The Myth of Homeland Security is Perpetuated Through The Patriot Act.

Myths are generally tales in which different symbols are involved that may be interpreted to have many different kinds of meanings. 

They do not have any basis in fact or truth. 

Myths are used by some cultures in order to explain certain unexplainable phenomena. 

Tell people that hold these stories as sacred that they are just myths, and chances are strong you will make them rather upset. 

Many have referred to the state of security within the confines of the United States as a myth; it is not real. 

In the time following the 9/11 attacks, the government created a new cabinet position, the Department of Homeland Security. 

Tom Ridge, former governor of Pennsylvania, was sworn in as the new department’s first secretary; one of his first duties was to respond to comments made by then Senator Hillary Clinton. 

In a speech she gave at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York she referred to the state of homeland security prior to the World Trade Center attacks as a myth. 

She went on to state how the country was not ready to respond to something like 9/11; how the nation was not set to support those that do respond and how the approach to doing so is haphazard. 

Clinton went on to clarify her position on the myth of homeland security; it was not that she thought the men and women serving as police officers, firefighters, and medics were doing the wrong thing or the soldiers were not vigilant in defending the nation. 

It was the bureaucratic nature of the leaders in our government that were not getting the job done; the homeland security myth has been perpetuated by lack of action by politicians and the rhetoric they create. 

Clinton went on to describe the lack of support from the White House sixteen months after the 9/11 attacks. 

In defense of the White House, Bush has had a lot on his plate trying to manage the war in Iraq as well as continue to guide the country through its normal day to day routine. 

But the chief executive is not supposed to do the job all by himself; besides keeping one person from gaining too much power, the three branches exist in order to spread responsibility for the nation. 

So Clinton tried to help take some pressure off Bush and the White House and proposed her own bill to make the myth of homeland security a reality, yet it quickly became obvious that Bush believed that more needed to come from the White House instead of elsewhere (could not agree more!). 

The Illusion of Homeland Security

Is the Myth Dispelled? 

Seven years after the terrorist attacks of 9/11 has the supposed myth of homeland security become a reality? 

Funds were eventually approved to be dispersed to state and local law enforcement agencies to improve their respective capabilities. 

Airport security has stiffened up quite a bit (although people now seem more concerned with making the lines move more quickly rather than stop weapons and shoe bombs from getting onto planes). 

Border patrols and subsequent activity has increased in efforts to catch/stop criminals and terrorists before they can get into the country. 

Many are upset by the delays this causes at times, but the same people are probably the ones complaining about how little the government is doing when attacks occur. 

Most telling about the myth of homeland security is what is going on within our borders by our own law enforcement. 

The Patriot Act has made it fairly easy for law enforcement offers to do what they want in regard to the surveillance of individuals; many of the checks in place to ensure innocent people were not harassed can now be bypassed. 

Searches can be carried out without warrants; wiretaps, emails, just about any form of communication can be monitored with little to no proof of wrong doing. 

Efforts to protect us from without have essentially created another attack on our civil liberties from within. 

The myth of homeland security is not so much from the lack of action in order to protect the people, but from the attacks on the people the protectors (our politicians) now commit under the guise of security.