Reply #3: Unfortunate, yes, but what would people prefer?

[malachibk]

No security? Mayhem? The POTENTIAL for mayhem?

While we all agree (I think) that it would make more sense to put all this $ and time behind efforts to fix our foreign policy and lessen the hatred a little bit, fact is -- that ain't happening.

And so we have to turn Boston (the city where I was born and raised) into a prison because people want to do some SERIOUSLY FUCKED UP things to Americans.

So for the people (not necessarily you, DS) who are unhappy with the city closings, the traffic, the T searches, the machine guns and are afraid this indicates the first step to a police-state and the removal of all civil liberties here are 2 questions for you:

(1) Do you live in a big city? If not, this doesn't really concern you and I don't think you can understand. Well, of course the ISSUE is of concern but if it's not immediate, it's not the same. I watched Tower 2 fall from my office window and "random" backpack searches for 3 days is, sad as it is, OK by me.

(2) What other alternative do we have? These conventions are "logical" places for "illogical" terror to happen. If we don't TRY to stop it, I mean, how dumb is that?

(Unless you think that al Queda gets off on thwarting our best efforts to thwart their best efforts so we should pretend we're not concerned because when you learn to stop laughing at it the tickling isn't fun for the tickler anymore, which is an argument with some merit, but I'd still rather have bomb sniffing dogs in Grand Central when the Repugs descend on my city this August.)