Institutionalizing Fear

Today I reveived an office e-mail that included, in part, a request that all employees wear a lanyard emblazoned with the words See something, say something with their employee ID tags. After my initial shock, I felt a growing anger.

To me, the term See something, say something just smacks of the rightwing fear-mongering that has been used to minipulate the population into accepting a variety of actions including the war in Iraq. It's been used to justify ugly legislation and domestic spying. And now we are expecting ordinary citizens to report the questionable activities of their fellow Americans.

I won't have any part of this. In fact, I'll likely resurrect my old Roswell lanyard, dayglow colors and all.