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INCENTIVES FOR PEACE
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Homeland
Security
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| On Getting Older | |
| Psychoactive Substances |
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most shocking scenes for me sitting watching TV in my family room
were not the crashing planes or the collapsing
buildings. It was watching people leaping to their
deaths from 90 floors up. Or, perhaps it was one woman helping the
other woman peel
off the remnants of her burned clothes. The other thing we all witnessed on September 11th was the failure of our government to protect us. I’m not blaming the people in our government, not even either of the George Bushs or Bill Clinton. What we witnessed was failure of the state as an institution. And, it’s not just this “Attack on America.” Before that unthinkable carnage our government had failed to protect us in other ways as well. Consider the stock market and the economy. The Federal Reserve Board has been unable to reverse the crashing economy despite an unprecedented series of interest rate cuts. Congressional tax cuts haven’t helped either. The economic meltdown at the beginning of the century will now be partially blamed on terrorism, but the global recession was going to happen anyway. Governments are not more powerful than economic cycles. We should have known that from the 1930s. Despite the billions of dollars spent on illegal drug interdiction the price of cocaine at American high schools has dropped steady from about $350/gram in 1983 to about $200/gram today. Despite all the political machinations swirling around the international drug trade, things continue to get worse in this country rather than better. On September 11th Colin Powell was on his way to Colombia to “get things going” in our support of supply reductions there. That was going to be a dangerous trip for him. Maybe it’s a good thing he didn’t have to make it. And, none of those billions we’re spending in Colombia address the growing problem of creative chemistry and the new designer drugs. Governments are not more powerful than consumer demand for pain relief and addiction. We already learned that lesson in the 1930s. What we did learn on that dark Tuesday is that the most powerful country in the history of the world cannot protect its citizens from zealots willing to sacrifice their own lives for a political or religious cause. We learned that airport security has been an illusion. During the TV coverage of the World Trade Center disaster Katie Couric’s interview of Mary Schiavo, former Inspector General of the Federal Aviation Agency, caught my attention. Ms. Schiavo told the story of her efforts in vain to get another government official to spend more on airport security. She reported being rebuffed with a cost/benefit argument something like this: “The PanAm/Lockerby disaster cost about $2 billion and the measures you’re advocating will costs about $10 billion. Besides, even if we made the airports safe, they’d just bomb something else.” The ethics of that official’s first sentence are quite disturbing, and after Tuesday we also understand the stupidity of his calculus. But, unfortunately his second sentence is on the mark. As we now know zealots can be very devious. Consider our own Oklahoma City bombing for a moment. My point is that your government, indeed, no government can provide 100% for your security. Our defense budget this year is now $345 billion. Why not spend $500 million? Wouldn’t that make us all safe? Why not spend trillions on an airtight national missile defense system? Surely, that would make us safe. Build higher walls then we can all be secure? The problem is walls don’t work. The lessons of history are clear – Jerico, the Great Wall of China, Yorktown, the Haley-Smoot Tariffs, the Maginot Line, the Iron Curtin, the San Diego/Tijuana fence. Guileful Greeks defeated the Trojan bricks. Robert Frost said, “Good fences make good neighbors,” in jest. The more insightful comment is that by John Locke in 1693, “The only fence against the world is a thorough knowledge of it.” Certainly in Washington this means more money spent on the CIA than on missile defense hardware. But Locke’s message isn’t really for the government. He’s talking to people, to us. We, of course, cannot ignore considerations of security. However, our primary efforts should be directed toward building peace. This starts in our own households and neighborhoods. Tolerance and listening are key. Tolerance toward our Muslim American neighbors will be particularly important now – they share in the tragedy of the events in New York. Building peace also means being engaged in exchanges, both commercial and cultural, across borders. Such exchanges lead to the mutual knowledge Locke described. Such exchanges lead to better lives for all and create incentives for peace. The purpose of terrorist acts is to promote fear. The terrorists win if we give up on our American appreciation for diversity and instead accept their kind of xenophobia and hate. |
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The 48th Congressional District includes the following Orange County cities:
Aliso Viejo / Dana Point / Foothill Ranch / Irvine / Laguna Beach / Laguna Hills/ Laguna Niguel / Laguna Woods / Lake Forest / Newport Beach / Portola Hills/ San Joaquin Hills / San Juan Capistrano / Tustin / Tustin Foothills
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