"Give Us Your Tired, Your Poor, and Your Fingerprints."

I frequently want to drop something heavy on Thomas Friedman's head, but I liked his yesterday column: "9/11 is Over."

"Times columnists are not allowed to endorse canidates, but there's no rule against saying who will not get my vote: I will not vote for any candidate running on 9/11. We need a president for 9/12. I will only vote for the 9/12 candidate.

What does that mean? This: 9/11 has made us stupid. I honor, and weep for, all those murdered on that day. But our reaction to 9/11--mine included--has knocked America completely out of balance, and it is time to get things right again."

The article goes on to talk about the effect of America: the Armored State, on tourism and on world opinion. Curiously, tourism is suffering because people don't like coming to a country which greets them as potential threats ("A lot of the world thinks [Guantanamo Bay] is a place we send visitors who don't give the right answers at immigration"). All the other things we should, as a country, be worrying about--education, infrastructure, health care--are going by the wayside while we (ineptly) protect our borders from Hazardous Tourists. Again, Friedman: "If Disney World can remain an opening, welcoming place with increased but invisible security, why can't America?"

Well, yeah. As I said elsewhere, New York is more than 9/11. So is this country. I really want to vote for the president of America: 9/12. Even 9/13.