Marshall Law for Terror??

The Politics of Love (and Desire): Many people who lived through having their homes searched are emotionally traumatized. They will never think of the concept of ‘home’ the same way again. Our social contract in the United States is clear. “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated…” Was the response we witnessed reasonable, in the moral and legal sense of the word? We need to have a long conversation with our neighbors about this.

We also need a national conversation. What we witnessed in Boston, from the improvised explosive devices to the firefights in urban areas to the door-to-door searches, are what the American government has been experiencing, or doing, in Afghanistan and Iraq for more than 10 years. The war literally came home to Boston and its suburbs. We don’t like bombs going off in our public places and I hope we don’t like armored vehicles, SWAT teams and high-powered rifles going off in the streets. It’s time to ask when we’re going to stop doing this to other countries. It’s also time for ‘non-political’ people to raise questions about the conduct of our leaders, both at home and in other countries.