Paranoia In the New Millennium (4770 hits)
Category: Politics -> RepublicansRating: 0.2 on 15 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by Axolotl (View user info) at 2005-07-08 17:33:23 EDT
Last week I was up camping in the Sierra Nevada with my cousins. Being from Berkeley, they were all quite liberal, Democrat-voting progressives.
We were driving down the mountains of Eastern California toward a place called Huntington Lake, July 3rd. In the car, we debated for a good while about religion, politics, Bush...and while we drove down, we saw a Arab couple in a white BMW. They had apparently broken down.
The woman had a head veil on, and had an olive complexion. The man was dark-skinned, had well-pressed clothing but a horrendous haircut.
My cousin Deirdre called out, "Hi, do you need any help?"
"No," he replied in a foreign accent. "We are fine."
So we passed away. And we started talking about how we're all a lot more suspicious of Muslims now since 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
We got to Huntington Tunnel, one of the greatest engineering feats in the area.
Thirteen miles long, thirty feet wide, sending water rocketing out at 70 miles an hour from Florence Lake to Huntington Lake, and eventually down California's amazing aqueduct system all the way down to Los Angeles and San Bernadino and all the towns of Southern California. It was the starting point for most of the waterworks of California. If this tunnel was damaged, there would be little to no running water for most of Los Angeles. The infrastructure of California could feasibly collapse.
We got out of the car to admire the tunnel and take pictures. I looked back, and saw the Muslim man taking a video of the tunnel, while his wife (?) sat in the car.
"See now," Deirdre said. "Some people would report him. Some people would be suspicious of a Muslim taking pictures or movies of a major location like that."
It didn't really strike me as suspicious, but as we got back in our car, something struck me.
His white BMW had no license plate.
Well, it had a sheet of white lined paper with "0624" written on it, bound with black electrical tape over the place where the plate should have been.
NOW we started getting suspicious.
I mean, no license plate is one thing, but a sheet of white paper with "0624"? If I were a terrorist, I would at the very least throw in a few letters, for the love of god.
The next day would be July 4th. What happens if there was an attack on Huntington Tunnel? If the man had been scouting out possible places to set bombs? I think I've been drawn into the Paranoia. Most of the 9/11 hijackers before they went on their mission lived within ten miles of my town in Bergen County, New Jersey. I might have run into them months before the attack and not even known that one day, not that far away, they would cause the deaths of 3,000 people, including one of my friend's dad.*
Now THIS is a troubling thought.
We try not to look with suspicion on Muslims or Arabs, or even Hispanics or Indians who look "kinda foreign." But we can't help it. No matter how liberal or conservative or libertarian or progressive we are, it sends a chill through our spines when we see a Saudi photographing the Empire State Building or the Golden Gate Bridge.
They might be just a student or a tourist, taking pictures to show to their families.
Or they could be a terrorist, on an unspecified mission from Al-Qaeda.
Does everyone else feel this way, as I can imagine? I'm sure a lot of innocent people have been reported and detained for doing seemingly harmless things like taking digital video of buildings or parts of the nation's infrastructure. On the other hand, Canadians with chainsaws are allowed in, as well as a great deal of illegal immigrants on the southern border.
At least nothing happened (so far) to the Tunnel.
If it does, I'll be feeling pretty darn guilty.
*Lenny Hatton, the only FBI agent killed on 9/11. He died when the North Tower collapsed, trying to rescue people. He kept going back into the building to save people who were too injured or burned to leave by themselves, and died after saving a young lady. They found only his femur.
At his funeral, the FBI director himself, as well as many other Washington big names came to my small Bergen County town. I was at the funeral. There were snipers all over the nearby roofs, and it was rumored President Bush himself had come to pay his respects.
User Reviews
Submitted by combatwombat (user info) at 2006-12-13 12:20:19 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
"So we passed away..." making everything that happened thereafter virtually impossible or just really creepy.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2006-12-13 12:08:17 EST (#)
Ranking: 0
This post is ancient history, man.
Submitted by cshape (user info) at 2006-12-13 06:18:40 EST (#)
Ranking: 2
I'm going to have to condone your linkwhoring on the mvm list, just to be different.
Submitted by corn_nugget (user info) at 2006-05-09 11:27:36 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I feel you on this. I was "very enmeshed" with the arabic culture at the time of 9/11 (married to an arab, best friend was (still is) arabic, etc etc), and even though I was liberal and understanding, etc etc etc... I still got a little nervous clutch every now and then.
Submitted by Totally_useless (user info) at 2005-08-03 23:03:23 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
for linkwhoring the MVM list
Submitted by Adamdidit2u (user info) at 2005-07-28 16:12:25 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
I have to penalize you for link whoring on the P2P post. It was a decent read
Submitted by CaptainThorns (user info) at 2005-07-26 08:30:20 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
What the hell man, if they're comin' at ya...
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-07-08 23:50:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Shaver Lake?
My cousin's family has a cabin up in Rock Haven.
Submitted by Chinaski (user info) at 2005-07-08 23:10:19 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Interesting; that's right by where I go camping in the Sierras every summer. Innnteresting...
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-07-08 20:42:57 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
P.S. you can start with a couple of my vignettes.
Submitted by joedaddy (user info) at 2005-07-08 20:41:03 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Please don't add to the 'police state' mentality that is encompassing this country.
The city of origin, I know quite well.
The same for the area you visited.
Tip #2: # of reviews written/ I see you've added 43 since yesterday.
To have good posts(like your previous) garner more than 63 hits, you need to increase
this number.
Unfortunately, it's how things work at this site.
Good luck............Joe
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2005-07-08 20:31:01 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
This most certainly is not shenanigans. We thought about contacting authorities, but decided he could probably just be a tourist.
However, if in a couple months that thing blows up and 30,000 people in LA die of thirst...
Submitted by JonnyX (user info) at 2005-07-08 18:19:09 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
Are you fucking shitting me?
Did this really happen, or is this shenanigans?
If this happened to me, in real life, I would call the FBI.
Submitted by notyou (user info) at 2005-07-08 18:17:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Made me smile (+1)
???
Submitted by RaineLark (user info) at 2005-07-08 17:42:30 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I think we all jump to the conclusion that if a Muslim-looking person is up to no good, it must be terrorism. That guy could have been a serial rapist, burglar, or even an escapee from a mental hospital. The car might have been stolen, too.