe, through the decision to not be scared of the dark, that we can progress economically and emotionally.

Those who sacrifice liberty for security deserve neither
Ben Franklin actually wrote, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." I give the National Park Service a lot of credit for leaving this graffiti up on a bridge in Rock Creek Park. Besides, if Ben Franklin said it, is it really graffiti?

One thought on “Thoughts from the last 10 years”

  1. Terrorists using the same strategy on America that America used to end the cold war. We caused the USSR to spend military $ that we knew they could not afford. They were afraid of our missiles and we are afraid of terror.

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