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Here's a good idea.
This sounds like a terrific use of government money:
Quote:
The Department of Homeland Security this year gave $19.3 million to the American Trucking Associations...to recruit a volunteer "army" called Highway Watch. So far, 10,000 truckers have signed on to become amateur sleuths....
Highway Watch members are instructed to look for certain kinds of behavior — not certain kinds of people. "Profiling is bad. Bad, bad, bad," Beatty said.
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So far, so good. But, uh oh. Sounds like we either need to spend more money on this,* or less:
Quote:
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...two newly initiated Highway Watch members...explained how easy it is to spot "Islamics" on the road: just look for their turbans. Quite a few of them are truck drivers, says William Westfall of Van Buren, Ark. "I'll be honest. They know they're not welcome at truck stops. There's still a lot of animosity toward Islamics." Eddie Dean of Fort Smith, Ark., also has little doubt about his ability to identify Muslims: "You can tell where they're from. You can hear their accents. They're not real clean people."
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The article, in Time via Unfogged, goes on to point out that most turban wearers in the U.S. are Sikhs, not Muslims.
etft
*$19.3 million for 10,000 volunteers -- say, that's $1,930/volunteer. How can I get a piece of that money? At two grand a pop, I could go find some truckers to volunteer.
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“It was fortunate that so few men acted according to moral principle, because it was so easy to get principles wrong, and a determined person acting on mistaken principles could really do some damage." - Larissa MacFarquhar
Last edited by Tyrone Slothrop; 07-01-2004 at 02:25 PM..
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