We are not the enemy

Some history notes: I live in Alexandria, Virginia, just south of DC. After 9/11, the army base south of here, Fort Belvoir, closed two roads that had been open to the public, without public consultation or warning to the community. Because of this closure, traffic on Richmond Highway has gotten a lot worse, and Mount Vernon hospital is citing the closure of these roads as a reason for possibly moving or shutting down.

Last night at a town hall meeting, one woman stood up and shouted "We are not the enemy!" You can read more about the meeting in the Washington Post today.

When 9/11 happened, the people put up with additional security measures, because we were scared, and because we wanted the government to get us secure quickly. Since then, though, there has been very little discussion of the cost in terms of our lives of those security measures.

Security is one thing, but the various governments (local, state, and federal) are not taking into account the human cost of the security, and are not trying to minimize these costs. When we start asking them to count the human cost, they usually say "No, security" and wave us away, as if by asking we're part of the problem. We're not the problem, we're the citizens who make up this country. It's time to start reminding the government that we are not the enemy.