How Paranoid Is America?

"The siblings set off the scare while organizing a run for a local chapter of the Hash House Harriers, a worldwide group that bills itself as a "drinking club with a running problem."  "Hares" are given the task of marking a trail to direct runners, throwing in some dead ends and forks as challenges.  On Thursday, the Salchows decided to route runners through the massive IKEA parking lot.  Police fielded a call just before 5 p.m. that someone was sprinkling powder on the ground.  The store was evacuated and remained closed the rest of the night.  The incident prompted a massive response from police in New Haven and surrounding towns.  Mayoral spokeswoman Jessica Mayorga said the city plans to seek restitution from the Salchows, who are due in court Sept. 14.

"You see powder connected by arrows and chalk, you never know," she said.  "It could be a terrorist, it could be something more serious. We're thankful it wasn't, but there were a lot of resources that went into figuring that out."

The US government has also started several black lists, that is to say names of suspected terrorists, to help businesses and individuals identify potential attackers before they strike.  Unfortunately, the names they have there are some of the most common names in the world, such as Mohammed Ali or Carlos Sanchez.  Now, anyone with a similar name, even if it's only the middle name of someone on their black list, can be barred from boarding an airplane, opening up a bank account, or securing a loan to buy a house.  This is because the airlines as well as the national credit reporting agencies as using this data base to screen their customers.  Hundreds, if not thousands of people all across the US, as well as foreigners traveling to the US, have been refused these services or even denied entry into the US because their name happens to match one of the names on the black list.

Across the United States, normal everyday citizens are being falsely accused simply for having a name similar to the name of a person on one of these black lists.  Whole delegations from Malaysia and other countries around the world are being refused entry because one or more of the participants has a comparable name to someone on one of the mentioned lists.  Furthermore, casual, everyday events, such as taking a touristy photograph or talking to friends about terrorism, are becoming grounds for investigation of possible terrorist activity, this costing the American public countless billions of dollars on frivolous occurrences while disrupting and harming individuals who have absolutely nothing to do with terrorism.

Such hysteria has not been seen in the US since the days when Senator McCarthy ran hearings on Capitol Hill to denounce suspected communists in the government, business and military in the early 1950s. Hundreds of people were added to similar black lists of the day which meant instant ruin for their careers.  Though McCarthy was ultimately censured by the US Senate for his contemptuous actions against innocent people, many were never allowed to return to their previous jobs.  McCarthyism ruined hundreds of lives with false evidence and innuendos.