Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2002
Abstract
What would it take to make people feel safe? What message will those who would wage peace offer to this beleaguered planet? There is indeed a threat. I will call that threat terrorist fascism because that is what it is. It thwarts human beings in pursuit of the most basic need identified by psychologists: The need to feel their bodies are safe. This threat is horrible indeed, and the road to ending it is long and hard. I do not know all we need to do to end terrorist fascism, but what I know of history tells me that militarism is less the answer to, than the fellow traveler of, fascists. Nothing will make us safe other than what democracy commands: Ask hard questions, consider all voices as we face this current threat. I often wonder, "Could we do a better job in fighting terrorism if we had Arabic-speaking Muslim citizens in the FBI? If we knew more about Arab Americans, could we come up with more effective tactics than racial profiling and mass detentions to get the information we need to make us safe?
Publication Citation
27 N.Y.U. Rev. L. & Soc. Change 78-81 (2002)
Scholarly Commons Citation
Matsuda, Mari J., "What Would It Take to Feel Safe?" (2002). Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works. 322.
https://scholarship.law.georgetown.edu/facpub/322