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I can see Sears Tower from my house here in Chicago. At 1,450 feet and 110 stories high, it is the tallest building in North America. Ten thousand people work there. Twenty-five thousand people visit daily. On a clear day, you can see the structure 35 miles away. I live just a few miles from it.

In a sane America that recognized the true meaning of 9/11/01, we would address the vulnerability of Sears Tower instead of playing Iraqi roulette. But Mayor Daley cannot even get the Federal Aviation Administration to impose a downtown Chicago no-fly zone (Chicago Sun-Times):

"Give me one reason why Washington, D.C., and New York have to be protected and no other city should be protected," Daley said, noting they have stringent no-fly zones. "Don't you think we should have the same protection as the people of Washington, D.C.?"

Downtown Chicago is unusual in that it has a small working airport right at the edge of its illustrious skyline. About a mile away from Sears Tower is Meigs Field.

The FAA has not seen fit to create a no-fly zone in skyscraper-laden Chicago or to close Meigs Field, despite its proximity to the United States' tallest object of terrorist focus.

Why not? Because "homeland security" consists of protecting not American people but the really important stuff — inanimate objects of presidential significance like Mount Rushmore.

In George W Bush's America, human beings are expendable. Presidential images are not.

{ 10:11 AM }

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