America’s Empty Slogan: ‘See Something, Say Something’

[Geee]

National Review:

In brief remarks to the nation yesterday on the Boston Marathon bombings, President Obama said that “we all have a part to play in alerting authorities. If you see something suspicious, speak up.” In Washington, D.C., electronic signs urged commuters to be on guard. Law enforcement, big-city mayors, and security experts all echoed that famous post-terrorism refrain: “If you see something, say something.”

But who really means it?

In post-9/11 America, the truth is that our politically correct guardians only want you to see, say, or do something if it can’t be construed by grievance-mongers as racist, sexist, Islamophobic, homophobic, nativist or any other “-ist” or “-ic.”

 

Face it: We live in a self-defeating culture that pays lip service to heroic action in times of crisis, yet brutally punishes the very kind of snap judgments and instant security-profiling that make such heroism possible in the first place.

Just take a look at some of the caustic reactions to citizens and watchdogs who stuck out their necks during and after the Boston Marathon bombings. A quick-thinking spectator at the race reportedly tackled a 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student-visa holder he believed was acting suspiciously. The student is not considered a suspect at this point, but remains a “person of interest” in the case. The student’s home was searched Monday night in Revere, Mass., by a phalanx of law-enforcement agencies.