July 04, 2008 | Tags: none

Tonight I probably won’t be doing what most of you will. There will be no alcohol involved in my evening. No sparklers, firecrackers, bottle rockets or roman candles. No lying on a blanket under the night sky seeing the fireworks’ reflection in the eyes of someone close to me. No cookouts. It’s just another Friday night for me. Aside from the fact that it’s a huge hassle to make it into DC on the 4th, I just can’t imagine being able to be all festive and happy when I have to make my way through security checkpoints and hear the helicopters flying over my head with a sickeningly frequent consistency. Especially after I read things like this news story from MSNBC entitled “FBI might use profiling in terror investigations”:

Shouts to Dallas Penn for bringing that one to my attention.

I really hope everybody reading this takes the time to check out that article. What’s sad is that this is probably nothing new to any of us.

“The Justice Department is considering letting the FBI investigate Americans without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile that could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.”

Does this really need to be stated? They’re considering it? Does the Justice Department not realize that the FBI has been doing this for some time now? Have we forgotten about the Patriot Act?

A few years ago, on this day, I took myself and a few family members from out of town into the district so that they could see the DC fireworks. It is something worth seeing at least once, I must say. I hadn’t been to see them since 9/11, but I knew there would be some security I wasn’t used to. So, I’m walking down a street with my fam and we see a checkpoint. No big deal – we’re not doing anything wrong, right? Most of us get through with no problem. However it took one of us in particular an excessively long time to get through the line. She was wearing a hijab, had an accent, and obviously wasn’t just an “American”. In actuality she wasn’t an American at all, she was visiting from out of the country, but the guards at the checkpoint really wouldn’t have had a way of knowing that unless she told them or showed ID, so that’s pretty much irrelevant in this setting. They searched her bag inside and out, while I watched other people with bags just as big (if not bigger) walk right through while somebody merely peeked into their stuff. Needless to say, it was rather embarrassing. Mostly because we were trying so hard to show my family members a good time while they were in DC. One of them flew across an ocean to get here, only to be singled out and treated differently (not in a positive way) than everybody else. So much for Southern hospitality. And I’m sure I don’t even have to say what the basis of their reasoning was for giving her so much more hassle than anyone else around.

They didn’t find anything and eventually let her pass through the checkpoint. And I haven’t been to any of DC’s 4th of July celebrations since. I’m over it.

“Immediately after 9/11, hundreds of Muslims and Arabs were detained, deported and monitored as the government urgently sought information that could prevent another attack. Despite efforts to repair and nurture relationships with those groups, Muslim- and Arab-Americans still complain of being singled out by federal security practices.”

Yeah, that’s a quote from the same article that I linked at the beginning of the post. They pretty much admit that unjust profiling was going down before. And yet, they still feel the need to announce their plans to do so now. The difference being that some people in our justice system believe that simply profiling people based on their race, religion, beliefs, etc. is the right thing to do now. As if our country wasn’t filled with enough prejudice and racism already.

If you ask me, this is all motivated by fear. And every time the leaders of our government take one more step towards infringing upon another one of our dwindling civil liberties, the terrorists win. According to dictionary.com, the second definition of “terrorism” is “the state of fear and submission produced by terrorism or terrorization”. A terrorist, according to WordNet, is “a radical who employs terror as a political weapon”. Since 9/11, America has redefined “privacy”, blatantly profiled its own citizens, ruthlessly attacked nations for reasons that, at this point, seem rather fuzzy, and has employed color codes to make its citizens feel safer. Why? All to defend itself against terrorism. All to lessen the fear of being attacked by the terrorists. Who, for the record, are probably in their caves, smoking a hookah, laughing hysterically at the antics our country has exhibited since “terrorism” became the new sensitive word in Washington.

Fear.

A fear, originally of violence, that has distorted itself into a fear of peoples and cultures whose beliefs don’t align with our own. A fear that was instilled onto the American public, by various forces such as the media, in order to manipulate us into agreeing with the injustices performed against us by the government after 9/11. We were frightened to the point that many of us didn’t mind the fact that somebody may be listening in on our phone calls for no good reason at all. That every book you check out of the library could be tracked. All because somehow this would stop the scary terrorists from getting to us.

Well, Bin Laden is still out there, the world isn’t too happy with us, we’ve lost far too many soldiers in a war that was flawed from the start, and in many ways, we’re far worse off than when we started.

I, for one, am sick of this. I am not, have not been, and will not be ashamed of my roots for the sake of not getting fucked with by law enforcement and federal agents. I love this land, it’s an amazing place, but the people running it have formed a cloud that is creating a constant shadow over the beauty of this land. And not much, if any, good has come from it. Our leaders seem so concerned with simply maintaining the power and control that boosted our national ego as we basked in “superpower” status, that their greed and superiority complexes have thoroughly skewed their perceptions of reality and what is truly good for the citizens they rule over. I’m disgusted that the deaths of so many people on 9/11 formed the basis of the excuse to invade our privacy and assume our guilt before assuming our innocence. Today is supposed to be a celebration of independence, but I can’t help but feel slightly trapped. Feeling that simply who I am is enough to incriminate myself in the eyes of others.

I hope the Justice Department is listening. I hope someone in that group of people knows that we won’t just sit back and let them treat us like dirt and assume our guilt based upon superficial factors or where we choose to go on vacation*. They say they won’t read personal e-mails or tap into phone calls based solely on our backgrounds, but at this point why should we believe them? We know they have the technology to do so quite easily, so who is to say that they aren’t? Once they know they want to take you down, chances are they can find something to take you down for. That’s why we have laws about things like the fact that you can’t have anything hanging from your rearview mirror, right? So they can pick and choose who gets pulled over? I mean, really.

Aside from merely speaking your mind and getting people to listen though, remember that a large, and easier said than done, step in maintaining your personal freedom is to live a righteous life. No, I’m not trying to preach, I’m just using logic. This isn’t foolproof, but if you do not commit crimes or give people an easy reason to take you down, then they pretty much can’t. Fuck the police, we have to watch our own backs these days. And the best way to do this is to just stay out of trouble. Be safe. Be aware of what information about you is kept on record. Be aware of your surroundings. Know the laws that are in effect in your area. Read. Read a lot. Read about anything and everything, and then use that knowledge as your most powerful weapon. But whatever you do, don’t give anyone easy and thoughtless reasons to take you down easily. You never know when someone has their eye on you and you could be next.

I love this country, and I love the ideals that we are supposed to stand for. Which is exactly why some of the things I’ve seen happen in the name of “patriotism” make my blood boil. So I will celebrate our independence today, even if my celebration takes the form of demanding back the liberties I feel I have lost in the last six years. Because that is patriotism. Standing up for our rights in a democratic society that should be giving us the full freedom to do so without fear of being singled out due to twisted fears and the prejudices that come along with them. I wish you all a safe 4th of July and hope that you can take the day off that most of you have and spend it with your loved ones, while having an excellent time on a gorgeous summer day.

*"Among the factors that could make someone subject of an investigation is travel to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, along with the person's race or ethnicity." I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried.

The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the writer and not necessarily those of HipHopDX.com or Cheri Media Group.

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