New York Wants Left-surance
When riding a New York City subway, you have about the same likelihood of hearing a foreign language as you do hearing someone bashing the President. You might see the random "Impeach Bush" button as well as other merriments pasted, scribbled, splattered and posted on public transportation.
In fact, you could make a decent living setting up shop in Union Square selling anti-Bush merchandise. And even though you'll have some hefty competition, there will be no shortage of buyers.
Its no secret, New York is a liberal city. I've grown accustomed, though not indifferent, to people assuming my political beliefs are the same as theirs, and in most cases I'm met with a mix of shock, disgust, horror, anger and fear when they learn I'm not in complete and unwavering agreement.
Hey, that's all good. It comes with the territory. But, lately I've been a bit confused. You see, in the past few years, many conversations I've had on the topic of homeland security have included phrases like "fabricated threat" and "no real terror". Some have gone as far as to say that it is all just a way of instilling fear into the public to strip us of our civil rights and invade our privacy; to read our emails and listen in on our phone calls.
So you would expect after it was announced last week that New York's terror funding would be cut, New Yorkers wouldn't care. I mean, it's an imaginary threat anyway, conjured up by the evil Bush administration. Hmm, not so.
I guess some people need to hedge their bets. Even the casual observers of public sentiment would have noticed the outrage over the funding cuts. Newspapers were filled with articles demanding answers. A postcard campaign began where residents were encouraged to send pictures of familiar New York landmarks to DHS Secretary, Michael Chertoff, to remind him of the targets terrorists salivate over.
Rep. Charles Rangel (D-Harlem) was quoted in the Daily News saying the funding is mismanaged. "It is true that many of them look upon this as a pork barrel, and they wanted their share, even though they don't have their share of the risk"
This, the same risk, just over 3 months ago Rangel doubted even existed. "We just take for granted that there is an Islamic terror movement because we do have some fanatic people who come from Islamic countries."
So, as some of my fellow New Yorkers like to repeat the words of Michael Moore, "There is no terrorist threat in this country. This is a lie. This is the biggest lie we've been told." They would also like to take out an insurance policy… you know, just in case.