john - your asbestos scenario is one of the more scary secondary aspects to this tragedy that I've read. My real fear at this point is that someone, in the not too distant in the future, makes an emotional appeal to fascism in this country.
I'm afraid that the implications of this haven't even begun to be seen - not only the human lives lost, but the financial costs just to clear the area, the hit to the insurance companies, the costs to the companies that have lost their employees, and so on. Just how far will the impact of this attack extend?
When we have to pay the inevitable price, how long before some demagogue starts asking "Why are we, the victims, having to pay the costs of this brutal act of savagery? Why are the Saudis, and other Mid East oil-producing countries, whose prominent businessmen have been supporting the terrorists responsible for it, continuing to enrich themselves selling oil to the world? We have the military power to just go in, take over the fields, and use the proceeds to pay for what it takes to restore our country to what it was before these criminals killed thousands."
I hope and pray that no one tries to capitalize on this tragedy in that way, and I also hope that our leaders, like FDR during the Depression, can instill the confidence in themselves to make a demagogic appeal unsuccessful. |
