by Allen Roland by Allen Roland
Now that Martha Stewart is going to jail – and the bare breasts in the Justice Department have been covered – Homeland Security, under the guise of the PATRIOT Act, and desperate for positive exposure – have nabbed none other than former pop singer and peace activist, Cat Stevens.
The infamous Homeland Security watch list first bagged Ted Kennedy a few months ago, now Cat Stevens. Who’s next? Howard Dean? Jimmy Carter? Me?
Jack Kus, United for Pierce County, obviously is as impressed as I am ~ and offers his equally sardonic reaction.
"You know I've seen a lot of what the world can do/And it's breaking my heart in two." – Cat Stevens.
Cat Stevens is being followed by more than a moonshadow. All I can say is: Thank God.
Thank God – and you know which God I'm talking about – that the USA PATRIOT Act considers giving to Muslim charities a form of terrorism.
Thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act, our ever-vigilant guardians of the national security state were able to place Yusuf Islam, the Greek-British convert to the Muslim "religion," the man formerly known as Cat Stevens, who now lives in Britain, on a no-fly list.
I mean, we're talking about a menace here – the composer of "Peace Train," "Morning Has Broken," and "Wild World."
When, despite this precaution, the U.S. Dept. of Transportation learned on Tuesday through its Advanced Passenger Information System that an airline was bearing down on U.S. airspace carrying this dangerous individual – a man who in the past has consorted with the likes of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Prince Charles – it sprang into action.
United Airlines Flight 919, headed toward Washington, DC, was diverted to Bangor, Maine.
There, the author of "Where Do the Children Play?" was removed from the plane. Today he has been or soon will be deported back to Britain, "on national security grounds," said Homeland Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy.
Thus the nation's capital was spared a dangerous encounter. The man is, after all, clearly capable of subversion.
Didn't he write these lines, for example: "Well you've cracked the sky, scrapers fill the air./But will you keep on building higher/'Til there's no more room up there?/Will you make us laugh, will you make us cry?/Will you tell us when to live, will you tell us when to die?"
What's that supposed to mean, huh? It sounds to me like a justification for the 9/11 attacks.
And just what was he implying when he wrote, in "Wild World": "But just remember there's a lot of bad, and beware"?
And don't the lines "Lord, my body has been a good friend,/But I won't need it when I reach the end" suggest self-destructive tendencies that could be exploited by organizers of suicide bombings?
I don't know about you, but the sooner he's out of the country, the safer I'll feel.
Is there any reason to let into the country a man who once wrote: "I have my freedom/I can make my own rules"? Or "I don't want to work away/Doing just what they all say"?
Can there be any room in America for someone who once sang: "Don't you feel the day is coming/And it won't be too soon/When the people of the world/Can all live in one room"?
To think that as recently as May Yusuf Islam/Cat Stevens eluded the Dept. of Homeland Security and slipped into New York! For "a charity event"!! Oh, yeah, sure.
Did you hear me? New York! And this time he was headed for Washington! Connect the dots, for God's sake!
Maybe the Dept. of Homeland Security should have done with it and seize the wretch at once. There must be some empty cages in Guantanamo. Then he'd find out how wrong he was when he wrote: "Life is like a maze of doors/And they all open from the side you're on." Not the doors in Guantanamo, buster!
In any case, we don't need him here. After all, he'll never understand that the war on terrorism is the defining struggle of our time.
This man is hopeless! This is a man who once wrote: "No, I can't keep it in. I can't keep it in./I've got to let it out. I've got to show the world./The world's got to know,/Know of the love,/Love that lies low, so/Why can't you say – /If you know, then why can't you say – /You've got too much deceit,/Deceit kills the light,/Light needs to shine,/I said shine light,/Shine light . . ."
Allen Roland is a practicing psychotherapist who shares a daily political and social commentary on his weblog and website. He also guest hosts a weekly national radio show on Conscious talk radio.
