{"id":1647,"date":"2009-09-11T11:14:32","date_gmt":"2009-09-11T16:14:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/?p=1647"},"modified":"2009-09-11T14:12:31","modified_gmt":"2009-09-11T19:12:31","slug":"perilous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2009\/09\/perilous\/","title":{"rendered":"Perilous"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 11, 2001, the United States rejoined its fellow nations in finding itself vulnerable to attack.<\/p>\n

Because it was attacked.<\/p>\n

Americans had grown complacent since what, Pearl Harbor, 59 years and 9 months earlier?<\/p>\n

They aren’t anymore.<\/p>\n

While increasingly cautious, which is good, and arbitrarily suspicious, bad, Americans overall have gained little wisdom<\/a> from 9\/11. We’ve fallen back to our habits of labeling rather than identifying, posturing and not pondering, and rashness instead of rationality.<\/p>\n

The country moved fairly quickly into not one but two wars propelled by the al<\/span>–Qaida<\/span> attacks. Who’s to say if al Qaida or similar groups have changed their plans<\/a> much because of Yankee firepower. What’s known is that eight years and a wholly different White House later, plans to draw down the military from both fronts are largely set in a vague future.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the Good Depression <\/span>(the Great Depression was suffered by the Greatest Generation, and at best we\u2019re just a Good Generation) <\/small>has settled over the country and worldwide, while every day the government reports slightly improving economic statistics. Similarly, worries over North Korea and Iran — and Israel\/Palestine — would be about like they are, had 9\/11 not happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

National and local leaders should be fearless, for these are perilous times. (Yes, local, even on the level of a school tax increase election next Tuesday, where whether this is the right time, the right amount and the right allocation has ramifications<\/a> for years to come.) What we’re given, what we see, is mere <\/span>querulousness. Why? Being querulous tempts officials and the opinion conduits, as it’s easier and appears decisive.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it’s merely distracting.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On Sept. 11, 2001, the United States rejoined its fellow nations in finding itself vulnerable to attack. Because it was attacked. Americans had grown complacent since what, Pearl Harbor, 59 years and 9 months earlier? They aren’t anymore. While increasingly cautious, which is good, and arbitrarily suspicious, bad, Americans overall have gained little wisdom from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-american-culture"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2316,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2010\/11\/war-paths\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":0},"title":"War Paths","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 2, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Sometimes you have to stop and think. Often thinking and writing looks like loafing. As Steinbeck wrote: \u201cI write many thousands of words a day and some of them go on paper.\u201d It can take quite a while. Visiting Washington's Vietnam Veterans\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Life Lessons"","block_context":{"text":"Life Lessons","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/life-lessons\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Abe and Ben. Ben Pollock mini-tripod photo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/11\/Abe-and-Ben-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":280,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/02\/doubt-benefits-govs\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":1},"title":"Doubt Benefits Govs","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Briefly: The president said, most recently in this morning's news conference, that Iran -- officially or unofficially, maybe its government is behind it, knows about it, or knows-no-thing -- is behind some weaponry used against U.S forces in Iraq. You know, Iran's sometime rival, sometime enemy Iraq. Now we wait\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3839,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2012\/09\/armistice-daze\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":2},"title":"Armistice Daze","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 12, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"While watching a local 9\/11 commemoration Tuesday, a curious thought came to me, \"What day was Osama bin Laden killed?\" Did anyone in the audience know? I didn't know, myself. When the Al-Qaida leader met his fusillade of bullets is the smaller query. The larger one is, Why does America\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3111,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2011\/09\/hill-of-beans\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":3},"title":"Hill of Beans","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"September 12, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"And I feel like a beetle on its backAnd there's no way for me to get upLove'll get you like a case of anthraxAnd that's something I don't want to catch-- Gang of Four, \"(Love Like) Anthrax,\" 1978 Copyright 2011 Ben S. Pollock JUST AFTER ELEVEN -- Two hundred eighty-something\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "American Culture"","block_context":{"text":"American Culture","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/american-culture\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Broken shackles at the feet of the Statue of Liberty","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Feet-Statue-Of-Liberty-NPS-535x336-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Feet-Statue-Of-Liberty-NPS-535x336-2.jpeg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/Feet-Statue-Of-Liberty-NPS-535x336-2.jpeg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":400,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/01\/by-george-part-ii\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":4},"title":"By George, Part II","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"January 26, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Only some of the essayists in What Orwell Didn't Know: Propaganda and the New Face of American Politics, edited by Andras Szanto for PublicAffairs Books, which I will review soon, think George Orwell (1903-1950) is the man for 2008. After all, their thesis is in the title. Any other George\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Course of Words"","block_context":{"text":"The Course of Words","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/course-of-words\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":339,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/07\/security-is-observation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1647,"position":5},"title":"Security Is Observation","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 23, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"This week, the newspaper says, the town of Lowell is installing a $1,500 Panasonic video camera on a 200-foot cell tower. It will record the \"south, west, north and portions of the east sides\" 24 hours a day. Mayor Perry Long says, \"It will be used for security, not for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1647"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1659,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1647\/revisions\/1659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}