Blog #4 - The Virginia Earthquake

An unusually large earthquake hit the East Coast Tuesday, causing widespread panic.  The 5.8 magnitude earthquake had an epicenter in Mineral, VA.  The quake was felt as far north as Ontario, Canada, and as far south as Atlanta, GA.  The earthquake caused fear and panic in both Washington, DC and New York City.

In an interview with MSNBC,  Wendy Oscarson-Kirchner said, "I thought at first somebody was shaking my chair and then I thought maybe it was a bomb."  NBC Pentagon corresponent, Jim Miklazewski stated "I, like many other people here, thought 'Oh my God, we've been hit again.'"  FOX News also likened the earthquake to the attacks of 9/11: "Some of the nearly 20,000 people who work at the Pentagon every day feared the shaking was caused by another Sep. 11 style attack."

This begs the question, "What would people have thought 10 years ago, prior to the attacks?"  In a world before terrorist paranoia,the Patriot Act, and an American society inept of thinking for themselves- would there have been so much panic?  I understand that the September 11 attacks were terrible, and that nobody should have to go through anything like that- but it's been taken too far.  If the first thing you think of, when the ground shakes beneath you, is, "MUST BE ANUTHER TERRIST," there is something very wrong with you.

I can understand how the low rumbling and the shaking walls could be mistaken for a bomb- but should that be the first thing that pops into our minds?  Aren't earthquakes more common than terrorist attacks?  Well, at least they are in the West Coast.  But if I, being in the Midwest, felt a shaking and heard a rumbling noise, I would assume it to be an earthquake, or some natural event (which is still extrememly rare for my part of the globe)- as opposed to it being our friends at "al-Qaida."  Even though that way of carefree thinking could leave me dead one day, I choose not to succumb to the paranoid mindset of mainstream American society.  Personally, I'm of the mindset that our government either perpetrated those attacks, or they had information regarding what was to take place and did nothing about it.  Either way, a few Arabs with box cutters causing mass mayhem is a ridiculous theory, in my opinion, but that's what we're told to believe.  However, conspiracy theories can be saved for another day- but, if you're interested in such things, click here.

The thing bothering me is, "how did we get here?"  How have we become so paranoid, that we give up our freedoms?  Because of what happened nearly ten years ago, the president has dictatorial powers in case of "emergency," the police power has grown and the government has become more invasive of our privacy, as a society we have become more sheltered out of fear of safety, and the mass paranoia is out of control.  Our mindsets have completely changed due to these attacks.  Yes, 9/11 was terrible, yes, this earthquake was bad, yes I enjoy my safety- but to what expense? Our freedoms and liberties?

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." -Benjamin Franklin

My question to you is, "Are you one to give up safety for the sake of liberty, or are you one to give up liberty for the sake of safety?"