Diligence or Paranoia, Profiling or Protection

Diligence or Paranoia, Profiling or Protection - A note about semantics

Since posting Mosque, Tipping on the Point, Dutch Good Example of Anti-Terror Efforts, and Local Example of Dangerous Tension I've received a (nearly) unpreceidented amount of email from blog readers and podcast listeners. Most are tossing in their two-cents on the Ground Zero mosque and the recent event on an airline flight to Yemen. A few (as expected) believe that I have crossed the line into paranoia..."seeing terrorist cell activity in every piece of media" (mostly from the It Can't Happen Here crowd).  Some, however, have decided that I must be a racist and have been "poisoned by right wing hate".  See MSNBC.com and CNN.com as the articles I've sited in blog postings listed above.

Are you kidding me? Right-wing hate, really? I blog and podcast about domestic preparedness not politics. The impact of natural, accidental, man-made, and intentional events on traditional and non-traditional responders as well as the community and family is the focus of my work here. I've been critical about extremist on any side of the line (see Never mind Osama, Here's the Right Wing Extremists, April, 2009).

I have made a career out of taking care of complete strangers...whoever calls...whenever they call. No self-respecting racist would take care of people the way I do!

Too many people want to remain in the comfort zone and ignore the warning signs flashing around them. Some because they lack the mental or emotional capacity to decode those signs. Some deny the treats out of desire to be "hip" and accepted and accepting, to be seen as not racist.

To look up seeing storm clouds and say "it looks like rain" is not paranoia. To carry your umbrella in the morning because it might rain this afternoon is preparedness.

To carry a snow shovel in July because it might snow, however is paranoia (that is, unless it has snowed in July were you are).

To stand in the middle of the thunder storm screaming "its not going to rain! Why do you hate?" is ignorance.