Port Happenings

Before I start let me say this: This is about the public opinion of the business deal not the business deal itself. Truth be told I don't know much about it other than that a company bought shipping operations in major U.S. ports; I can't seems to find much on it but anyway..Ok, here goes. Over the past week or so there has been a lot of talk about American ports...Baltimore being one of them and the sale of shipping operations at those ports. Now I'm not one to play the race card....I hate when people do that but with all the controversy I can't help it. The company buying the ports is from the United Arab Emirates. Originally it was sold to a British company but that company sold the contract or whatever to the business in the United Arab Emirates. I don't recall anyone being up in arms when the British bought it. Actually until this past week I hadn't heard a word about it. I like to think that I'm pretty up to date on news stories especially one concerning the place where I live. Now the company isn't putting it's own people to work there; they plan on hiring Americans to operate the security of the ports. People are really really upset by this and I don't know why. Well I think I have an idea. I think it's a race thing. I think that if another company say from Canada, made this deal, people wouldn't be so upset about it. I could be making something out of nothing but I get the feeling that I'm not. If it was any other country this wouldn't be an issue unless it was a company from the Middle East or a communist country like China.

I keep hearing on the radio that we have to protect ourselves from another 9/11 and this isn't the way to do it. Sounds to me like people are saying that because the company is run by an Arab country, they're afraid that there is going to be another terrorist attack. I think thats probably one of the most idiotic things I've heard. Wouldn't you think that they've thought about this already? I like to think that a prosperous country with NO terrorist ties that we know of would want to make sure that a terrorist attack DOESN'T happen? It would prove in their best interest that it doesn't because the first thing that's going to happen is another war on that country and lots of accusations etc. etc. I think they would work doubly hard to prevent an attack and make sure that they have the right people working for them.I just don't understand people.

I don't want another 9/11 to happen anywhere to anyone. That for many people is one of the most horrific days ever to happen in history. I know I felt scared and was upset by what happened. It's something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy and I didn't even know anyone that died in the attacks. I wish there was no such thing as terrorism but lets get real folks, terrorism has been around for a long time and as long as there are people out there willing to do whatever it takes to get what they want, terrorism is going to continue. Unfortunately we can't stamp it out. War itself to me is terrorism and as long as people continue to fight each other, terrorism will keep going. You would think over the past oh I don't know thousands of years, we would get the message that war isn't the answer. All it does it ruin people's lives.

Thats not the point of this post though...the point is that I feel people are discriminating against this company and the proposed deal because the company is from the United Arab Emirates. That pains me to say that because I was hoping that America would get past discriminating against others. What sort of message does this send to the rest of the world? Not a good one if they're thinking like me. I don't know if they are but it's possible. Like I said I hate playing the race card but I think in this situation it's true. Americans are petrified that another terrorist attack is going to happen and unfortunatly they perceive terrorists as Arabs. What a horrible digression this country has taken in the past 5 years. It's just crazy.