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Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Our Kids Are in Danger

As I wrote here in May of 2006, terrorists did a dry-run on a local school bus in Hillsborough County, Florida. If you go to that link, you can read the details. Increasingly, authorities are admitting that such incidents as that one have been cropping up all over the country.

The terrorists are getting ready to hit our schools and our children, in a mass attack, and the government is very reluctant to let you know this for fear of wide-spread panic.

This week, Glenn Beck is beginning a series intent on proving that the terrorists are ready to strike.

Examples abound. A large number of school buses are missing in Texas. Middle Eastern men are trying to buy school buses. They've been seen outside of schools throughout the nation, taking pictures, watching and waiting, learning traffic patterns and more.

The real question is not if they are planning it. The real question is, how can we thwart it?

Some schools have been trained by the FBI in counter-terrorism. But will it be enough? And what about the schools that haven't been trained?

And what about the schools that are seemingly well-fortified, but could be breached by a car bomb or simply a determined group of Islamic terrorists with automatic weapons?

Parents are being encouraged to contact their schools and find out what's being done. But, will that be enough? Schools can make assurances of protection, but unless we've seen it with my own eyes, and we have everyone in those schools doing regular terrorism drills, we can't know how effective it all will be until it's too late.

The government needs to come out with some standards, and they need to move quickly. Schools need to be forced to at least meet or exceed those standards. These new standards need to take into consideration as many possible alternatives as they can.

The Islamic terrorists feel that if they kill, rape, and torture our children (as they did in the Russian middle school in Beslan), then they will be able to bring the nation to its knees. Additionally, if America's children are no more, there will be no future generations that can arise to fight these monsters.

We are overseas, fighting a war elsewhere, while our borders and schools remain relatively unprotected. It's like going on a lecture tour about preventing home robberies while leaving your front door unlocked.

We want to live in peace, but they want us to die in pieces.

If you are as concerned as we all should be, then write or call your congressional representatives today to ask that they make a concerted effort to protect the children of our nation.

To contact your Senators, go here.
To contact your Representative, go here.
Or, simply click on the envelope at the bottom of this post to forward this article to them instead.

Do it. Before it's too late.

18 comments:

The Lazy Iguana said...

So much for "fight them over there so we do not have to fight them here" theory.

No school is "well fortified" against a bomb.

Saur♥Kraut said...

Lazy, you're right. In fact, I admit that I can't see how they could possibly be prepared for such a situation.

A friend of mine who is much older than I remembers being a school kid during the Cuban missile crisis, and the fire drills they went through. Basically, in case of an atomic bomb attack, everyone was supposed to duck down under their desk. Yeah, that would've worked just fine...

On the other hand, if we brought the military back HERE and had them fortifying the coastline and the schools, we'd have less to worry about. I doubt Bush sees that as an option, however.

daveawayfromhome said...

This administration has shown its contempt for the children of ordinary people in multiple ways, so dont expect a huge response to this one. Children do not create oil wealth. However, dead children do create outrage and calls for vengeance and "security", two things which the Republican party claims in order to maintain its hold on power. Maybe if the terrorists target some fancy prep school, that'd get some BushCo action.

However, if terrorists wanted to arouse the rage of the American people to an apocalyptic level, they couldnt come up with something more likely to do so, could they? It would also almost instantly restore much of the world's sympathy that Bush has pissed away over the years.

I think they would also almost certainly be biting off more than they could chew. And for Bush's sake, bin Laden damn sure better not be behind the attack, or mobs will storm the White House for letting that bearded sumbitch roam free for so long.

Really, I dont think this will happen, but I would no longer use the term "unthinkable", not since six years ago yesterday.

Saur♥Kraut said...

Daveawayfromhome, from your mouth to God's ears, as my grandmother used to say. I certainly hope you're right. But the problem is that many Islamic terrorists WANT to cause such a holy war because that's the only way to bring about the end of the world that the Koran indicates needs to happen. Only in the Islamic religion do worshippers actually WANT to bring about total Armageddon.

AQ said...

I'm a stickler for details - it was a Hillsborough County School Bus (Tampa). Here's the article: St. Pete Times

That doesn't change anything else you wrote about, but Pinellas County has enough weirdness - it doesn't need the stuff from the other counties.

Saur♥Kraut said...

AQ, thanks so much for the correction. :D Good to hear from you.

The Lazy Iguana said...

Saur - there is no way that school builders could have taken international terrorism into account. And most schools were built decades ago. A lot of schools in Miami were built before there was such a thing as AC. Open breezy construction was the name of the game back then. Large windows, open spaces to allow for air flow, and so on. Even still it had to be hot as all hell - glad I was raised in the 21st century with air conditioning technology!

I do not think anyone would want the military fortifying schools. I do not think it is necessary. It would probably reduce school violence to have some US Marines on school grounds with machine gun nests - but I also think this would be illegal and contrary to US Military Code.

However, think of all the hundreds of billions PER YEAR pissed away in Iraq. What are we up to at this point? At least a trillion spent. And shit to show for it.

Had that same money been spent here, imagine what we could have.

No wait - do not imagine what we could have. You will just get depressed. And I would have dental insurance.

TLP said...

I want our children to be safe for sure. Not sure how much can be done.

IMHO the biggest danger to our kids is drugs and alcohol and unsafe sex. Terrorist can kill but a limited of children, while drugs and alcohol kill them year after year after year.

But I do appreciate your efforts in this regard.

The Lazy Iguana said...

TLP makes a good point. As usual. We worry about the spectacular things, and meanwhile let the ordinary mundane day to day things pass right through.

BlondeBlogger said...

This is an issue that should be important across party lines. It's not a time to make snide political attacks, such as the one a few above this. To suggest Republicans want dead children for political gain is just sickening and idiotic.

I was all prepared to say a bunch of stuff about your post, Saur (good things) but that comment has just ticked me off too much. Sorry.

Saur♥Kraut said...

A Blonde Blogger, thanks for your input. Good point in your first paragraph... but I didn't take Daveawayfromhome's comment to be snide as much as cynical. You could argue that they're pretty much the same thing, but generally in his case, DAFH tends to be a moderate. I do think that his point: "However, dead children do create outrage and calls for vengeance and "security", two things which the Republican party claims in order to maintain its hold on power" may be valid. I would surely HOPE it wasn't. But you must admit that it is such inflamatory events that keep us overseas when we might be better served keeping our troops home. Just a thought!

TLP, thanks for coming by. It's been a long time! You're right - drugs and alcohol need to be a MUCH more serious concern among adults than it currently is. I think one of the reasons that it ISN'T is due to the fact that so many adults do it themselves and don't have the stomach for the hypocrisy. :P But you could certainly argue that drugs and alcohol are a choice. Death by terrorism isn't. Unless we arm all the children like something out of a Warner Brothers cartoon. ;o)

Lazy, No doubt we didn't build schools for warfare. But there are ways to try to limit damage and takeover, and I hope they'll start taking those steps. As for the military, this is one thing I DON'T know - I can't say if they could legally increase their presence around a school. BUT, if we brought the troops home and decommissioned a lot of them (remember, many have been kept wayyy past what they were promised) then I bet we could form a fantastic group of school guards!

daveawayfromhome said...

Do Republicans want dead children? No.
Will Republicans drape themselves in dead children and blame Democrats should such an attack occur? Metaphorically, they already have. And let us not forget the asshat in Arkansas who hoped for another attack so that people would "appreciate" the fiasco that is the BushCo War On Terror.
The GOP has been playing to our fears now for six years, and has shown nothing but contempt for alternative ideas in a country founded on alternative ideas. You dont have to agree with them, you dont have to act on them, but by God, every American has a right to them, without have their patriotism or love of country questioned.

United We Lay said...

I don't think I have to worry about that. The kids at my school would fight back if anyone were ever stupid enough to try to attack a reform school.

Rita Loca said...

Did you receive my email?

mal said...

vigilance is ever the price of our freedoms.

exMI said...

hmm did my comment last night not make it through or was it unapproved?

Saur♥Kraut said...

Exmi, it didn't make it, I guess. Resubmit it! Thanks!

Mal, true.

Jungle Mom, yeah, and I replied. :D

UWL, Like something outta Red Dawn, huh?

Daveawayfromhome, thanks

United We Lay said...

Worse.