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Recently I loaded up some cameras and decided to take a drive to photograph some of the grain silos and wheat fields in my area. While taking in the country-side my mind began to wander, I thought about our current political climate, I remembered back on some articles I had written about "The Red Scare", and I saw the fear that defined a generation now doing the same.
We live in a time when the White House press secretary reminds us, "People should watch what they say", a time when musicians get shunned by record companies for speaking their mind, and a time when photographers are afraid to point a lens. Recently Ben Hider, a photojournalist came face to face with that fear spread by an administration that does nothing but hold a nation under it's thumb with fear.
"US Green card holding, British born photojournalist detained while photographing courthouse in White plains, NY"
"Hider lives in White Plains and has a green card to work in this country. He moved to the U.S. from England in 1998. The graduate of Purchase College, SUNY, works as an intern in Manhattan for World Picture Network. About 10 a.m. Friday, he was walking to the train station, on his way to a dentist appointment in Scarsdale, when he saw the flag waving outside the courthouse on Martine Avenue.
'It just looked nice,' said Hider, who grabbed his digital camera and started taking pictures. Then, he said, "I heard them yelling for me to stop."
This same fear, the fear used to win elections has cost us many feedoms we once took for granted. All one has to do is watch the likes of Fox News to see how fear sells, I wonder if there wasn't any missing white girls would they even have a channel? This networks sole purpose it to spread the fear written and directed by the White House, to win elections, and to funnel funds to various companies supported by this government.
When a person walks down the street, sees beauty and photographs it is dragged away by officials as some sort of criminal we have to say enough is enough.
"Hider said three armed police officers instantly surrounded him, frisked him, emptied his pockets and then detained him in a room for two hours while lecturing him about his citizenship and the terror threat in America."
Isn't this the land of the free and the brave? Hasn't our government spent billions on training local law enforcement to spot terrorist activities? We all know the answers just as we know our ports aren't secure. Just as actors, directors, and writers "disappeared from Hollywood in the 50's we have those same fears.
"While I was being escorted out, the officer told me I was really lucky that this other terrorism unit didn't show up because 99 percent of the noncitizens that get taken by them are never seen again," Hider said. "So then he told me I should really think about getting my citizenship."
As my mind drifted, seeing the open skys above the wheat fields with the lonely silo I thought, "could this happen to me? Would someone actually think a fat middle-aged, tobacco chewing man with a 60 year old camera taking pictures of grain silos be a terrorist? Would law enforcement officials really think that a terrorist would take his or her pictures, run home develop them, wait for them to dry and then scan and photoshop them and then email them to some foreign country? Wouldn't a terrorist just use a digital camera?"
I didn't take any chances, it was safer to stay at home so Fox News could tell me about terror and missing white girls.
Michael Harris
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