> Really, though, this gets into the issue of profiling. I believe in
> profiling. Police and the FBI can't really do their jobs without
> profiling. It's difficult to track serial killers without profiling. The
> only people who bitch about profiling are people who are the "victims"
> of it. And those people, as a group, are the ones who commit the most
> crimes. Which is the reason why they are profiled in the first place.
>
> By all means, track Arabs coming into this country. Of course, they are
> not all guilty. But by the same token, you don't detain every person who
> fits the profile. You simply track them as much as practicable.
Paul, I agree with many things that you advocate on this board, but
racial profiling is not one of them. Our wonderful country has always
been one of fairness and belief in proof. This makes us good at being
reactive, but not very proactive. It's the nature of the beast, the
beast being "liberty and justice for all". It's our collective burden
and our collective goal. Profiling seems like a good proactive method
as long as you aren't the one being racially profiled. Branding not
necessary. In other countries, when color of skin wasn't good enough,
some people got branded. I see no difference between a skin brand and a
police record that does the same. Now, that's not fair to you, because
it makes no mention of whose profiling and how it is used. In general,
I hate filling out any form that asks me to give my ethnicity, and I'm
pretty much all caucasion as far as I know. But at least I have a
choice of filling it out, or leaving it blank, or scrapping it
altogether. I'd hate to have somebody else take that choice away from
me, regardless of who it is, and fill it in on their own. Profiling
does this and that angers me. Profiling takes somebodies' liberty
away. Some profiling has its place. If I've committed a crime and
that's on my record, fine, I should have to deal with that. Somewhere
in here, there must be a line drawn in the sand, and racial profiling
crosses that line.
And when I hear someone tell a victim that they might have been spared
if we allowed racial profiling, that angers me, too. I just won't be
made to feel guilty for our liberty. It's our goal and our burden.
Racial profiling wouldn't have prevented the Oklahoma City bombing. The
argument for racial profiling must include some kind of equivalence,
race=likelihood. Even with whatever mileage you can get out of that,
I'll still say that any fair-haired nut with a 34 cent stamp and a fifty
cent petris dish can hide behind that argument. If I were a terrorist,
I'd look at our weakness for racial profiling and take advantage of it.
So what about aliens, some of whom could care less of our goal of
"liberty and justice for all"? Again, we're susceptible and always
will be until we tear down the Statue of Liberty (or it gets blown up.)
I do believe that temporary adjustments have to be made from time to
time, and not because of a terrorist attack. It's the threat to our
liberty that should guide us. Justice for the atrocities that were
committed is one thing - that should be taken care of swiftly. But it's
clear to me that our liberty is at stake and we must make adjustments.
I propose that all aliens of countries that are deemed havens for
terrorists must provide some form of sponsorship before entering this
country and have it verified. That sponsor must have some stake to be
forfeited if and when. That's what were doing now, in effect, just that
it is being applied in reaction. Whatever we advocate for screening
aliens, it should address the worldwide problem of state-sponsored
terrorism. Some kind of an insurance policy, if you will. We'll take
your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe
free...and you will pay if they come carrying ulterior motives.
I say, rebuild the towers and stick the Statue of Liberty on top of
them.
-Robert
(By the way, I wonder how long it takes some mixed-race
obsessive-compulsive to fill in racial status on forms. 8-)
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