I may be picking the wrong words, but we the people are the eyes and ears of the government, which can't be everywhere all the time. James Woods noticed strange behavior and reported. His was the only report, and they dismissed it. If just four more people had noticed or paid enough attention to their instincts to file reports of their own regarding suspicious behavior, might the government have possibly caught these guys before they could do any harm?
In our heightened atmosphere, someone noticed an unusually high number of middle-eastern people suddenly taking an interest in crop-dusting. (I live in the Tri-Counties area of California, and things like crop-dusting are major components of daily life.) This sudden surge happened within the past couple of days. This was suspicious behavior was reported by more than one agency and, as a result, crop-dusters are currently grounded. Yesterday, a middle-eastern man was stopped for having improper licensing on his semi-truck. His manifests were checked to see that he and his company were licensed to haul whatever it was they were hauling (a common practice for the Highway Patrol). Turns out it was crop-dusting chemicals, the driver wasn't licensed to haul chemicals, and his license wasn't a Class A. To boot, he had no paperwork to show where he had picked up the chemicals from. The crop-duster wannabes and the illegal truck driver had something in common besides their ethnicity. It was their links to bin Laden's organization.
This particular truck was headed for the Tri-Counties area, and I am very glad that a handful of Americans wasn't asleep at the wheel this time. They saw something suspicious and reported it. I shudder to think what was avoided.
Do you have to be paranoid while considering your favorite activities? Hell, no. Do you have to keep an eye on the guy with the turban? Hell, no. Just use a little common sense, and to hell with worrying about what Miss Manners would think.
I offer up an example we used in my Psychology class. In an experiment, nobody would give a ride to a mean looking man in a leather jacket, motorcycle boots, buck-knife, scraggly beard, and all the trappings of a low-life piece of scum. Although he stood at the side of the road for hours, nobody stopped. Well, duh. This guy looked like he could tear your liver out with one hand and feed it to you with the other.
The experimenters then took this same person and put him in an elevator. Although fellow passengers had their reservations, they would get into the car with this person. They had subjected themselves to the same circumstances as they would have if they had given him a ride from the side of the road. Out of 100 people, only one saw this dangerous looking guy in the elevator and said "No thanks. I'll catch the next one."
The one person who refused to enter the elevator car was asked by the experimenters why he had done so. He said that the person looked dangerous and he didn't feel safe. He listened to his instincts and potentially saved his own life. Of the ones who had reservations but got in anyway, which was 98%, they admitted to being afraid, but they said unanimously that they didn't want to seem impolite, antisocial, or paranoid. (Yeah, I know. That only counts for 99%. The final 1% said "Because I could kick his ass if he tried anything.")
The same thing, I believe applies in society today. because we don't want to be seen as impolite, antisocial, or paranoid, we tend to ignore or block out unusual behavior. (James Woods didn't.) We are taught to accept diversity. All diversity means is difference, and not all difference is good. The person with the unusual name and accent and decorative tattoos is probably a very interesting person to talk to. The wide-eyed person with the twitchy mannerisms and hand kept firmly in one coat pocket should probably be watched.
It's strange, but veteran waiters and waitresses do this on a regular basis. They can usually tell when someone is going to walk out without paying. They tend to watch these people and intercept them most of the time as they are bolting for the door. All they have to do is be aware of what's going on around them.
Tomorrow you will probably see quite a few people. Notice their behavior and try to determine what you would consider within the bounds of normal behavior and what you would consider behavior that may be worth keeping an eye on. You don't have to be intrusive or paranoid, just observant.
BTW-If you take your own life raft along on a cruise, I want to hang around with you! You're obviously someone who believes in being prepared!
