Ahhh... Snopes

I did try to check out Snopes about that MeFi link I posted yesterday, but my search string was off and I didn't get what I was looking for. Well, I found it today.
[Edited to add: the hyperlink doesn't seem to work so cut and paste this into your browser http://www.snopes.com/politics/crime/skyterror.asp]

I had just come back from vacation and was dealing with my step-daughter's antics when this whole thing went down. I plead "otherwise occupied."

I googled Flight 327 and came up with a whole bunch of right-leaning blogs, magazines and sites. I'm sad to hear that this whole thing became a political debacle and even more upset to hear that it became a racial profiling issue.

Honestly, I would be nervous if I saw anyone acting like that on an airplane. I visited the UK in '92 during a spate of IRA bombings. I was searched at Heathrow. I guess I looked like a 16 year-old IRA mule... must have been the auburn hair and freckles? Our travel agent told us to watch out for people's body language, to look for suspicious gestures and luggage, etc. So, I don't think Annie Jacobsen was necessarily being racist, though perhaps once the pundits got involved it became a matter of race and racial profiling.

I like Patrick Smith's (of Salon) Hysterical Skies part 1 and part 2.

I think Smith makes an uber salient point when he says that terrorists don't all look like Arab Muslims. Timothy McVeigh, anyone? And it was the tone of "these are people acting strangely" that initially made me nervous. Which is why I posted it in my blog.

In the days after 9/11 I think it's inevitable that we are more aware of our surroundings. I think it's almost an involuntary reaction. Obviously, that does not mean we should indict individuals based on their skin tone or choice of religious expression. Her article resonated with me because it seemed, upon my first read, that she noticed "people acting strangely" not merely Arab men acting like TERRORISTS. I've read it twice more and I can see where her fears took her over the line and where my own thought process colored what she actually wrote.

That said, I am nervous about the violent acts of terrorists. I don't think harassing Muslim individuals who look suspicious is acceptable and I certainly don't think rounding up Muslims living in the US and placing them in detention is acceptable, either. I wish the TSA, Dept. of Homeland Security, the FBI and the Justice Department would understand that it's not about Muslims. It's about destructive US foreign policy in the developing world.

*sigh*

And I have to come to terms with the fact that life does go on, that social injustice happens every day and that my little son has been born into a world where you can be a musician on the way to a gig, and be mistaken for a terrorist.

I can't believe I'm actually quoting American Spectator, here, but I feel I must because the point is valid:

"For those who assume it's paranoid to suppose that a musical group might practice espionage, here's one better: How about an entire film crew? We know it can be done, because we've done it. During the Iranian hostage crisis, a CIA team infiltrated Iran disguised as a Canadian film company."

Here's the CIA's account of what happened: CIA goes Hollywood. And since we taught Osama and his buddies how to be insurgents, it makes chilling sense to me.

We need to keep our eyes open. We need to be aware. And we need to ditch the stereotypes.