Rich Benjamin

The United States of Security

The timing could not have been more uncanny.

Just Thursday night, I was running late to a free advanced screening of Good Night and Good Luck, George Clooney's bio-pic of Edward R. Murrow. Good Night and Good Luck is an absorbing, wonderfully directed period piece -- though it's hard to say whether the period in question refers more to the Communism-paranoid 50s or to our current fraidy-cat Security State.

Well, my cell phone jangled and transmitted my Mother's panicked voice: "Did you hear about the subway terrorist threat?" "No," I said. "Didja hear that terrorists are planning to strike the City's subway. Be careful. I'm worried." Irritated that she fell for the Bush Administration's latest distraction ploy, I hung up.

Then I hopped right on the subway to make my movie date.

Surely enough, NYC authorities reported yesterday that the threat was not credible or verifiable. This false alarm maybe even tops the most recent security craze: black looters wreaking havoc on a helpless Crescent City. In his recent New York Times Magazine article, Michael Lewis dishes the hilarious news flash passed on to his father: that New Orleans authorities "had to shoot about 500 looters." Needless to say, the government and media's dire reports of wide-spread black-on-black rape, crime, looting, and mayhem never transpired.

Americans have become terror addicts. During the security threats, two Supreme Court nominations entered full swing. Meanwhile, Republican leaders in Congress stand to gut domestic spending, up to $370 billion over the next five years. Medicaid. Housing assistance. Subsidized child care. Many safety nets that poor and working-class Americans rely on would suffer.

How's that for security?

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Posted at 8:46 AM, Oct 12, 2005 in Civil Rights
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