Opposing the Culture of Fear

From today's New York Times on line --

Patrick  16 minutes ago

Saturday April 19th is the anniversary of the Waco Texas Massacre and the Oklahoma City Bombing. Everybody be vigilant. 

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This past week has been a blast from the past with a return to the rhetoric of the "naughts."  We have seen a spate of articles and news reports, some on TV with scary music tracks, on the Boston Massacre of one year ago.  Then came the Boston hoax of 2014.  

Now we have The New York Times putting on one of their pages the above comment by "Patrick."  

What is going on here?  The main question is why The Times put this on one of their pages, for Patrick's statement is neither literary nor explained.  "Everybody be vigilant."  That's a fine sentiment, but what does it mean?  In practice what does it mean?  It really can mean only one thing to the vast majority -- watch out for strange-looking and strange-acting people.  For how else would I, an average citizen, know what to look for?  

The effect of this is corroding and devastating.  It is an impingement on our freedoms and way of life. The argument is raised:  but America is under attack.  We must be Vigilant. 

This takes us back to 2001 through 2008 when any manner of government vigilance and surveillance was justified in the War on Terror.  Are we going back to that infamous and officially-abandoned "War?"  Did the so-called war even actually end?  

I am going to be vigilant, all right.  Vigilant against dangers to America both foreign and domestic. 

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Also of interest --

An excerpt from an NYT article on the abololition of an infamous New York Police Department agency which spied on Muslims, including in their houses of worship. 

A court motion filed last year by the Handschu lawyers included stark declarations like the one from a man who was paid by the police to spy on a Muslim student group even though he said the police did not think the group was “doing anything wrong.” The paid agent said his handler told him that the department viewed “being a religious Muslim a terrorism indicator.”

Despite sending out waves of spies, the department never uncovered the “incubators” or radicalism it set out to find. Instead, it put innocent people on notice that they were regarded as terrorism suspects until proved otherwise.