I have seen some longer lines at border crossings on the news. Apparently the leaders of the country that values the symbol of Staten Island and the Statue of Liberty has decided human beings now fall into two categories: those with rights called American Citizens, and those who do not deserve the same protection.

America may be at war with terrorists, as it has been in the past at war with drugs. And saying repeatedly that one is at war does not make it so. No declaration of war has been signed, no nation slapped in the face with a glove. War, too, is about laws and conventions. There is indeed an enemy but there is no war.

We live in very troubling times when the citizenry -- and that includes all people living under the sun and stars and not just those with an SSI ID -- are being silenced by high pitched rhetoric. It is very very troubling that most of the dissidents have cut their own tongues out.

I was never afraid around Nixon, Reagan, Bush Sr. They gathered around them men of principle. One did not have to agree with their policies to understand they at least believed in core values. I admired Bush Sr. greatly in the manner he went to war; he worked very hard at forming a true coalition and stepped into and *out of* conflict. I never believed Reagan would push the button and he didn't. And if Nixon had an appalling sense of personal paranoia, he also understood we live in a world of nations, and he ended the era of Viet Nam and opened the doors to China.

Bush Jr. has performed on television with some mastery and set a tone in the moment, like Giuliani, and unlike Pataki who has shrunk to insignificance -- and that tone is admirable in the moment. And Bush Jr. is much too much "surface" to be a leader of the Free World. He may indeed be a caring man but I wonder if he is a thoughtful man; he is not an obvious deep thinker.

It is not enough, not nearly enough, to hug the flag without embracing its core values. To remember what they really are. Ashcroft is a very very troubling figure. And Tim Ridge, oh save us please!, has there ever been such a dim bulb appointed? And to head up such a supposedly high profile and serious task? Homeland security? Do you feel reassured that *he* is on the job?

More than 4000 people died in a horrific act on September 11th. Many were American Citizens; some were not. All were human beings with equal rights to look up at the stars. Those responsible ought very rightly to be brought to justice -- and only those. When the mob is put in charge, terrible things can happen. It becomes okay to trample on rights in the "name" of this or that. Words like "crusade" and "evil" drop from the lips of leaders and become the foundation of justifications to fudge notions of liberty.

Coverage of the accidental crash of Flight 587 was revealing about the times we live in. CNN, MSNBC and the major traditional news networks had blanket coverage of the crash site. Yet two-thirds of the victims were from the Dominican Republic and many of those had families grieving on shores not American. There was no coverage from the Dominican Republic. Not American is in danger of becoming Unamerican. And that is soil in which the seeds of McCarthyism germinate and grow into dark prickly forests.

Democracy is messy and it is worthwhile. It is in times like these when voices are trampled and when we must strain to hear the truth. Be vigilant and on guard. The true enemy is not out there. The enemy is here in our midst and, like religious zealots at the pulpit, wears clothes like the rest of us. Be afraid. These are not the storm clouds of Osama Bin Laden but the old forces of repression, conformity, sterilization. Where those on the In are safe, and those on the Out, or cast out, no longer count. And everyone suddenly agrees that is ok. Orwell said "1984"; perhaps he can be forgiven for getting the year wrong.

Alexander Inglis (December 5, 2001)
In Toronto