Less brave, and thus less free, every day.
Growing up in Connecticut, not far from the home of Nathan Hale, who famously said, 'I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country,' I am saddened that we've allowed ourselves to fall for the cries of 'terror, terror, terror.' We survived the Cold War (against a country with real WMD's rather than fake ones) without having to take off our shoes at the airport, lock up people indefinitely on no evidence whatsoever, and suspending habeas corpus.
I worry, though, that soon NZ will fall into the same trap. Talking about the recent 'terrorism' arrests, one piece of viewer mail said 'NZ has terrorists. What makes us think we're any different from the rest of the world?' I shudder to think that this attitude may catch on.
Here are my suggestions for the NZ motto:
'Will the last one out please turn off the lights?'
'Thank you Peter Jackson'
'Who needs rugby ... we have Drink Driving!'
'Want some? Get some! (wink wink, nudge nudge)'
'Criminals and retarded monkeys? No, that's
Australia.'
'Land of the long white cloud and short black coffee'
'New Zealand--A wholly owned subsidiary of China, Inc.' (That one works for the USA, too.)
'When good enough is, well, just too much.'
All meant in good fun!
