There is a brouhaha going on here about a report compiled recently by the Missouri Information Analysis Center (MIAC) which states that those who join militias tend to be Christian fundamentalists, pro-lifers, third-party supporters, and constitutional literalists. And boom - there go the fundamentalists into the stratosphere! How DARE they insinuate that "terrorists" might be a lot like them! A feature of the paper is the "Online Poll" each day where the editors pose a question relating to current events, readers vote, and then the results are published the following day. A few days ago they asked whether Public Safety Director John Britt (who released the results of the report) should, 1. apologize, 2. resign, or 3. do nothing. Of course, the overwhelming majority said the man should RESIGN.
Today, there is a letter in the paper from a Springfieldian named Jeremy W. Cady which is pretty alarming. He identifies himself as a supporter of Ron Paul's and "considers <himself> an extreme pro-lifer, an extreme supporter of Second Amendment rights, an extreme advocate of less taxation, and an extreme supporter of the U.S. Constitution . . ." He then goes on to claim that he is "no threat to any of my family, friends, neighbors or countrymen. I am merely just more active in supporting my beliefs then (sic) others." Mr. Cady goes on to say that "If the MIAC or the Department of Public Safety still feels it needs to classify me as a threat and still target specific groups of conservatives as potential terrorists, I feel I should make the extreme case that many conservatives in the state of Missouri might want to see Director John Britt, and all those involved with this memo's creation, fired."
This all lead to a long discussion between James and I about what "profiling" entails. My point being that if the profile is made up of FACTS, and the FACTS show that militia members are made up of fundamentalists - well, it is what it is. If the fundies of Missouri are offended, too damned bad! Maybe they ought to stop joining militias and then the profile will be moot. Facts are facts. If the experts are not allowed to "profile" based on available research, then every FBI profiler who helps put away serious criminals is out of a job. Should Mr. Cady get his way, the next time a serial killer or a Unabomber is running amok and we aren't allowed to "profile", perhaps Mr. Cady should be the one to comfort the victims and explain why law enforcement didn't get the criminal sooner.
I would like to take hope, but it is tempered by the FACT that for every Pastor Snider (please see my latest post on the "My letter to the Springfield News-Leader" topic) there is a Jeremy W. Cady out there.