LOSING FREEDOM IN THE SERVICE OF FEAR

Fourth in a series on impending cutbacks of services and lack of treatment
options for substance abuse and mental health care.

Terrorism cannot survive without one crucial ingredient: fear. The fact that
the subject of terrorism has taken hold of the national psyche is
indisputable proof that at least one major objective of the terrorists
behind the Sept. 11 bombing of the World Trade Center has been met. America
is scared.

People who are afraid often react quite differently than they would normally
react. For an intriguing lesson in what blind fear can accomplish, we need
look no further than the 1950s when a charismatic senator named Joe McCarthy
destroyed the careers of God only knows how many competent, experienced
people by the mere suggestion that they were communists.

McCarthy was so powerful that we narrowly missed losing one of our greatest
national historical treasures: The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, because
its author, the talented journalist William L. Shirer, was blacklisted by
McCarthy. How much we actually did lose thanks to his fanatical accusations
we will probably never know. But one thing is certain: We would have lost
nothing had it not been for blind fear paralyzing the national psyche.

We now stand at another crossroads of similar proportions. It is true, our
fears now have a much greater basis in reality than the "Red Scare" had.

Or do they?

Those of us who remember the Cold War know that while it was quietly
smoldering, it was not a joke. The huge stockpiles of deteriorating nuclear
weapons Russia no longer knows what to do with, some of which may have wound
up in the hands of our current terrorists, still testify to the menacing
threat the Cold War posed.

Like any other war, the Cold War required a well-trained fighting force
(largely accomplished by the FBI and CIA), massive funding, intense
development and stockpiling of weapons, as well as a cadre of armed forces
trained and ready to go.

The terrorism we now face not only caught us off guard, but has set in
motion a cascade of events that, left unchecked, will be far more dangerous
to the overall welfare of American society than the attacks we are being
warned will undoubtedly come.

The economic impact of Sept. 11 continues to ripple through every sector of
American life. Significantly less travel, extreme caution in lending and a
large decrease in spending have led to thousands of lost jobs, fewer housing
starts, downsizing and closing of many industries and a roller coaster ride
for the stock market.

Meanwhile, President Bush has added Homeland Security to an already
overgrown bureaucracy instead of streamlining the existing bureaus we
already have and holding them accountable when they fail to work together.
Had the FBI and the CIA been on their toes and in touch with each other, we
would have known about the Sept. 11 attack before it happened.

We now have 28,000 more airport security staff on the federal payroll. But
what if terrorists decide to stop playing games at airports and go for water
supplies instead? What if they get their hands on crop dusters? Suppose they
decide to try the threat Israel faces: suicide bombers in local businesses
and restaurants across the country?

Obviously there is no way we can foresee every conceivable kind of terrorism
and race ahead to stop it. And we will soon go bankrupt if we respond to
each different variety of terrorism with a newly formed national bureau
employing thousands.

But let's think outside the box for a moment. Suppose they try something
even more sinister and underhanded. What if they keep us spending whatever
it takes to ward off the newest terrorism flavor of the month, while at the
same time quietly planting poppies in the fields of Afghanistan?

It would be the best of both worlds. Forget political embargoes. The money
that illegally changes hands in the heroin industry is the equal of any
foreign aid we send to struggling nations (let alone the billions cocaine
generates in other parts of the world.) Legal or not, drug money flowing
into Afghanistan will find its way into the wrong hands. It's only a matter
of time.

Meanwhile, we are rerouting the money we so desperately need to treat
substance abuse into the hundreds of different ways terrorists play our
fears about "homeland security." Refusing to fight the very real war of
illegal drugs coming into America insures that there will be more than
enough active addicts to buy heroin, cocaine and whatever else is out there,
instead of getting the treatment that is no longer available.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out who wins in this kind of warfare.

On the eve of World War II, Franklin Delano Roosevelt reminded a scared
nation that "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself." One of the most
important weapons the Allies had in World War II was the courage to go on in
spite of incredible fear.

On this Independence Day it would behoove us to remember that we are no
freer than the sum total of our fears. Whenever fear drives a country,
common sense slips quietly out the back door.

If we, as a nation, can be terrorized into forsaking necessary programs and
services because we are using needed funds to fight a thousand dragons that
may never materialize, we will catch one or two dragons, to be sure. But we
will lose our national soul by not caring for the victims of America's most
devastating and prevalent disease -- substance abuse -- in the process.