I paused on my way out of the local convenience store the other night to scan the headlines on the newspaper rack. The big news was President Bush's trip to South Asia, where he agreed to sell nuclear reactors and components to India, but
not to India's neighbor and rival Pakistan.
The "deal," which needs Senate approval, raised many questions. The New York Times worried that the president's "spectacularly misconceived trip" will damage efforts to halt the spread of nuclear weapons and hurt U.S. relations with Pakistan. (Undermine the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and embarrass an ally in the "War on Terror": Just another day at the BushCo office.)
I was pretty sure the clerk was Pakistani and, since I was the lone customer in the store, I figured I'd take the opportunity to learn what a native thought of the president's visit. Looking back, I wish I hadn't asked.
Just a couple of days before, I'd listened to ACLU board member
Grayson Barberdescribe in chilling detail how the government's response to terrorism (the Patriot Act, NSA's warrentless domestic wiretapping program) is undermining the civil liberties. And, she said, the so-called war on terror really is a war on immigrants.
(Audio of Barber's half-hour talk here.)
But I wasn't thinking about what Barber said when I turned to the clerk and asked, "Excuse me, are you from Pakistan?"
"Yes," he replied, looking up from the shelves he was stocking.
I launched into a rambling question about Bush, nukes, riots, India, and Pakistan. He listened politely, smiled and replied in musical South Asian English, "I don't pay attention to politics. I only worry about, you know, working and paying my bills."
"I don't blame you," I said, then thanked him and hastily left.
Even before I was out the door I'd realized that the clerk would be nuts to answer a question like mine from a total stranger. According to what Grayson Barber said, he probably already lives in fear of surveillance, arrest, and deportation. I sincerely hope that I didn't freak him out and that my innocent question doesn't have him looking in his rearview mirror wondering if that's the FBI in the car behind him.
Thus it is today in the USA, where the "war on terror" encourages paranoia, squelches speech, and stifles understanding. Listen to what Barber has to say. It's well worth it. And be afraid about what we're doing because we're afraid.
