"I'm all for it. It would be good for me, it would be good for all the restaurants and the gas stations."

-- Todd Baker of Todd's Tackle in Thomson, IL 

Here’s a shocker – the Administration found another way to spend our Nation’s money (more money that we don’t have). Up next, the US Government will purchase an Illinois prison to house suspected terrorists that formerly called the Guantanamo Bay detention camp (Gitmo) home.

For us, uncertainties arose instantaneously and blood pressures skyrocketed. Here are a few notions that we felt obliged to share with someone other than each other:

• When did it get this bad? Are we so desperate that we openly embrace the “opportunity” to welcome terrorists into our own backyards b/c it may intensify traffic and force folks to buy more gas and snacks from the local filling station?
• What is more disturbing?
  • Bringing up to 100 suspected terrorists to the US, evil men that dream of coming to America to destroy it; or
  • Reading quotations like the one above from US citizens that are so hungry for work that they actually embrace terrorist relocation to their Country, State, and town b/c it will create jobs.
• What kind of rights will these “inmates” receive once they are on American soil? We in no way support torture, but these men better not be watching Curb Your Enthusiasm on-demand…
• These “men,” and we use that term lightly, are accustomed to the warm sunshine of the Middle East and now Cuba; what are we going to do for them when they begin to grumble about the grey, cold reality of Illinois? More funding for prison space heaters, tanning beds?
• Who wins with this relocation? Closing Gitmo shows the world we do not support torture; the relocation of the inmates to middle America shows the world what –that our arms are open to those that attack us?
  

Pertinent articles for your information:

• http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-il-detaineeprison-qu,0,4385416.story
• http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/15/AR2009121501215.html
• http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/72fed090-e99f-11de-9f1f-00144feab49a.html?nclick_check=1

- The Philadelphians