We had a friend back in the day ... doesn't matter who, some readers will know who I'm speaking of ... another friend died under mysterious circumstances, let's just say, and while nothing was ever proven or even suspected officially, some of us wondered if there was some foul play, even perhaps if our one friend had something to do with the other friend's death.
Probably just a bunch of drug-addled supposition, of course. Writing now, I'd have to say I'm pretty certain the death was accidental. What was important, though, as we realized after the fact, was that for even a brief moment, we thought our friend was capable of something so nefarious. From that moment on, we saw that person in a different light, knowing that we felt him capable of just about anything. Our fears said nothing about what had happened in those mysterious circumstances; they said everything about the kind of person we were dealing with.
And so today I saw a headline on MSNBC.com that read "U.S. ready to impose martial law," and my first thought was "oh shit, here it comes, we're fucked!"
That the story was about plans for Iraq, not the United States, is irrelevant. What is important is that we're living in times where, even for a brief moment, I was ready to believe martial law was coming to America. My fears said nothing about the situation in Iraq; it said everything about the kind of government we're dealing with here in the USA.
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