Grab Your Torches And Pitchforks

It's finally happened. Just as I predicted. The witch-hunts commence.
I happened to catch a few words at the tag end of a newscast last night about a bunch of billboards in the state of Florida. Seems the local law enforcement, in response to past and potential future acts of terror-motivated violence, has deployed some large-scale promotional propaganda in the Mosquito State. Every citizen is thereby urged to report "anyone behaving suspiciously" to the authorities with all haste. Not that this is such a bad thing, in and of itself. After all, terrorism is bad, and the terrorists themselves deserve to be dealt with as harshly as the law allows. But, call me an ignorant malcontent if you will, I fail to see “the law” anywhere in that premise. For the life of me, the only thing I see is a catch-all excuse for the population to turn against itself. The nebulous nature of the advisement leaves room enough for an infinite supply of specious rationalizations, and endless voicing of prejudices and uncertainties both real and imagined. It is only a matter of time before such inflammatory pronouncements are heard throughout the nation. And how much longer will it then be before “alert your local authorities” ceases to be a stern warning, becoming instead a mandate? What then? A new, stop-gap addition to the Executive Cabinet? An empowered Congressional task force? Federal, state, municipality, and eventually precinct-level sanctioned regulatory bodies to supervise the reporting and processing of “potential” threats to national security? A 24/7 hotline to the local Homeland Security adjunct?
But what could we, as responsible, upstanding citizens, possibly have to be concerned about? We’re not terrorists, after all. And this “keep an eye on your fellow man” approach is only a logical response to the threat posed by those who seek to do us harm, right? Such people, it goes without saying, do not belong on the streets of a free nation. And when an inevitable few take the fall groundlessly, well, that will just serve as an overdue lesson to no-accounts who slink about our streets behaving “suspiciously”. Sure, that word, ‘suspicious‘, is a bit open-ended, and there might be some people, some few rabid dissidents and anti-Democratic firebrands, who might demand that we question the true nature of the advice of our noble leadership. But then, they themselves bear watching, don’t they? I advise you, those of you that are still willing to listen to reason, that you all stand together, and stand fast. For it is only through solidarity that we can maintain the unwavering vigilance which is to be our last bulwark against the insidious danger which besets us from within. Evil never rests, thus neither can you. You never know what might be waiting out there, and precaution holds our only safety.
Keep a sharp eye out, America.

“Beneath the fire, between his words, lay the peoples’ fear... So he spoke on, and it was a cold winter.” ---Marcus Eldon

“One of the funny things you learn if you live long enough, by the time you think to look behind you, it’s always too late.”
---J. M. Haverton