<![CDATA[I've posted a long piece at Red Herring about the deportation of Cat Stevens from the United States and what it says about the closing of the American mind:
Can an economy of fear survive?
Now I’ve been crying lately, thinking about the world as it is
Why must we go on hating, why can’t we live in bliss
Cause out on the edge of darkness, there rides a peace train
Oh peace train take this country, come take me home again
The United States has stopped an aircraft bound for the Washington, D.C., rerouting it to Bangor, Maine, in order to de-plane the author of the lyrics to Peace Train, Yusef Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens. Just how afraid have we become and what is it doing to the U.S. economy and business opportunity?
Look, forget the fact Mr. Islam is a Muslim for just a moment. Distance yourself from the knee-jerk reaction some people have to Muslims, especially when they are cast in news stories presented by U.S. government officials. If you believe, as we do, that the economic freedom enjoyed in the United States is a key to the nation’s greatness, then all the other freedoms – to speak, to travel, to disagree – have to precede the success of the economy, or prosperity will be choked off.
Read the whole essay.]]>
4 replies on “An Economy of Fear Cannot Stand”
Shhh…never mention the economic implications of his financial support to terrorists. After all, he crooned ‘Piece Train’. Why the man is the modern incarnation of Ghandi.
Bob, you seem to have a lot of time on your hands, but you missed the fact that I did not ignore the accusation Yusef Islam supports terrorists. I scoffed at it, because it was thrown out by Homeland Security with no supporting evidence. It’s foolish to argue that an unarmed man on a plane needed to be de-planed in Bangor, Maine, to save the United States. He’s not Ghandi, if he were he’d be really dangerous.
Funny, those 19 mostly Saudi citizens posed no threat to certain Portland Maine airline security people early on 9/11.
Bob, what would your point be? Also, only one or two of the hijackers flew into Logan from Portland the night before, if memory serves. But that has nothing to do with the selection of Portland as the place to take Cat Stevens/Yusef Islam off his plane.