Briefest on the Horror That Didn’t Happen

Two things float in my mind today.

One is that car bomb that didn’t happen in Times Square.

If anyone is surprised it is pretty clear they’re not paying attention. I’m just grateful that this one was of amateur construction and fizzled instead of exploding.

Of course there will be another.

Welcome to the twenty-first century.

The second is how in the draft immigration reform legislation put forward by the Democrats there is a provision to establish a “biometric social security card.” The authors hasten to assure us this is not a national ID card. Right. Like Arizona’s new law requiring law enforcement officials to pursue people who look like they might be here illegally is not calling for racial profiling…

Our republic has always existed with an uneasy tension between the poles we call “freedom” and “society” or “responsibility.” The pejoratives are worth noting. Freedom is often license. It can also be code for the most extreme forms of laissez-faire capitalism. Society or responsibility is sometimes condemned as “government,” and invokes words like interference. And can be code for the imposition of the majority’s view of morality upon others who do not share the assumptions.

And for our society to work we need as much freedom as possible and to assume collective responsibility where we must. And to accept the tension, and to know we’re going to fail in our twin goals at least as much as we’ll succeed.

‘Tis difficult, no doubt.

And somehow we’ve tended to muddle through…

But, there are no guarantees.

And today I find myself particularly concerned with what it is we are going to be looking at when that first bomb successfully explodes in Times Square. Or, on the Mall in Washington. Or, at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Or…

Biometric social security cards for everyone? That must be shown when a policeman requests, demands.

The worst of it is how this can happen like the proverbial boiled frog.

Just this small thing to address this big problem.

Until the next small thing…

A difficult dance, no doubt.

And without some diligence I fear we may not muddle through this time around…