Soccer Mom: Unplugged

THE former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey of Clifton has issued his own challenge to “violent” Islam in a lecture in which he defends the Pope’s “extraordinarily effective and lucid” speech.

The Times online is carrying the story.  I appreciate the moxy it takes to make a statement like this one considering a nun is dead and the Pope is receiving death threats but I'm not sure this is doing much more than raising the national terror level to STUPID.  England is already fighting off the caliphate from a defensive position.  A poll taken last month revealed, if memory serves, that something like 4 of 10 British Muslims would not turn in a fellow Muslim if he were a terrorist.  A poll on Al-jazeera.net reveals that 49.9% of 41,260 Muslims polled support Osama bin-Laden.  At this point, any attempt at discourse will merely be reduced to rhetoric.  And the only losers in this battle  are the peaceful people in the middle.

We've had some heated discussions on this blog about wire tapping and government 'excess' with respect to the war on terror. I wish I had the solution to satisfy our need for security without compromising our way of living. A muslim friend of mine tells me that she constantly feels scrutinized and often singled out.  She's an American.  Born in this country.  On some levels I can sympathize.  I lived in Argentina after the Falkland Island War and had a few unpleasant exchanges with locals who couldn't see past my skin color and nationality.  For me it wasn't an institutionalized profiling so my understanding is limited but the fear and frustration of being rejected for something you have nothing to do with is very real.  At 21 years old,  I couldn't have found those islands on a map. 

But what are we to do?  The time for ostriching has passed.  Isolation stopped being an option the minute Marconi sent his first message.  We are forced to face the fact that people out there are determined to see the end of our way of life.  For me, that is worth sacrificing some rights.  If you've ever sat inside a home made out of cardboard boxes and garbage bags like I have in the little 'misery villages' of provencial south America, you realize that Americans have more 'basic rights' than most people of the earth.  And as a society we feel entitled to living above the law.  We speed and then knowing we're guilty, fight the ticket in court.  We provide defense attorneys for the admittedly culpable and embed loopholes into our laws to allow for irresponsible citizenship (offshore banking is an example).  I'm not arguing for martial law - I like being free just as much as the next guy.  I'm just saying it's time we realized what we're up against and that in any other country of the world, having your phone tapped or taking off your shoes before boarding an airplane would still places you among the most free of the world's inhabitants.