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Climate of Fear
By George Arnold
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Tuesday 06 November 2007
Ann Wright came to Fayetteville the day after the Big Flour Scare. It was only
fitting.
Ms. Wright is a retired U. S. Army colonel and an ex-diplomat. After the start
of the war with Iraq, she resigned from government service to register her disapproval
of the war. With almost 30 years in the military and another 16 years of diplomatic
service, you'd think she'd earned the right to dissent. Instead, she now finds
herself on an international watch list because of misdemeanor arrests during
anti-war protests. She discovered she'd been put on the watch list when she
went to Canada last month to speak aboutof course -" watch lists and how
people find themselves on these lists and are detained. " In Canada, on
her way to meet with friendly members of the Canadian parliament, she was detained
and promptly put on a flight back to the United States. She's been banned from
returning to Canada for at least a year.
In Fayetteville, she mentioned her experience in Canada, while stressing the
need to speak up before it's too late about questionable actions by the government.
She talked about the climate of fear in this country since 9 / 11 and how fear
has been used to undermine some of our most cherished freedoms and beliefs.
Which brings us to the flour scare. The day before Ann Wright spoke on the
University of Arkansas campus, part of downtown Fayetteville was closed off
when a white powder was found near the federal building. For about two hours,
traffic and other routine activity was disrupted while authorities tried to
determine if the powder was dangerous.
It wasn't.
The powder was simple baking flour, used by a local running / social club to
mark the route of one of its non-competitive races. The club is affiliated with
an international organization that dates back to the 1930 s. The use of flour
to mark race routes is a routine, environmentally friendly way to guide the
runners. Not incidentally, the race was held on a Sunday, the day before federal
authorities returned from their weekend, belatedly noticed the white powder,
and raised the alarm.
Not everybody was worried. City workers stringing up Christmas lights on the
nearby square continued to work through the commotion. But even after authorities
determined that the powder was flour, some continued to hyper-ventilate about
the potential threat. The U. S. marshal on the scene said the investigation
would continue. "It is not a game to us," Dick O'Connell said. "To
us it is deadly serious." Well, we live in strange times. There are dangers.
And we don't want to take any foolish risks. But really, do we have to be as
dumb as a sack of flour about it ? Apparently so. Ann Wright devoted most of
her Fayetteville talk to events of the last six and a half years. Her list of
governmental sins during that time is a long one: a war of aggression in Iraq,
unilateral dismissal of the Geneva Conventions, horrors such as "extraordinary
rendition" (which she labels as nothing more than kidnapping ), the black
hole of Guantanamo, wiretapping, eavesdropping. The list has become sadly familiar
to all of us.
It's past time for accountability, she insists. Her recommendation is that
the country use the remedy prescribed in the Constitution-impeachment-and the
congressional investigations that would precede it. But the measure of how timid
the country has become is that impeachment of the president and / or the vice
president is considered "off the table" in Washington. Politicians
fear the political consequences. Many citizens just can't be bothered. So outrage
piles upon outrage, and the executive branch consolidates ever more unchecked
power. There were a couple of especially notable moments during Ann Wright's
talk. At one point, she asked for a show of hands from those who trust their
government these days. Of the 50 or so audience members in the partially filled
auditorium, not one of them raised a hand. The response might not have been
scientifically valid, but it made an unmistakable point about the times in which
we live. Then, during the question-and-answer session that followed her talk,
one questioner asked her if, as an outspoken critic of the government, she was
worried about "disappearing" herself. The question might once have
been considered bizarre, even wacky. But the audience, and Ann Wright, took
it seriously. She said she is careful to remain publicly visible. At the same
time, she still finds it hard to believe that such things could be considered
possible in this country. Welcome to our Brave New World, ma'am. Where even
a pile of baking flour can cause us to come unglued.
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George Arnold is opinion editor of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's
northwest edition.
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