You’re not safe even if you make it to downtown Tigard or Baker or Cannon Beach (another nicely ironic name by the way). If you are a judge or a lawyer or a policeman or a fireman, your very occupation could target you for elimination, let alone if you are a politician or, for that matter, even an ordinary supporter of a particular party someone doesn’t like.
Being a simple Starbuck’s or Kinko’s business owner doesn’t make you immune. Perhaps you help or hurt someone by your mere existence. Insurgency - what a handy way to eliminate competition or someone not liked. Does anyone carry a grudge against you for any reason?
Even if you’re not singled out, there’s always the possibility of a spreading fire from the deliberate bombing or a misplaced artillery shell nearby which wipes your business out. Accidents happen even in war zones. It probably is a moot point anyway. Do you have any workers left or any inventory or anyone with any money to spend on it if you happen to finish production of something?
Being a lowly laborer instead of a rich boss does not make you immune from danger going to work. Do you have the right skin coloration? The right clothing? Wearing jeans or shorts and walking down Broadway might get you murdered by someone who doesn’t think his particular God wants you wearing them.
Even if you are dressed innocuously, do you have the right Bible? The right ID in your pocket? Maybe you better carry more than one version and hope you remember the right pocket when you are asked to produce it. Do you have the right last name? What if being a Johnson or Gonzales automatically marked you for righteous death?
No matter what, you could still end up seized at random, thrown on in a camper, have your hands tied behind your back and get a swift bullet in the head or leisurely tortured first. Worse yet, you could end up on camera for your family to watch in horror as you are slaughtered like a cow at the Oscar Meyer abattoir.
Staying home 24/7 doesn’t necessarily protect you. A knock on the door could be a signal you are about to be executed. The fact that those outside the door are wearing Clatsop County Sheriff uniforms is no assurance. Anyone can buy or steal them. It doesn’t have to be a terrorist hit squad. The uniforms might be government issued to employees on the government payroll. It could be the government itself doing the seizing, the torturing, the jailing, the executing, all on mere suspicion or an injudicious comment against the Prez or a jealous neighbor falsely reported slander of the Prez.
You might be able to barricade or arm yourself to defend against individual attackers - for a while at least. But, once the bombs or rockets start falling, you might as well be at a Vegas crap table shooting dice. How’s your luck? Won any lotteries lately?
A canister of jellied gasoline, a/k/a napalm, isn’t known for pinpoint accuracy. Even the so-called “smart” instruments of destruction they’re using these days aren’t very smart for the most part, nor are they always the loud large ordinance being dropped. And, even if they were “smart” bombs, the guys steering them might not be smart enough to know where they should be steered. On top of that, a little terror among the populace might be deemed a “good” thing by those in charge of directing the high explosives.
You think things were bad in New Orleans because of Katrina? Imagine if it never ended. Imagine if there was not even a “heckofa job Brownie” at a FEMA. Imagine aid workers, rescuers and firemen fearful to enter . . . ever. Helicopters to rescue you? Targets! Or, possibly still doing the targeting themselves.
In other words, you might not be able to get to the hospital if you are hurt by a bomb or a rocket. You might not make it even if you’re merely sick on an ordinary day without actual bombing. Highway 101 or a key bridge is likely to have been bombed long before even assuming the hospital itself wasn’t. As recent news reports reveal, there is reason to fear the ambulance marked with the huge red cross on top delivering you may be strafed as many have in Lebanon. Think not? Ask the Israelis about their public warnings they would do exactly that. Ask the second Sunni or Shiite suicide bomber who is waiting until after the first one exploded for the medical help and crowds of mourners to arrive on the scene.
Once you make it to Providence Memorial or whatever is closest, you may find there are no medical supplies or not enough beds because of the large volume of the killing and death. Kidney dialysis or organ transplant or MRI or other fancy stuff? Good luck even getting an aspirin.
Imagine tanks and uniformed troops everywhere. Imagine too lots of “civilians,” or at least men not in uniform but still brandishing automatic weapons. Imagine them being pretty careless about firing off those weapons. And, any bullet that goes up has to come down somewhere. Hope you are not standing in the air space where they do.
Imagine some bad guys over whom you have no control deciding that they wanted to use your neighborhood for a missile launch site. Imagine what happens when they do. The missile trail points back to your neighborhood and guys on the other side with even bigger missiles might hold you responsible.
Imagine curfews. When was the last time you were subject to a curfew? Imagine martial law being imposed. Imagine curfew violations being enforced with steel jacketed slugs.
Imagine those same tanks and troops patrolling your subdivision streets, but now imagine they are not your friends and neighbors. Imagine, just for the sake of our little thought exercise, say, they are a Chinese army occupying Oregon with our own troops disbanded or in hiding. Imagine that those foreign troops can break down your door with impunity and point their rifle barrels at you and your sons while they search your house. Be careful what you do and when you do it since locks no longer mean anything.
