|
|
S.E. Wood Quiet victory Our nation experienced a magnificent victory
last Tuesday night in Yankee Stadium. You didn't hear about it?
I'm not surprised. You see, nothing happened. And that's the
point. Nothing happened! After all, isn't that the whole objective
in our current "war" against terrorism - to make nothing
happen? Think about it. "Oprah" had just
been interrupted with an announcement by the United States Attorney
General that he had received "credible evidence" that
another terrorist attack was imminent. Military and law enforcement
personnel were placed on an even higher state of alert. We were
advised to call the FBI if we saw any suspicious activity among
our friends and neighbors. The Internet was abuzz with dire predictions
of a disruption of the World Series. Vice President Dick Cheney
was again hustled into some secret fortified bunker for safekeeping. Then came Tuesday night. Fifty-seven thousand
people gathered in one spot to witness the president of the United
States make a solitary walk to the pitcher's mound, and throw
a strike across home plate. And nothing happened. The news media didn't like it. How can they
support their 24-hour-a-day programming with nothing to report?
Just imagine a telephone call from Peter Jennings to Bill Gates,
Microsoft CEO, trying to drum up some business for "World
News Tonight." "Hello! Bill ... ah ... Mr. Gates. This
is Peter. Peter Jennings! You know ... 'ABC World News Tonight.'
6 p.m. Every night. Peter Jennings! We've got a couple of 30-second
spots on tonight's broadcast we're saving especially for you.
They're on special discount, one time only, at $230,000 each.
What are we going to report? Well ... ah ... nothing really.
You see, nothing blew up today. No, nothing happened at Yankee
Stadium, either. No, no more anthrax or anything like that. But
you should see our new weather girl! Wow ... what a knockout!
Ah ... Mr. Gates! Please don't hang up! Mr. Gates! Mr. Gates!" So you see, therein lies the problem. Did
the Attorney General's alert prevent a terrorist attack on Yankee
Stadium? Is it possible that one of the more than 900 terrorist
suspects detained by the FBI had the means to blow up the World
Series? Have our bombings in Afghanistan destroyed Osama bin
Laden's ability to organize another attack? We'll never know,
will we? And that's the way it should be. Many of our politicians don't like it, either,
because they can't brag about their brave participation in our
war effort. Poll results indicate that even we, the American
public, are beginning to wonder if the authorities are crying
"wolf" too often. And yet, our victories are those
days when nothing really happens. · · · |