This past weekend I was up in New Jersey to visit with friends who I was with during the terrorist attack on 9/11 ten years ago as well as to meet with members of the Dive \ Rescue who recovered the two men who drowned at the Manasquan Inlet during hurricane Irene...
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During that time I stopped by the beach in BayHead and was surprised to see so many people on the beach after Labor Day weekend. While standing on the small boardwalk area looking out on the Atlantic, I heard a older lady say "Can you believe that they continue to press this fear ten years after 9/11"?... She also said we will be seeing this fearmongering for the next 25 years.
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As I looked over I saw that she was reading the Daily News (above) with the front page photo of a NYC Police officer with a search dog leading up to the 10th year date after the terrorist attacks on NYC, Pentagon, and another airplane in Pennsylvania...
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She went on to rant how the terrorist attacks has become nothing but a reason for the media to keep the citizens in fear and it is a big business to many who write books, promote shows, and go on the talkinghead shows perpetuating the fear so as to make money. I attempted to converse with her on the topic but it was obvious that she did not want to hear what I was saying if it did not follow the direction of her rant. No matter what it kept coming back to how the "War on terrorism" and cautionary actions like the ones on the front page of the Daily News, were nothing but a major inconvenience to the citizens and not necessary since there have been no further terrorist attacks....
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Knowing better than to continue this conversation for there was no way to convince her, or even bring up other valid points or questions, I bid her farewell and moved down the beach to check out the surf conditions. It would have been interesting to have had the opportunity to point out to her that just 60 miles East of where she was sitting on the beach, there is a German U-boat (U-869) that sunk while patrolling up and down the east coast during World War II sinking many merchant ships....
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The U-869 sunk towards the end of the 2nd World War but there was an even more coastal intrusive action along the east coast and Gulf of Mexico called "Operation Drumbeat" were numerous German U-boats hunted and destroyed many merchant ships since they were running with Nav lights on, no blackouts along the coast which backlit their targets, and no concern for precautionary actions along the coast during the early years of the war... People, like the one described above, did not want to be in-convenience by the fear mongers out there.....