PC'd to death

"Here it was, right in the middle of suburbia. A garage with more firepower in it than one could ever imagine..."

As the story in San Bernardino continues to unfold, I think one of the more disturbing aspects has been a violation of a cardinal rule of good citizenship. And that rule is what we have heard over and over again since the 9/11 attacks. "See something, say something." It is a rule that if followed by the neighbors of the terrorists, this unfortunate incident might never have happened.

This "workplace violence" was nothing of the sort. This house was used as a staging area to come up with something (and that something is yet to be discovered), big, deadly and spectacular. According to reports, there was much suspicious activity going on in this garage for quite a while. And because of the close proximity of the houses in this neighborhood, some of that suspicious activity had been noticed by a neighbor.

Boxes being delivered in the middle of the night, strange men coming and going at all times, and most of all - something that just did not look right. Oh, the neighbor thought about calling the authorities to just mention that something strange was going on at their neighbor's house. But then that horrible thought came knocking - these people are Muslims. And the neighbor feared of being labeled a racist or a xenophobe. So one of our best defenses against terror, the rule of "see something, say something", went flying out the window. It literally was PC'd to death.

This tragic event in San Bernardino has set us up for a very unpleasant forced choice. Do we mind our own beeswax and tend only to our business? Or do we need to be the eyes and ears of law enforcement in helping identify terror cells before they erupt? Truthfully, I fully understand how unpleasant it is to call the authorities on a neighbor. I had to do it once or twice thirty some years ago in our old neighborhood. It was because of a neighbor who was practicing animal cruelty with his dogs. Even though I knew I was right in doing so, it was still very uncomfortable.

One final thought about this neighborhood bomb making plant. Some terror experts believe with the amount of firepower discovered, the conference room might not have been the intended target. The planned target would have been something much bigger. To make a bigger splash. Have a larger body count.

Maybe it was the heated discussion he had with the Christian person in the conference room. Or the Jewish person discussion religion. A discussion about Islam. If it truly is a religion of peace. This might have caused the plans to change. To take care of this dispute first.

In any event, as we go forward in time, I am convinced that more and more will become known. My biggest fear is our days of relative peace in this country might be coming to an end. Why? From the perspective of a terrorist, we have a plethora of soft targets. An unlimited selection of venues that could be used to cause death and destruction. 

One terror expert I listened to yesterday summed our situation up very succinctly. "War is coming. We need to get ready for it." And we need to make sure that our obsession with PC does not harm us more than help us.