Here in the military zone

Yesterday I was waiting for Q's bus to bring him home from school when I heard a helicopter. Over time I have gotten pretty used to hearing the many planes and helicopters that fly over our house. The kids will often talk about hearing an airplane and then we go look for it. The helicopter I heard yesterday sounded pretty low but we get buzzed regularly so I really didn't think about it. A few minutes later I heard a much louder sound as an F-16 flew over. It was incredibly loud but I couldn't see it. I still wasn't all that worried. Then a minute later another F-16 flew by. Now my mind started to go places that I reserve for dark nightmares.

We do live in Washington DC and in the back of my mind I am very aware of the possibility of a terrorist attack. Truth be told you can't spend much time around Washington without being aware of the fact that we are a target. Concrete barriers abound and you can't enter a government building without going through a metal detector. I live less than 10 miles from the White House. I am aware of the constant risk we live with. I don't think it is a big risk, but certainly after 9/11 I know it is always a possibility.

It turns out that a small plane violated restricted airspace. The pilots had old maps and seemed to be totally unaware of the trouble they had caused or were in. Only when the F-16 fired warning shots in front of them (Can you imagine that moment? You're in a friggin Cessna two seater and an F-16 is firing near you. I think I'd pee my pants right there.) did they take the hint and fly (escorted) out of the area. In the meantime the Capitol was evacuated for the second time this Spring. And I was reminded of those black nightmares and how closely guarded we are by the military.

And I was reminded how easy it is to be ruled by fear. Later that night I was flipping through the TV (As everyone who is married to/living with an academic knows, the end of the semester means your significant other is MIA while grading, so I am often on my own in the evenings.) and landed for a few moments on Bill O'Reilly's ridiculous talk show. Apparently in Colorado a police officer was killed and another was wounded by a man who turned out to be here illegally. So O'Reilly is complaining about illegal immigration because you know that no US citizen has ever killed a cop. He had on an immigration lawyer who was arguing with him. The lawyer said that there is no way to fully close the border. O'Reilly said sure there is, with the military. No one crosses the border between North and South Korea, O'Reilly said. All we need to do is militarize the border.

Now leaving aside that the comparison of Korea to the US/Mexican border is not very flattering or sensical in any way, are we really interested in living in a country where the military constantly patrols our borders? Do we want to live in a military zone? Is that what we are willing to do to make sure that poor brown people who speak another language don't get into the country? Every time I think I am getting paranoid about the right wing in this country, I hear something that scare me even more. Let's not even get into the fact that we're bleeding casualties in Iraq and the Army is having problems with recruiting. Let's certainly use the military that we don't have and that is supposed to be fighting terrorism, to keep those damn Mexicans out. I wonder if people who think these kinds of things really know what it would be like to live in a military zone.

I do not live in a military zone quite yet but I certainly hope that I never have to. Hearing F-16 fighters scramble overhead is scary enough.