GraniteGrok

Terrorists?

In my weekly newspaper column back in 2004, I reported on a local training drill that I found to be both outrageous... and insightful as to the mindset of some of those we grant sweeping powers:

[T]he Laconia Fire Chief has received “a $60,000 federal Homeland Security grant to test the ability of local and state agencies to respond to an areawide emergency.” The purpose of this, as reported in the story, is to help the “department and other emergency responders from around the Lakes Region be prepared for a possible act of domestic terrorism.” The training will take the form of a mock drill consisting of a scenario, as described by the publicly-employed Chief Erickson, where they will get “as real a taste of what it might be like if "an irate taxpayer," for example, deliberately crashed a truck carrying a flammable fuel into the front of the two-story building.” The “two story building” referenced for the drill will be the Laconia City Hall.

I could barely contain my outrage, at the time. And I still feel the same...

Let’s get this straight- in Laconia, the most realistic scenario of terrorism, as envisioned by that city’s head “first responder”, would involve not an Islamic radical insurgent or some other dangerous threat, but instead “an irate taxpayer” that, in yesterday’s America, would fall into the very category of people whom the Chief gets paid to “protect and serve.”

Fast forward to the present... First they came for the "irate taxpayers." Now, they're coming for the veterans. In its May 14th edition, the New York Times reported on another training event. Only this time, it involved FUTURE government agents and emergency responders-- an Explorer Post. And, the bad guy in the mock drill being reported about is another somewhat surprising perp... [via FreeRepublic]

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

You see? Such is the mindset of some of those we trust in positions of power and authority. Our friend, Blue Star mom Sue Peterson, in the email alerting us to this writes,

This article is really disturbing to me - especially in light of the Homeland Security telling people to watch for returning vets as possible 'terrorists' and people like me that hold to the 'right to bear arms' and because I 'cling to my Bible". 

The scenario is what ticks me off...What, they could not think of another scenario being close to the Mexican border?   

My sons are not 'terrorists' and neither are any of the other Iraq Vets that I know...

Same here. Shouldn't our youngsters-- like those in the Explorers-- be taught that our brave soldiers are nothing less than HEROES?!