I am sending this to certain appropriate representatives: Osama Bin Ladin said in an interview: "We have seen in the last decade the decline of the American government and the weakness of the American soldier who is ready to wage Cold Wars and unprepared to fight long wars." But American soldiers are not the only ones who are "weak and unprepared": every new threat against America (both externally and from within) produces efforts to increase security by the method of weakening already defenseless civilians even further. Every new threat against the nation means we the individuals must become more transparent, that we must allow greater trespass against the sanctity of our private lives, and forsake personal authority over our circumstances, in order that official policing agencies may be assured that we are not criminals, that we have no evil intentions against others, that we are not concealing secret plans against the State. To ensure against the potential threat of enemies among us, our power to act is deemed necessary to circumscribe and an attempt to control the use of any utensil is extended beyond common sense: we are pressured to give up any technology or instrument which could potentially be turned to a destructive purpose; we must not carry or be given any kind of tool, no matter how normally innocuous, which could be employed abnormally as a weapon. If this goes on, we will all become as babes in the woods - naked, disabled, and totally dependent upon paranoic caretakers for protection. The U.S. will become like the former U.S.S.R. The whole load of responsibility for safety cannot be carried by only a few. The damage to the World Trade Center towers resulted in the fall of the interior levels and the total collapse of the buildings. Like these towers, the most impressive free nation on the planet could fall under terrorism because its interior - we the people - lack the wherewithal to act in their own behalf. President Bush remarked that "This is an enemy who preys on unsuspecting people." Unsuspecting people who are unpracticed and unprepared. We all must be allowed to participate in our own defense. We should not be prevented from accoutering ourselves properly in order that we may respond appropriately to danger and be of practical use toward normality and our own security and safety. .. Blanc