Security
Two years ago, I had occasion to attend a street fair in downtown Cleveland, sponsored by the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland. When I got there, I saw that attendees were required to go through a metal detector. At the time, I thought this was ridiculous. I mean, who puts metal detectors at a street fair?
Well, after reading about this horrible crime, perpetrated Friday in Seattle by a self-proclaimed "Muslim American, angry at Israel," I find the JCF's security concerns to be a lot more understandable.
I still think the metal detectors were ridiculous. The lines of unarmed people waiting to go through the metal detectors would have provided a target-rich environment for anyone looking to kill Jews. Still, I now think the JCF's security concerns were perfectly understandable.
posted by Jason Sonenshein @ 11:02 PM
2 Comments:
You should see what my synagogue's monthly newsletter talks about and my weekly emailed newsletter from it. The restraint on one's freedoms as a result of the Seattle types of incidents, is crushing and closing in. And I mean this for everyone - not just Jews. I remember just after 9/11, I flew to meet some friends in New Orleans. The airport was desolate and homogenous - no one who wasn't a white was there, and there were extremely few children, mostly business people. NO ONE who looked REMOTELY Semitic - regardless of religion.
I fear for Jews, but I also think frequently about how people of Arab descent - regardless of religion - or Persian descent, must feel when they travel.
We were in Niagara, as you know, and there are many foreigners there. You can't tell who is Israeli, or Lebanese, or Iranian or Indian or Pakistani, and I'm sure we were all there.
But the practical restrictions - that we place on ourselves to stay safe and that government's impose because they think they're keeping us safe as well as their citizens safe - abound, and they are as obvious as the metal detectors and as subtle as being careful what you wear.
Life should not be this way - for anyone.
Jill, thanks for stopping by! I'll never understand people who think a police state would protect us from terrorism. Northern Ireland, Ulster, whatever you want to call it) is part of the United Kingdom, and thus is subject to the same draconian gun control laws as the rest of the U.K., yet the (terrorists, freedom fighers, militias, whatever you want to call them) never seemed to have a shortage of weapons. ETA was able to pull off terrorist attacks even when Franco was in charge. I don't know what the answer to terrorism is, but I do know that the further diminution of liberty is not the answer.
Here's an interesting organization, formed in the wake of the arrests of 17 alleged members of a terror cell in Mississauga. Of course it provoked this satirical response.
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