Attack of the "Lite Brites"

The opportunity to comment upon the recent panic and over reaction of the Boston officials to the guerilla advertising campaign stunt is too much to pass up. Small devices that resembled enlarged "Lite Brite" [a children's toy] pictures of a character on a Cartoon Network program caused hours of dislocation and near panic when Boston officials declared a terrorist alert, apparently believing that the devices were potential bombs. Similar devices have up in public places for up to three weeks in ten different cities, but Boston was the only one where serious reaction was registered. In other cities, the marketing devices were viewed as perhaps juvenile, but not dangerous. Closer examination of the devices readily revealed that they were not bombs and posed no threat to public safety. The danger that did result was from the official reaction.

Therein lies the issue that should concern us. It would be too easy to ridicule the Boston police for their "chicken little" response to an innocuous piece of marketing junk. The real concern is the level of public paranoia that has been cultivated and fostered over a supposed threat of a terrorist attack. We are in the midst of a culture of fearmongering in which we are constantly reminded to fear and distrust everyone in public and to worry about a terrorist attack wherever we go. In such an atmosphere, it is not surprising that the Boston police would overreact.

Most of us recall the argument between the Sheriff and the town Mayor in the movie "Jaws" over whether to alert the public to the threat of a shark attack. The same debate was portrayed more recently in the movie "Deep Impact." where a comet threatened the earth. The issue is the responsibility of officials to investigate and try to eliminate a potential threat to public safety before sounding a public alert that may cause widespread panic and injury. It seems, however, that the public has been in a state of "orange" or "red" alert for the past four years. It is long past time to examine whether this is a healthy situation that should continue.

The public was not whipped into the current level of hysteria in a "post Oklahoma City" world. But now the Department of Homeland Security justifies curtailing civil liberties and the constant fearmongering about a terrorist attack with the excuse that we now live in a "post 9/11" world. There have been terrorist attacks around the world, both before and after the attack on the World Trade Center. They have ranged from politically motivated bombings to schoolyard massacres. And yet all this investment in "Homeland Security" has not made us demonstrably any safer than before 9/11. Indeed, experts in the field have opined that the Iraq occupation and "war on terror" have actually made us less safe. By effectively declaring open war on an ethnic group [Arabs] and a religion [Islam], the Bush Administration has baited extremists. The destabilization of Iraq has increased the ability of terrorist groups to hide out in Iraq.

The sad reality is that the fearmongering is a political tool being cynically used to maintain leverage on the issue of "national security." There is, in fact, no appreciably greater threat to the United States now than before the 9/11 attack. By positing an amorphous "enemy" of "terrorism," which is a tactic and not a definable target, the Bush Administration has created an omnipresent "Boogieman" to put us all in fear. Worst of all, this deception has been supported by outright lies. We are told that to fight this "terror" that is embodied by Al Qaeda, we must invade and occupy Iraq. The facts we now know, are that Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack and that Al Qaeda was not functioning in or sponsored by Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

America needs to wake up. There are threats of crime and violence, and they will continue to exist. Improved technology and police agency cooperation using traditionally developed and constitutionally sanctioned methods have and will continue to help maintain public security without destroying the foundations of a free and democratic society. Through these means we can respond rationally and effectively to real threats. But if we continue in dazed hysteria and induced fear regarding imagined threats, the result will not only be the trampling of our civil rights, but the literal and physical trampling of citizens in a public panic attack. The Boston experience should be a wake up call.