Sedition won’t be tolerated when it counts

Imagine: A WMD explodes somewhere along the super metropolis that is the American east coast. Thousands upon thousands are killed, and many more are displaced in the ensuing exodus that makes Hurricane Katrina look like a class field trip.

What happens then? We live in a society now that is quite tolerant of even the craziest and most inane viewpoints. We accept a lot of stuff that blatantly crosses the line between criticism and outright hopes of peril for the greater number of Americans within smaller communities, some of them foreign or recently immigrated, some of them home-grown. A lot of it is pretty bad – reading a message board or two, you can really see that there is a significant number of people who think it’d be a great thing if a number of Americans were wiped off the Earth, either because of our “foreign aggressions” or our “fascist” political leanings. Either way, it’s pretty clear that their sentiment lies somewhere outside of our borders.

There is a stark difference between criticism and outright sedition, and it’s pretty obvious. It’s one thing to argue over the color of the curtains, but it’s another thing to wish that the whole house burns to the ground. Hoping that Iraq fails just to see more Republicans out of office is flat-out seditionist in nature. Likewise, hoping that America gets attacked again so it can “reap what it sows” is equally wrong.

I can promise you this: The next major attack on this nation’s soil is going to bring back legislation within hours that’ll make the Sedition Act of 1918 look like child’s play. Every loony message board post, crazy letter made to a newspaper and outlandish speech made by an extreme organization might be subject to the “new way of things.” People are going to be (deservingly) thrown in jail, including those who would advocate the righteousness of such tragedy, like some in the post-Sept. 11 era. Those who don’t speak against the possible perpetrators of the next great American disaster are going to find themselves in a very precarious situation – articularly the American Muslim community, which really needs to make sure it’s positioned on the pro-American side of things in the likely event that the next attackers or supporters come from an Islamic faction.

My advice, if this sounds scary to you: If it’s really so bad here, leave. One of these days, everyone’s going to get fed up and realize that maybe we were a little too accepting of the negativity perpetuated by anti-Americans – a growing faction within this nation – and it’s going to be ugly. And I won’t feel too bad, to be honest, when the chickens come home to roost.