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-Bob Dylan
"A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall"

My boss brought me an editorial from the Chicago Tribune a couple weeks ago that I’d missed; it was a simple piece, discussing a January Gallup poll that indicated defense was not as important to the people of the nation since the change of government in Afghanistan and the need to keep vigilant. It was titled "The People Who Want Us Dead." As I read it we had the conversation that inspired this article (while I’m at it I’d better give her long overdue thanks for suggesting the "New Perspectives" name too).

During the 1980s Americans were told basically that the Soviet Union would kill us if Reagan stopped building so many bombs and guns and planes and spending his billions on defense. Reaganomics at work. Well, the Cold War is over and we’ve figured out the nuclear threat was all a load of hot air (as were many 80s era Republican policies).

We’ve figured out that the Soviets were as paranoid as we were – they built their planes and guns and bombs because they were afraid we’d use ours on them. We became jaded and cynical, and it didn’t help matters when Bush fought his war in Iraq to keep his oil company drinking buddies happy.

So now we’re faced with this real threat – people are actually out to kill us – and how do we respond? With indifference. Terrorists light off a big one in the sub-basement of the World Trade Center, and we sigh in relief when we catch the foot soldiers and realize that Osama bin Laden is funding them.

And we sit back and pat our beloved former royal highness Bill on the back when he lobs a few missiles in the direction of Afghanistan because he magically discovered Osama was planning something the day the Starr Report came in. And that U.S.S. Cole thing was tragic, but we’re really lucky those evil people blew themselves up in that rowboat.

I suppose it’s vogue to let people hate us because we can always blow them up if they try something. It’s pretty sad when India and Pakistan start lighting off nuclear weapons and all the CIA can do is shrug and say "We didn’t know they were going do that." It’s pretty sad that the highlight of our president’s day is playing around with Monica when there are people planning Sept. 11 behind his back.

It’s pretty sad that the same president vandalizes the White House, steals the china, and parties his whole way out, and he shows up at the National Cathedral looking like "Never fear, I have arrived, thank you very much." It’s pretty sad that this president is actually liked and respected; of course, if his Clintonomics had failed, I’d like to see what his approval rating would have really been.

The truth is, there are people out there ready to kill us. They’re planning it as we speak, and while we keep catching them, we’re going to mess up somewhere. The truth is, it may take a year, or two, or ten, but somewhere down the line we’ll have to deal with May 6 or Aug. 2 or Oct. 10.

It’s going to take time to catch them all, and someone’s going to try something. Someone already has, lest we forget about Richard Reid and his shoe bomb. He called al Qaeda right before, got his instructions. The quick thinking of some brave passengers saved an airplane. This time.

This month I quote Bob Dylan. He wrote "A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall" during the Cuban Missile Crisis; because of the quick thinking and unwavering resolve of Jack and Bobby Kennedy the world didn’t end that Oct. 1963. And then Jack died. And then a few years later Bobby died and a hard rain fell as two of the sharpest minds in American history were snuffed out as they reached for greatness. Their resolve couldn’t save themselves, and we’ve had to worry about our presidents and our would-be presidents ever since. The vigilance we learned from their deaths has saved presidents since.