The demons in our land

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KENNETT, Mo. -- I suspect many readers have their minds on something other than what's troubling America or what's disturbing Missouri as we turn our attention to more mundane matters. After all, we have gifts to buy for Aunt Maude and Uncle Harry, and there's that big decision on whether the old holiday door wreath still looks presentable.

These are the topics that keep us awake at night and prod us into action on the home front, not the viciousness of al-Qaida and the Taliban and whether the northern alliance will become more reasonable about America's plans to rebuild Afghanistan while restoring bombed-out sections in our nation.

This is the season of peace and goodwill, whether we are ready for it or not, and even now there are some who are praying for enough strength to get past Dec. 25. Just let us get through Christmas, Lord, and we'll tend to the sad state of affairs in Missouri and the United States when we can focus our talents and give our greater difficulties the attention they deserve.

The problem with this kind of promise is that we seldom keep it, and given the complexity of so many of today's societal challenges, this shouldn't be surprising. For the moment, at least, events in Afghanistan seem to be going better than most believed possible a few weeks ago, with U.S. casualties (the most important statistic) surprisingly small given the scope of operations and the potential for disaster in that part of the world. We certainly have problems there. But, like the ones that crop up in the United States, they will evolve into ones that call out for remedy while no one is paying the slightest bit of attention.

In the event you remain skeptical of our native talent for ignoring the future, please note that on July 24, 1997, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency warned Americans they had become the targets of Islamic terrorists who "will stop at nothing to carry out their intense hatred for our country."

I don't expect you to remember how we reacted to the CIA warning or whether Congress devoted time to consider its impact or whether the president took even one step to face the challenge. None of these things happened. Citizens went right on with what they were doing, the Congress held only a couple of hearings to consider the matter, and the president was too busy with whatever he was doing to respond to any recommendations from the Spooks in the Beltway.

Man, get out of our face, we're too busy buying and selling stocks, building still more shopping malls, driving our SUVs with cheap gas and living as if there's no tomorrow.

I'm not saying the horrible events in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington wouldn't have occurred had citizens expressed concern over the absence of homeland defense or if Congress had inaugurated top-grade security programs or if the president had recommended numerous actions designed to halt illegal visitors bent on destroying innocent American lives.

The reason Osama bin Laden's forces were so successful was that, despite reliable words of caution, the nation and its leaders were unprepared. And the reason for this lack of response was quite logical, at least at the moment: We were too busy with matters that didn't approach the seriousness of the agency's dire warnings.

Unfortunately, this indifference and laconic neglect of major problems is not confined to the Sept. 11 tragedies, which were so significant that they have led to America's entry into yet another armed conflict with the potential of even more widespread damage in the days and weeks ahead. We're faced with still other dilemmas that can have the same impact on our individual lives as the terrorist attacks three months ago.

No American should treat lightly the immediate creation of new federal powers almost as far-reaching as President John Adams' Alien and Sedition Acts following the Revolutionary War. Although America prides itself on its broad human rights climate, we have witnessed the elimination or erosion of basic liberties in a disturbingly large number of cases. Without so much as a single congressional vote or court ruling, certain legal rights have been placed on hold, with no definite date set for their return.

Sensible Americans will countenance wartime precautions, but not until at least more than one branch of government concurs and dates are set for their termination.

Unfortunately, we are too occupied with other matters for most even to notice. We are too busy with personal demands, too distracted by gift lists, too patriotic to question the decisions of leaders who, so the logic goes, know much more about critical issues than the rest of us.

We should have learned by now that any event that surprises our leaders in Washington or Jefferson City is a telltale sign that nothing has been done to meet the emergency and that the search for solutions will be as elusive as the hunt for bin Laden.

The American system of government does not seem to lend itself to long-range planning, emphasizing short-term solutions that are often devised to grease the way for 51 percent of the vote at the next election.

The same can be said for state governments, and in case you haven't noticed, Jefferson City is managing to face some serious problems by adroitly stepping lightly around needed solutions. Missouri is about to experience a multiple series of financial-health care-highway-unemployment-education-welfare problems that few have noticed, much less considered. Unlike those in Washington, many of them cannot be resolved without broad public knowledge and support.

These are the demons in our time, threatening to haunt us all.

Jack Stapleton is the editor of Missouri News and Editorial Service.