We're experiencing lots of second thoughts

We’ve all had them: second thoughts. “Perhaps it would be better not to,� or “hmm... maybe that’s not such a good idea,� or “I really shouldn’t do that...� The world is full of second-guessing, second opinions and, as humans always do, having second thoughts. As children we’re taught by our parents to “think again� before we get into trouble. I used to play mumbly-peg until I stuck the blade in my shoe. My mother asked, “What were you thinking? Next time, think again.�

At school, kids always got up to all sorts of pranks and, sometimes, minor illegal activities. We were in a candy store, on a dare, to each shoplift a candy bar. Some little voice in my head said, “think again� just before I actually picked up the chocolate. Some of my classmates didn’t think and got away with the theft. Did it make them braver, more bold? The next day, all of them returned and paid for the candy they had stolen. Their second thoughts happened in the dead of night.

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Bush’s administration, in the heat of a national emergency, decided to change a basic tenet of all our criminal laws. Previously, you had to actually commit a crime or at least commit an offence to be charged. Not under Bush/Cheney America. Now you can be charged for thinking of committing a crime.

Was I really guilty of a crime for looking at the candy in the box on the counter with thoughts of stealing some? At what point does a crime get committed? Yes, the thought to steal was wrong, but as a human we’re always tantalized by the yin-yang of right and wrong — it is the end result that shows character, intent and commission. President Carter felt guilty for lusting after naked pictures in Playboy, but that did not make him unfaithful to his wife. He remained faithful all the while, learning a lesson of his own weakness.

In George Orwell’s “1984� the Thought Police could arrest you for just such pernicious thoughts. Today we have a type of pre-emptive prosecution that has grown more common in U.S. terrorism cases. As I write this, five suspects are standing trial for an alleged plot to murder military personnel at Fort Dix. The way the prosecution knows they were planning this crime? An Egyptian national on probation for bank fraud was a paid U.S. government infiltrator and stooge. He got the job because he conveniently shopped these five to reduce his sentence when they asked him to clean up a video they had made shooting guns on a range while shouting the usual pseudo-Islamic terrorist nonsense, laughing and having a good time. Guys with guns, showing off, mimicking terrorists? If they were real terrorists, would they have made a video and then given it to a store for copying?

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Okay, they may be real bad guys and should be stopped, but only when the time is right. They were being watched 24/7, they had a spy in their midst (on our taxpayer’s dime), their every purchase and means were under careful watch.

“Lately, the government has been instructing its informants and taking a more active approach in planning and participation� of illegal acts, said Henry Klingeman, a former federal prosecutor. Active approach? Sound more like a sting setup. Why?

 If they had gone to Fort Dix (the supposed target), if they had committed a crime, they could have been easily hauled in. But no, the government wants an example for all of us to learn that the government can reach you (yes, you, every one of us) even before you do anything wrong. They can lift you and imprison you for just talking about it or for perhaps thinking about planning something — even if you never actually do onc single thing wrong, yet. Forget human behaviour, forget second thoughts. Now all you need to be a criminal is to have first thoughts.

To safeguard the purity of Germany, a certain Wilhelm Frick originated the Nuremberg Race Laws, which deprived all Germans of any Jewish background of their rights. But it was another of his laws that caused all Germans to live in fear: All you had to do was to have pro-Jewish thoughts to be guilty of crimes against the state. In the end, at the Nuremberg Trials, he was sentenced to hang (and hang he did).

In our day and age, Bush’s Attorney General Michael Mukasey said he’s sure it is the right thing to do to safeguard America: “I would rather explain to the American people why we acted when we did — even if it is at a very early stage — than try to explain why we failed to act when we could have.� For “early stage� read “before anything wrong was actually ever done,� before the candy was even touched. As for acting “when they could have,� given their informant, their 24/7 police surveillance... how could they not have absolute control?

Perhaps the control they want is to police all our thoughts by example. Or perhaps it is better simply not to think at all.

The writer, formerly of Amenia Union, lives in New Mexico.