Be Vigilant

Today, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow repeatedly said we need to be "vigilant" in the face of Al-Qaeda's quest to destroy us. He was addressing Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff's comment about his "gut-feeling" that we are under increased threat of terrorist attack here in the good old USA. One of the reasons he cited was that The Terrorists seem to like the summer. I can remember the last time we were attacked, and it was nearly 6 years ago. There would be many constipated American Citizens today if, after these long, war-crime-ful years, we were steadily vigilant.

What does it mean to be vigilant? Does it mean we should report any Muslim looking person we see to the nearest authorities? Is that vigilance? I think it just means "be scared." We tend to consume more when we are afraid; and if we know one thing here in America, it's that a good American is a consuming American. If their behavior is any indication, what with this preemptive war on, our lovely Cuban torture base, and the lies that are told in Washington to keep anything close to an open, honest leadership alive, our government seems to be lacking in guts and feelings. As for me, unless you can give me something more productive to do with my "vigilance" than sitting around being scared of the increased risk of attack, I think I'd rather the leadership kept their gut-feelings to themselves. Then again, having this story in the news these last two days sure did help out the markets. The DOW reached a record high today. It seems the big corporations and investors believe in the American citizens ability to be vigilant; vigilant consumers R-US.