What many younger people here might not know is that only 12 years ago, life in the US was different. You could board planes without going through ridiculous levels of non-security. Your family could actually meet you as you came off the plane. In the first week after 9/11, there was a global outpouring of support for us. There were candlelight vigils held in places like Tehran, Iran for us. In the first few weeks after, there was a growing feeling that maybe this was finally the time that the US would straighten out and take a deep and serious look at our own actions and policies. As you can see, that didn't happen.
We got "buy more stuff" from the president. Indefinite detentions. Men who are still in a prison in Cuba who were kidnapped from their own countries. Whether guilty of something or not, they should have been tried years ago.
We get the FTAA protests in Miami. You get the Democratic convention in Boston and "freedom areas".
You get the Boston of just a couple months ago. A massive police and state over reaction to find one young man. At no other time in American history has an entire metropolitan city of that size been systematically shut down to find one criminal. And everyone went along with it to "feel safe".
Have kids? There's an overwhelmingly large but amorphous in number group of pedophiles waiting to get their hands on them.
You get fear. Be Afraid is the message. And young people have been taught that for so long now, and now they can vote and have kids. And this is how culture changes and restricts.
If you follow Occupy, that didn't start recently. That was going back at least as far as Seattle in 1999.
Don't be afraid. People die and get hurt. Sometimes it's other people that do it to others. Our freedoms collectively are more important than our deaths individually.
As has been said many times before, I may not like what you have to say but I'll punch someone in the nose to make sure you are able to say it.