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Last update - 00:34 07/10/2006 Be afraid, America. Be very afraid By Bradley Burston Note: This article will be followed by an experiment. In an effort to foster rational dialogue, Talkback responses to this piece will be subject to stringent new guidelines, as specified below. __________________________ We have met the enemy, and, all too often, he looks like us. Advertisement The United States has spent breathtaking sums since September 11 to assure that people who look like Mohammed Atta don't walk onto airplanes, take thousands of innocent lives, and destroy embodiments of the nation's majesty. But what if the terrorist you're looking for is not an Arab, not a Muslim, not swarthy and foreign-born and, yes, alien? What if he looks and acts the way Americans used to believe that real Americans were supposed to look: cool, quiet, Christian and, yes, white? What if he's the guy from the Norman Rockwell calendar, the knowing veteran at the hardware store, the serious, courteous, diffident rock on which the All-American empire was built? After the vast resources sinkholed into Homeland Security, what if the most immediate, the most likely, the most realistic terrorist threat to America, is the white male who votes Bush, goes to church, mows and edges his lawn, and one clear morning gathers his firearms and ammunition and walks into a school. We don't want to think about him. We prefer our terrorists wild-eyed and fanatic, turbaned and howling, bearded and masked and glaring and gowned. We don't want to think about profiling Charles Whitman. We don't want to think that the gifted student, the accomplished pianist, the Eagle Scout who grows to become the Marine who wins the Good Conduct medal, married to his hardworking, supportive sweetheart, will one day climb a clock tower, shoot 14 passersby to death, and wound dozens more. We have privacy issues, we Americans do. We respect the privacy of our neighbors. So much so that we may live next to them for 20 years and know them not at all. We respect the privacy of the quiet, the keep-to-himself kind of guy. Maybe a little scary. But that's his business, not ours. Until he walks into a school. Until he trains his handgun, his assault rifle, his shotgun, his deer rifle, on girls in the school, authority figures in the school, anyone who gets in his way. Or until he walks into the workplace, opening fire on colleagues or former colleagues, bosses or former bosses. Anyone who gets in his way. Be afraid, America. Be very afraid. And hire guards. Place them at the entrances to your schools. Keep that guy out. I'm not talking Mohammed Atta. I'm talking that guy who looks like you're supposed to look, if you live in America. Keep him out. It's a gun-happy country. There must be a few weapons left over to bar his entry. If the guard sees he has a gun, the guard should be trained and ready to drop him before he drops a single child. Keep him out, America. You'll never forgive yourself if you don't. ______________________ Talkback Guidelines The guiding principles of the talkback forum for this article will be mutual respect and an openness to dialogue. Participants, even if they rule out, dismiss or oppose coexistence, must, within the confines of this forum, practice it. Censorship will be unapologetic. Political orientation will have absolutely no bearing on whether a comment is posted or rejected. The following will be grounds for deletion: 1. Racist remarks, as well as slurs on the basis of religion, ethnicity and gender. 2. Use of the terms Nazi, Hitler, ethnic cleansing, to describe the actions and policies of Israelis, Palestinians or other parties to the Israel-Arab conflict. 3. Disparaging remarks, personal attacks, vulgarities and profanities directed at other participants in the forum. 4. Advocacy of violence against individuals or religious, ethnic or racial groups, including statements which may be construed as urging attacks on leaders, officials, security forces or civilians. 5.Use of the phrase: "There are no Palestinians" or derivatives thereof. ________________________ Previous blogs: The new torah of Transfer For the journalist, on Yom Kippur The genocide myth - ours and theirs The 10 most useful lies about terrorism Bookmark to del.icio.us   Undressed to impress Yeshiva student strips in a supermarket to protest sale of chametz during Passover. Ante up Hamas offers truce in return for a Palestinian state along Israel's pre-1967 borders.   1.   great question, the answer is not comfortable... 10:56  |  freddy 06/10/06   2.   Bradely erasing the line once again, shame on you 10:57  |  Richard 06/10/06   3.   Why now? 11:05  |  David Nigel Braham 06/10/06   4.   No Comparision,Bradley 11:08  |  Ronnie Wolman 06/10/06   5.   VERY INTERESTING BRADLEY BUT FALLS SHORT OF DISCUSSION!! 11:15  |  PAUL HARRIS 06/10/06   6.   What profiling ? 11:17  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   7.   Here`s the difference 11:20  |  Gina 06/10/06   8.   what else is new ???HOLLYWOOD HAS BEEN GLORIFYING GANGSTERS 11:24  |  PAUL HARRIS 06/10/06   9.   Be afraid 11:32  |  Choni 06/10/06   10.   Suspicious 11:33  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   11.   Klaudia 11:40  |  Walid 06/10/06   12.   Freddy 11:41  |  Ben 06/10/06   13.   Bradley`s running out of material 11:44  |  Jasmine Murphy 06/10/06   14.   True and not new 11:46  |  Francois 06/10/06   15.   Gina 11:49  |  Walid 06/10/06   16.   More B.S. from Burston 11:50  |  Niall 06/10/06   17.   Gina #7 11:52  |  Niall 06/10/06   18.   Be afraid???? How about some PEACE? 11:52  |  Vlootvoogd 06/10/06   19.   Intresting but... 12:00  |  Wael Hendawi 06/10/06   20.   Walid -- you never answered my question 12:09  |  Gina 06/10/06   21.   Francois-- nonsense 12:14  |  Gina 06/10/06   22.   A pitiable nation, the Americans 12:29  |  Clickfool 06/10/06   23.   the spirit remains 12:33  |  carlos 06/10/06   24.   Klaudia #10 12:42  |  Marie 06/10/06   25.   Bradley,a Pol-Pot in the making experimentator,Israel`s too small 12:45  |  Absolute Sweden 06/10/06   26.   Well said Gina #7 12:51  |  Richard 06/10/06   27.   # 11- Walid - The meaning of " looking at someone the wrong way " 12:56  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   28.   Sussex, as usual, not worth reading. 12:59  |  Akiva Patysh 06/10/06   29.   " Helping the Families of the Victims 13:11  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   30.   # 24- Marie- Another one who needs to read more carefully !! 13:21  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   31.   There are many sleeping bombs among us 13:27  |  Leopold 06/10/06   32.   A pitiable nation, the Americans 13:30  |  proud American 06/10/06   33.   stringent guidelines 13:32  |  michel wandel 06/10/06   34.   Gina 13:33  |  Walid 06/10/06   35.   Well There Are All Kinds! 13:37  |  Sam The Sham 06/10/06   36.   A Question 13:46  |  Michael 06/10/06   37.   That line is much thinner than you think, Richard! 13:46  |  Tom Kaufmann 06/10/06   38.   be afraid 13:48  |  ivehadit 06/10/06   39.   BB 13:48  |  Gabe1 06/10/06   40.   Wishful Thinking Bradley 14:00  |  Martin 06/10/06   41.   Search, seizure and interrogation of homelandowners? 14:00  |  bruce 06/10/06   42.   Klaudia 14:01  |  Walid 06/10/06   43.   n. 32 14:05  |  John and the truth 06/10/06   44.   To Walid #34 14:12  |  Historian 06/10/06   45.   The "white" man you describe 14:13  |  Cavler Crociatus 06/10/06   46.   Gun Happy 14:19  |  Michael 06/10/06   47.   Burston`s article 14:19  |  Brod 06/10/06   48.   Zionist paranoia 14:21  |  wallstreetcolonel 06/10/06   49.   For Proud American # 32 14:26  |  Clickfool 06/10/06   50.   Gabe1 14:50  |  Walid 06/10/06   51.   # 32 proud American 14:52  |  Cornelia 06/10/06   52.   To Michael #35: An Answer 14:53  |  Jonathan S 06/10/06   53.   Bradley Burston and the forgotten continent 14:58  |  Jonathan S 06/10/06   54.   Bravo Gina! 15:00  |  Joel in Albany 06/10/06   55.   Walid to Klaudia 15:04  |  fk 06/10/06   56.   We Pay For Our Guns 15:05  |  Patriotic American 06/10/06   57.   bradley burston 15:05  |  bev 06/10/06   58.   Sounds like your debating style, Clickfool 15:06  |  watcher 06/10/06   59.   Historian 15:08  |  Walid 06/10/06   60.   I Am Afraid! 15:09  |  Tony 06/10/06   61.   Be afraid, America 15:09  |  mjs 06/10/06   62.   About ClickFOOL and the soap powder 15:10  |  Jonathan S 06/10/06   63.   Here`s a promise for Michael # 45 15:10  |  Clickfool 06/10/06   64.   Beslan - 2 yrs ago..... Muslims murdered 100s of children ..... 15:11  |  Klaudia 06/10/06   65.   Is anybody reading the article? 15:17  |  Karen R 06/10/06   66.   Michael 15:18  |  Walid 06/10/06   67.   Why do some talkbackers love calling vicious names? 15:23  |  Karen R 06/10/06   68.   Reply to #21 Gina 15:26  |  Francois 06/10/06   69.   Leopold (Post No. 31) 15:28  |  Johnny Weintraub 06/10/06   70.   Paranoid? 15:35  |  maoriboy 06/10/06   71.   Patriotic American 15:42  |  Walid 06/10/06   72.   INDEED, WE ARE ALL CAPABLE!!! <