The VonFrederick 

Tempus             

July 2008  Volume 7 Issue 4

  Feature Article:

What Lies Ahead

Elka Svensson Bjork, M.D., Ph.D, Vice Presidrent, The VonFrederick Group

During the past several essays, I examined the differences and definitions of terrorism and the difficulties of placing it within more familiar contexts of crime, warfare, or politics. I also introduced the extraordinary impact on democratic politics that terrorism can have and examined the consequences of the impact.
In this essay, the dramatic and frightening attacks by terrorists on the World Trade Center and the Oklahoma City federal building are, fortunately, relatively rare cases of terrorism within the United States. International terrorism then, is not only a different problem from domestic terrorism, but a problem that must be addressed with different powers. It is also a problem the prevalence of which suggests special attention.

The line between international and domestic terrorism is not generally drawn on the basis of the location of an attack but rather on the basis of the involvement of more than one country. The U.S Department of State has long defined international terrorism as “terrorism involving citizens or the territory of more than one country.” That includes the situation in which Americans are most subject to terrorism attacks: attacks on Americans or U.S. diplomatic missions or American-owned property abroad. But it will also include an attack within the United States by citizens of another country or by terrorists using the assistance or territory of another country, such as the World Trade Center bombing in 2001. Remember, the planning by terrorists was conducted in Afghanistan and the rest is history.

The United States has generally been the leading target of international terrorism taking place outside our borders because it is the world’s greatest power and its foreign policy is influential throughout the world. Inevitably, the influence is contrary to the interests of various groups that are prepared to use violence. American targets are particularly attractive when they are outside our borders. The attack creates an international sensation. Moreover, the location can be chosen in a place where U.S. intelligence and prevention are least effective and, perhaps most important of all, where the chance of arrest and punishment are minimized. 

The risks and possibilities are very different when the terrorism takes place at home. Far more significant efforts at prevention can be undertaken. And we wait until the next attack… 

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Presidential wanna-be, B. Hussein Obama used the July 4th celebration to give patriotic speeches and profess love of country. Were they expressions of core values or political expediency? You decide. 

Obama has spent his political career advancing personal gain by associating with the likes of the liberal bomber William Ayers, the America-hating racist Rev. Jeremiah Wright and Louis Farrakhan. While pandering to the democrat left, he voiced the liberal mantra with Blame America First rhetoric, disparages of traditional values and contempt of small-town America. 

Obama used July 4th to try to revise his tarnished reputation and infer his patriotism. In his June 30th speech in Independence, MO, he quoted Mark Twain saying, "Patriotism is supporting your country all the time and your government when it deserves it." Then carefully used his flowery oratory to lecture Americans saying, “No political party has a monopoly on patriotism... Patriotism is always more than just loyalty to a place on a map or a certain kind of people. Instead, it is also loyalty to America's ideals -- ideals for which anyone can sacrifice, or defend, or give their last full measure of devotion." The pathetic “Empty Suit” has no idea what sacrifice or devotion is. 

Real sacrifice is not cheap talk or community activism and was demonstrated by the courage of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. While all the delegates suffered, Francis Lewis’s home was destroyed, his wife taken prisoner and died from abuses inflicted by British soldiers. William Floyd and his family escaped to Connecticut and lived as refugees for seven years. They returned to find their home destroyed. Philips Livingstone’s property was confiscated and he died in 1778 still working in Congress. Louis Morris’s timber, crops, and livestock were seized and he was barred from his home and family for seven years. 

John Hart risked capture to return home in Trenton to see his dying wife. But, Hessian soldiers pursued him while his wife lay on her deathbed. His farm was destroyed and his children taken away. He died a pauper in 1779, without ever finding his children. Richard Stockton was captured, brutally beaten and jailed. He was deliberately starved and paroled after being reduced to an invalid. His estate was looted and his family lived off charity. Robert Morris raised provision for Gen. Washington bleeding his own fortune almost dry. George Clymer and his family escaped capture but his estate was completely destroyed. William Ellery’s home was burned to the ground. 

Thomas Lynch served as a company commander until doctors ordered him to seek care for his failing health in the West Indies. On the voyage he and his young bride were drowned at sea. Edward Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr. were captured in the siege of Charleston and imprisoned until the end of the war. Their large estates were destroyed. Thomas Nelson ordered the destruction of his mansion during the battle of Yorktown. He raised $2 million for the cause by using his estate as collateral. After the war Congress refused to honor the loans. His property was forfeited and he died a pauper. Abraham Clark’s two sons were officers in the Continental Army and were captured and treated with special brutality in the British prison ship Jersey.

John Martin lived in a strong loyalist area and was ostracized and tormented by neighbors and some relatives. He died in 1777 and his last words were: "Tell them that they will live to see the hour when they shall acknowledge it [the signing] to have been the most glorious service that I have ever rendered to my country." 

All 56 delegates were hunted by the British or driven from their homes, 9 died during the war, 5 were captured and imprisoned, 12 had their homes completely burned and 17 lost everything they owned. Unlike Obama and his liberal comrades they exhibited principled courage and sacrifice and not one disparaged America, “flipped”, or went back on his pledged word. 

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In the mid nineties, in France, one could buy a prepaid cell phone without having to show any picture ID or register any addresses. Talk about a “no strings attached” plans! The convenience was great and anybody could get a cheap cell phone and really pay-it-as-he-goes! Unfortunately, a too common occurrence when extreme freedoms are granted, the convenient and simple system was soon to be abused by gang bangers, drug dealers, criminals of all kind and terrorists. Think about it: stealthy portable communication devices were sold everywhere without any control! Phone numbers were assigned to the phones….but the phones not attached to anyone, thus preventing the eventual listening or tracking of the devices, of the owner. The phones were of course coming in every style, color and technology possible, and prices ranged high. Only the credit card size “minute cards” were standard. Soon, kids and adults were aggressed in the streets and their working and anonymous cell phones forcibly removed from them, to be used until the exhaustion of the remaining time, or to be sold as upgrades. The whole concept of “string free” had obviously become a bad idea, and by 1999, when I left, prepaid cell phones as they were designed, became more “secured”, regimented. One had to show a picture ID and proof of lodging (utility bill….) in order to buy a cell phone that was registered to a user.

2007, California. I went to get a prepaid cell phone for my French au pair. The local cell phone shop has a couple to offer and I picked one plus a $20 dollar card for 200 minutes. No ID control, nothing. I could have paid the total $40 cash and gone without a trace. The activation was a formality, on the phone, no question asked. Welcome Jane Doe! So here I am, 9 years later, discovering that the wheel is yet to be discovered again….the hard way! Prepaid phones are currently sold without any “strings attached” and can become untraceable communication and detonating devices for home grown terrorists or abroad. It also appears that their reselling value in developing country is triple the US price because most of them work internationally. All in all, it looks like those freedoms we enjoy just facilitate crimes. Again, I must ask you why even when voting, identities are not checked. What’s up with Americans and checking IDs? What is wrong with documenting that you are who you say you are? Freedom is a privilege one must earn and our freedoms have been paid in blood throughout time, earned for us by better men and women than us. Freedom is not a right and is not unchecked. Common sense, laws and courts have defined what our freedoms are and are still regulating what they consist of, trying to balance common good and personal rights. Freedom is something that can be legally taken, and re-instated. Freedom comes with a price….and these prepaid phones should come with a couple of safeguarding strings!

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The security vocation is comprised of personnel, hardware, procedures, and techniques developed to control crime and disaster. The most visible type of security personnel is the uniformed watchman or security guard standing watch at a main gate or on patrol at a bank, store, institution, warehouse, or factory. Also visible to the public are campus police, armored-car personnel, and security patrol-car officers. Private investigators, security consultants, retail floorwalkers, and intrusion-alarm response personnel are some of the other types of personnel working in the security field. In the area of security technology and hardware, security practitioners are involved with the manufacture, sale, and installation of fire and intrusion alarms, electronic surveillance hardware, locking devices, fire detection and prevention equipment and more recently, eye and thumb scanning, etc.

Those involved with security equipment are usually employed directly by the firm manufacturing or selling this hardware. Uniformed security guards, floorwalkers, consultants, auditors, investigators, and security administrators are employed either directly by the facility they protect or by security companies such as Pinkerton’s, Wackenhut, or Burns International Security Services. Personnel who perform a security function solely for their employer are commonly referred to as in-house security practitioners, whereas those employed by independent security contractors are referred to as private contract security personnel.

Although security goals are generally the same as police objectives, the security approach to crime fighting is somewhat different. Typically, the police do not become involved with crime until an offense has actually been committed. As a result, police deal mostly with criminal offenders rather than potential victims of crime. In contrast, the security method of crime control centers on crime prevention. Deterrence, the nucleus of crime prevention, is achieved by implementing measures that render the commission of a criminal act less attractive to a potential wrongdoer. For example, the more work, planning, or time required to complete a specific criminal act, the greater the possibility that the criminal will become discouraged, quit, or be caught by police or security personnel. Most criminals are unimaginative, unskilled, dumb, and undisciplined therefore, they do not commit crimes that are the product of planning, skilled execution, or determination. They intrude upon, steal, vandalize, or attack only the most vulnerable targets, and so they are effectively deterred from committing crimes against people and premises protected by physical and psychological security barriers. 

Fences, walls, locks, lighting fixtures, and safes are common barriers to criminal intrusion. In the security business, electronic surveillance, alarms, and automatic access-control systems are also commonly used for crime prevention and detection. Most security practitioners believe that the proper use of one or more of these measures will either physically prevent criminal intrusion, deter intruders, or result in their capture. Administratively, and employer’s rules and regulations that effectively supervise and control employee conduct, although not physical barriers to crime from within, are designed to discourage and deter “inside” jobs. Periodic audits and surveys conducted by qualified security practitioners ensure that these security rules and policies are followed.

And you thought you were safe…

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Tempus Virtuous

(good), adj., morally excellent, kind, beneficent, honorable or worthy

I have observed on a few occasions how living in a higher income bracket will bring out a sense of entitlement in some people, young or old. It doesn’t seem to matter whether the persons are of Old Money or Nouveau Riche. 

Regardless of your socio-economic standing, it is common courtesy to be kind to anyone and everyone. As a young child, tagging along on shopping expeditions with my Danish grandmother was an excellent learning experience and an adventure; wherever we stopped she equally greeted warmly the mentally disabled adult sorters at the Goodwill Thrift shop and the sales clerks at Saks Fifth Avenue department store. 

I am currently working for a posh community of wealthy retirees (a.k.a. an American term for withdrawing from an occupation--but was first recorded in Shakespeare’s works Henry V, 1599). Many of these genteel residents still sit on their board of directors for the companies they had founded. Some are also active in sponsoring charities and providing good will. Likewise, there is always a spoiled rotten apple in the bunch. I had a conversation with one of the wealthier resident’s estate attorney several months ago. The conversation went as thus: 

Attorney: “My client has worked very hard for her wealth and deserves the best care. If she calls me at 2 a.m. in the morning and needs a light bulb changed immediately, then I’m going to make damn sure it is going to be taken care of today.”

Me: “There are several residents a head of your client, a couple in fact who are legally blind that need to have their light bulbs changed out first for their own safety and welfare. Your client will need to wait her turn.”

Attorney: “My client has said to me, and I have to agree, ‘I am old and rich and I have earned the right to be a bitch!’ Now, if she needs that light bulb changed today, it should have been taken care of yesterday!”

Me: “What you have just said is the exact opposite of how my grandmother would have requested to have her light bulb changed out, and it would have been done immediately for her. She knew that nobody earns the right to be better than anybody else because of money, age or social situations. We are all in it together. Her request for a new light bulb would have been simply: ‘Say, when you have the time, could you replace my burnt out light bulb please?’ And, Mr. Estate Attorney, take a guess as to whether my grandmother’s light bulb or your client’s light bulb gets changed out first?”

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Did You Know? Michelle Glisan Blevins         

• That even though the Ovambo (or Owambo) peoples of Namibia did not begin emigrating there until the 1800s, they are the largest ethnic group in the country

• That the world’s oldest desert, the Namib, is thought to be around 80 million years old 

• That the average life expectancy at birth in Namibia is just over 43 years of age (in the US or UK the average is around 78 years of age)

• That Dragon’s Breath Lake, located in the Otavi Mountains in north eastern Namibia, is the world’s largest underground lake

The Namibian flag’s colors are said to represent: blue- sky and ocean; green- plant life; white- peace; red- the people and their heroism; gold- for the Namib Desert; and also the sun symbol- for energy

MARGARET KNIGHT

Margaret Ethridge Knight

02/14/1838 – 10/12/1914

Born in York, Maine and raised in New Hampshire, Margaret began inventing at a very young age- by12 a safety mechanism she invented was in use in a local textile mill. Receiving her first patent at the age of 30, Knight has been credited with as many as 90 inventions and 26 patents- items varying from automobile engine parts to a machine to cut shoe soles. She is best known for inventing a machine to cut, fold and glue flat-bottomed paper-bags, the type used in grocery stores today. Margaret co-founded the Eastern Paper Bag Company in Hartford, Connecticut and her original wooden paper-bag machine is on display at the Smithsonian Institute. She died at the age of 76 with less than $300 in assets. 

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How To Survive A Mugging

1. Do not argue or fight with a mugger unless your life is clearly in danger.
   If all a mugger wants is your purse, wallet, or other belongings, surrender them. Your possessions are not worth your life..

2. If you are certain that your attacker means to do you or a loved one harm, attack vital areas of your assailant’s body.
   Aim to disable him or her with the first blow by:
   • Thrusting your fingers into and above your attacker’s eyes. 
   • Driving your knee in an upward direction into his groin (if mugger is male).
   • Grabbing and crushing the attacker’s testicles as if crushing a handful of grapes (if mugger is male).
   • Striking the front of his or her throat, using the area between your thumb and first finger, or the side of your hand, held straight and strong.
   • Slamming the tip of your elbow into the side of the mugger’s ribs.
   • Stomping down on the mugger’s instep.

3. Use an object as a weapon.
   Many common objects can be effective weapons if they are aimed at vulnerable body parts. Pick up and use what is easily available:
   • A stick can jab at an attacker’s eyes or groin.
   • Keys held between your fingers can slash or punch.
   • A car antenna can jab or slash your attacker’s face and eyes.

(Piven and Borgenicht)

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