FBI’s warning is also a
call to citizenshipThe issue: The request from federal
authorities that Americans pay attention
can extend past the present crisis.No one can know whether there will be additional terrorist attacks within the United States in the next few days as the FBI has warned. Unable to say when or where or what form these attacks might take, the ambiguous call further frayed the nerves of an already edgy public.
However, if officials had not issued the alert on what they assessed as credible information, they would be derelict. People should not only heed the alarm, but go beyond it to summon a renewed public spirit.
President Bush, members of his staff and state officials have repeatedly urged Americans to go about their business as usual. "We cannot let terrorists lock our country down," Bush said at a news conference Thursday. Rhetoric aside, it would be difficult to deny that to some extent at least, this is what Osama bin Laden and his band of crooks have succeeded in doing. We are all looking over our shoulders.
This isn't necessarily bad. We can lament the loss of the easy manner in which we lived before Sept. 11, although security then may have been more illusion than reality. While no one wants the present climate of uncertainty to continue, maintaining vigilance for danger and wrong-doers can work favorably.
So often in the past, we've disassociated ourselves from taking the care necessary to protect one another. We didn't want to get involved, we didn't want to put ourselves on the line when others may have needed our help. Now, we must trust ourselves to be able to keep watch in our communities and we must do so with calm and reason.
Those who live by the mantra "question authority" must give the benefit of the doubt to those whose job is to protect the public. This is not to say that we set aside our skepticism; it is our duty as citizens to scrutinize the actions of our government and to speak up when we disagree.
We can no longer afford to separate ourselves from issues, events and each other. Living in the new America requires that we pay attention. What this means is that we stay alert and informed, that we participate and engage, that we take and share responsibility.
The FBI's call that we keep sharp watch on what's happening around us for the next few days is a reminder that being an American demands an awareness that with our freedoms comes the obligation of citizenship, something bin Laden and those of his ilk will never understand.
Published by Oahu Publications Inc., a subsidiary of Black Press.Don Kendall, President
John Flanagan, publisher and editor in chief 529-4748; jflanagan@starbulletin.com
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