Random Thoughts

Feb. 19, 2003

We‘re not so tough, but we could be

These days, being a “patriot” seems to be mostly about driving around with a tattered flag on your gas guzzler or supporting the war in Iraq (as long as you or your kids aren‘t the ones who will be spilling your blood in the sand, of course).
That‘s not good enough. We‘ve blown it folks -- we haven‘t been asked to do anything to help the cause of our country in the wake of 9/11. There really is a War on Terrorism, but we haven‘t been asked to pitch in. Not in the slightest. No sacrifice has been asked of us -- no appeal has been made to us to lift a finger, or to reach out to others around the world. At best, we‘ve been instructed to “keep shopping.“
That‘s us, apparently: just a bunch of frightened consumers, waiting for code orange to go red.
I have in-laws in Florida who report that folks down there are in a complete panic over the threat of terrorists sneaking through the sawgrass out in the ‘glades with the gators and the wild goats. People are taping their windows up like crazy. On the East Coast, people are as jittery as a 5 lb. sack of Starbucks. What a lost opportunity to buy stock in duct tape.
And what a meager response. There are so many things that we the people of the United States could be doing in our own defense and for the improvement of the world other than stringing duct tape. Consider these blasts from the past, which could prove handy today:
• A Home Guard: In World War II, civilians were deputized to watch the coast for submarines and the borders for infiltrators. Home guards of civilians were used in Britain as a bulwark against invasion by the Nazis as well as by Napoleon a century earlier. In Switzerland, every adult is part of the home guard with a mandatory assault rifle in the home.
So, where‘s our home guard? Our government‘s bright idea is to throw more money on the deficit fire to address the problem, rather than relying on its citizens. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow is co-sponsoring a Homeland Security Block Grant which will provide $3.5 billion in funds to state and local governments for increased security. Of that amount, $2.1 billion will go to the 1,000 counties, cities and towns judged to be the in the greatest danger of attack -- places like nuclear power plants or fuel storage facilities.
A better plan would be to organize a volunteer home guard for civil defense. As Stabenow notes, there are 600,000 bridges, 170,000 drinking water systems, more than 2,800 power plants -- 104 of them nuclear -- 190,000 miles of natural gas pipelines, 463 skyscrapers and 20,000 miles of border to defend. We‘re going to pay local cops to look after all that?
A home guard could rely on citizen volunteers to do the job. A home guard would help re-ignite a sense of community and civic duty in America which is sadly lacking, and would remind us all that the price of liberty is vigilance, and not just supporting the economy with our credit card debt. Personally, I’d rather join my fellow citizens to guard our country or patrol its borders for a couple hours each week than see America packed with machine gun-toting soldiers like communist East Germany or a banana republic.


• Conserve energy: Remember the Oil Crisis of the mid-‘70s? People started car-sharing; alternative energy initiatives such as tax credits were encouraged; and cities across America began beefing up their mass transit systems.
We need to kick our oil addiction if we‘re ever going to shake free of terrorists. The Muslim Jihadists have a turban full of hornets over our presence in Saudi Arabia and other oil-producing Arab countries. If we started easing out of those places now by developing alternative fuels, those countries would have ample time to start diversifying their economies with new industries.
In the wars of the past, citizens were asked to conserve materials such as sugar, oil, gas, rubber and tin foil. Why not now?
We need to hold Detroit‘s feet to the fire to produce the 40-70 mpg hybrid cars that run on a combination of gasoline/electric engines. We need to vote for an alternative energy future with our dollars when it‘s time to buy a new car.
• Walk the walk if you talk the talk: Nothing is more nauseating than the “talk radio patriots“ who are all in favor of the war in Iraq, but would never dream of volunteering to fight it themselves. If your heart is set on this war, join up, Soldier Sam. Join the infantry and lead a charge over the burning sands, Braveheart. Don‘t leave the fighting to an army of blacks and poor white recruits. Please, do leave your wife or husband and family; let your career and mortgage fall to ruins and risk losing an arm, an eye, or your life. That‘s what a war is all about, and if you believe in this one, stop pushing someone else into the firing line. If Rush “Boil on his Butt 4F“ Limbaugh and Sean Hannity were real men, they‘d quit their multi-million dollar jobs and volunteer for the front lines as did many celebrities in World War II.
• Limit big government. Conservatives, please, speak up for what you claim to believe in. The $3 trillion debt and vast governmental apparatus George Bush is creating would make the most ardent liberal blush a deep purple with its excess. Why aren‘t you speaking out? The borrow-and-spend mantra of this administration is like handing a gambling addict a credit card with no limit and telling him to let ‘er rip -- someone else will pay the bill. Who‘s going to pay for these crushing deficits? Us and our great-grandchildren, that‘s who -- our brains addled by the thought of our tax cut. Then too, the proposed PATRIOT II Act moves America closer to a police state with the shredding of the Bill of Rights. At the very least, spare us the patronizing hogwash about liberals supporting big government in the next election, when the reverse is so painfully evident.

We‘re not so tough, but we could be. For proof, consider Governor Granholm‘s recent State of the State speech in which she told Michigan‘s citizens to buck up because there‘s a $2 billion shortfall in the budget to surmount. The response? Bipartisan cheers and an outpouring of can-do spirit. We need that spirit generated on a national level, not through more debts and federal spending to keep us “safe,“ but on direct citizen involvement.