Dangerous Minds

On a rainy night in Houston, I was headed home after a particularly brutal day at the office. In Houston, when it rains too hard, it floods and that is exactly what I was up against this particular night. So I pulled into a Starbucks. I dashed from my car to the front door and got out of the sloppy weather. I bought a New York Times, a large cup of coffee and a few pieces of chocolate biscotti. I found a comfortable chair by the window and watched the rain pound down on the street outside.

Nearby, two guys sat talking very intently. They were close enough that I could hear what they were saying, even though they were not talking very loudly. They looked no different than a lot of guys like them in their late thirties or early 40's. As I listened to what they were saying to each other, I realized that these two fellows had dangerous minds. What these guys were saying made them a potential threat to the powers that be in this country. You would have never ever known that just from looking at them from a distance.

The first fellow put down his coffee and said, "Jack, can you believe what Bush has tried to pull off. He is trying to rule by executive order. He wants to rule by decree and make end runs around Congress and the courts."

"So what else is new?" retorted the other fellow.

"You are always so damned flip. He is ruling like he was a king or a dictator or something. If we let him continue to rule by decree, we won't have a democracy anymore."

The second fellow did not respond immediately. He looked at his cup of coffee and looked up at his friend. "That sort of stuff did not start with him. President's have been trying to do that since Harry Truman, doing stuff behind the scenes out of sight. Doing what they can get away with."

"What?"

"Haven't you read anything about the history of this country since WWII? Well, I guess that is sort of a dumb question. Most guys are too busy vegging out in front of the boob tube or getting hard reading Maxim. Oh well, that's another discussion entirely."

"Anyway," the second guy continued,"most of all this crap really kicked in just after World War II. Harry Truman asked Congress to give him authority to set up ad hoc wartime agencies during peace time... you know, that was the time of Cold War. And without much discussion, Congress did that. They passed the National Security Act. That was the beginning of our government doing dirty tricks in other parts of the world and things like black ops."

"Black ops?" the first guy asked.

"Uhh... Black ops are secret operations that our government can carry out... like overthrowing the government of Allende in Chile about 30 years ago or supporting the contras in El Salvador. You know, the kind of stuff that our government can deny that we had anything to do with it and that whoever did it was doing it on their own. Or like our government moving people suspected of being terrorists to other countries so that we can torture them. Things like that."

"I see. Let's go back to what you were talking about. The National Security Act..."

"Oh yeah! Okay, first the National Security Act. Then came the CIA and then the National Security Council..."

"So what does all that mean?"

"It means that at the getgo our government was not in the business of undermining the governments in other countries that we did not particularly like. When the governing body of the CIA met for the first time, the first director declared that the CIA had no authority whatsoever to meddle in the affairs of other countries. So what did the National Security Council do? On it's own authority and answerable to nobody whatsoever, simply declared that the the CIA could essentially do any damn thing it wanted to do, so long as it kept things secret. So when our good Mr. Bush goes hellbent after the terrorists... the so-called 'War on Terrorism'... and does all sorts of stuff that his has no authority to do at all... Hell, that is in the great tradition of every one of the Presidents since Harry Truman."

"I didn't know that."

"Yeah, well not a lot of people do. Nor do they really have much desire to find out. Most people are so busy in their lives, they do real well just to get through the day in one piece."

"Well, I really don't think we really have much of a democracy anymore... maybe never did. We all want to believe in that great mythology that this is '...a nation of the people, by the people and for the people.' I mean, think about it. When was that ever true. When did "the people" ever really make the decisions or choose who our leaders are going to be or who the government is going to screw this week."

"That sounds about right."

"Just as we eventually have to give up believing that there is a Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny or the Tooth Fairy, we have to give up the illusion that this form of government was ever really run by the people. Hell, Diebold has these new computerized voting machines that only a politician could love. If you screw around with the memory card, you can make an election go any way you want it too. And the Republicans knew all about it and took full advantage of that to get old George B Jr elected a second time. Someone said that there is a memo floating around somewhere that Diebold told the Republicans that they would deliver the Presidential election to them on a platter... Maybe that is just urban legend... Don't know."

"Please stay on track, guy."

"Okay... where was I? Oh yeah. So there have always been big businesses and special politically powerful groups of one sort or another from day one in this country. The only thing that changes is what kind of political group that is or the extent to which big business interests are allowed to wield power. But the people... the people make a lot of noise, but can never get their act together for long enough to make a dent."

"So what are we going to do about it?"

"What are we going to do about it? You are asking me that? What can we do about that, really?"

"We could get the word out. We could make a lot of noise. We could blow the whistle on the whole corrupt mess and let the world know."

"What good would that do? How many people would listen? How many people would pay very much attention? It is a lot more interesting to watch some fucking reality show like 'The Great Race' or 'The Bachelor in Timbuktu.' "

"Look at the Drudge Report on the internet. He makes a dent."

"Maybe. But if we piss off the right people, we can disappear... even in this country. If you don't believe me, then I know of a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you."

"You are cute. Not funny, but cute."

"Yeah, I know. But you are right. We need to do something, even if it is only to change things locally... to fry the local S.O.B.s and hoist them on their own petard."

"All right. I'm game. Where do you want to start?"

At that moment, the rain stopped and I checked my watch. It was getting late. I made my way back to my car and headed home. I never did find out what these two dangerous minds were up to. But I am really thankful that there are still a few people out there like those two guys. What would our world be like if it weren't for people like them. Tell you one thing. We probably would not have had a country called the United States of America if there had not been a few dangerous minds like Thomas Jefferson or Patrick Henry or John Adams. Thank G'd we did.

Kindest regards,

Howard Fireman