This weekends hype is the "Terror Plot Targeting Sears Tower." Yesterday regurgitations of this so-called story was splashed over front pages nation wide. Here in Chicagoland, one cant turn one’s head in the newsstand without images of the city’s tallest structure in view. Subliminal message: the word "terror" in combination with high-rise buildings.
Never mind the family’s statements of the seven men - "They’re not terrorists;" forget the details of the "case" - that the group, headed by Narseal Batiste, a Chicago native, had no weapons, money, explosives, nor that they were four states removed from the scene of the not-yet-a-crime. Pay no attention to official comments from the family of Stanley Grant Phanor pointing out that he is a practicing Roman Catholic - not a Muslim. Ignore the FBI’s own assessment that the operation was more "aspirational than operational". We’re not supposed to notice these pesky details.
Besides the press and the established party know full well that most Americans don’t like to read, don’t have the patience to peruse small print. Instead, Americans rely on the sound bites and flashed images from TV to get their "information." The heavy editing as delivered through that medium tends to leave the facts on the proverbial cutting room floor.
The message is clear: Terror + High-rises = FEAR. It’s an election year, so we are to fear as much as we can. We should fear terrorists, gays, Muslims, Liberals, or anyone bold enough to question the verbal vomit of the likes of "conservative commentators" (Rush Limbaugh comes to mind…) If we fulfill our role sufficiently, the Republicans retain their majority. If we cast aside our fears and look the at issues closely, we will see how we are manipulated, how baseless is our fear, how manufactured. Then perhaps, the crumbling foundation of Neo-con power can be challenged.
That is - if the Democrats can provide a unified front. But that’s a rant for another day.