Sanity, Security, and Fear

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I couldn’t pick a side between fear and sanity. Fear seemed too absurd and I just laughed, but I’m not sure I’m ready to subscribe to the sanity as described by Jon Stewart. My rally experience was different, exhilarating and full of laughs, funny pictures, and hilarious signs. Waking up at 4:30, then 4:45 only to be fully awoken at 5:30 (when we intended to leave at 5:15) to walk in the 39 degrees to Tenleytown thinking the Metro opened at 6 a.m. Boy were we wrong. It didn’t matter though; we got to enjoy coffee and breakfast at Starbucks before heading into the mall. Since we made the first trains, we got to go all the way to the Smithsonian station. It was very exciting since we weren’t sure how busy it would be first thing in the morning.

I enjoyed myself at the rally. I’m not a superfan of Jon Stewart or Steven Colbert but I enjoy their satire, because I think the world needs a bit of humor. However, my lack of knowledge of the subjects at the head of the rally made the purpose a bit vague. I got caught up in wondering if they really had a purpose, or were just making fun of Glenn Beck and his “Restoring Honor” rally. I may seem a tad apathetic at this junction, but that is how it seemed while I was down on the mall.

Something that was said at the rally that I wholeheartedly agreed with was that islamophobia has no place in our world. While it is true that the actors against our nation are members of the Islamic faith, it must also be mentioned that there are 1.5 billion Muslims in this world. Islam, one of the Abrahamic faiths, derives from a peaceful and forgiving stance. It is unfortunate that extremism has impacted such a beautiful and rich culture negatively. People who practice Islam should not be eschewed because of a small group of people painting them in a negative light.

On the topic of our discussions this week, I must make some things clear. Plain and simple, I think that our primary focus should be the physical security of the nation. I identify with the realist perspective and Machiavelli, so this opinion shouldn’t be a surprise. I approve of the fact that the Defense Department’s budget is the largest single sector of the United States budget. As we saw this week, there are many holes in which terrorist groups manage to find new ways to attack our interests both domestically and abroad. Two packages were discovered in Dubai and London containing explosives that had destinations in the United States. While the investigation is underway, it has become clear that these explosives originated in Yemen. This new discovery only drives my point from a few classes ago home that terrorism is evolutionary. While our security against a defined nation such as the Soviet Union was absolute, we must adopt new strategies to defend ourselves against an undefined conglomerate of people.

And now we move into Week 11 of 15. The semester is getting shorter, and I can smell Christmas.