I live in D.C.'s Maryland suburbs and I work in downtown Washington. In fact, every day on my way to work, I walk past the White House. I have only been here a few months, however, and today I saw something I hadn't seen before. It was a motorcade.
I have seen other motorcades, but this one was different. Three cars sped through traffic ignoring traffic signals. The first car was a Metropolitan Police Department black and white with its lights and sirens running. It was followed immediately by two black Chevrolet Tahoes flashing concealed lights. Although the sirens were odd, this normally would not have been too unusual.
The first Tahoe caught my eye. The rear driver side window as rolled down, and a blonde man in a light brown suit sat there looking out at the sidewalk--looking at me. He wore a light blue shirt with a yellow tie. His left hand held the grip of a Heckler & Koch MP5 submachine gun.
I know it was an MP5 because I've played a lot of video games, and because like any good American, I love guns. But, like any good gun lover, I know that guns like that are designed to kill people, and I find it disturbing to see them in public.
As was well reported a few weeks ago, D.C.'s gun ban was struck down by the Supreme Court. You might not have heard that the Metropolitan Police recently set up mandatory road checkpoints in the northeast section of the city in order to curb drive by shootings. On Sunday, bystanders in the Adams-Morgan neighbor chased down and beat a man who shot another man in broad daylight. There is a problem with guns in this city, but the man with the MP5 was not there to protect against random or gang related gun violence.
On a day-to-day basis, my biggest fear is that I will get hit by a car. This fear largely comes from the fact that I walk everywhere, that I am frequently very close to moving vehicles, and the fact that there are an unusually high number of pedestrian deaths in D.C. It is my environment--the cars flying past me, the number of crosswalks I use--that inform and create my fears.
The blonde man in the Tahoe was not there to protect against random gun violence. He was there to stop unknown attempts to kill whoever he was protecting. And he forms that person's daily environment. This the world in which Presidents, Vice-Presidents, and the Secretaries of State and Defense live. A world where they must constantly be on guard against secret plots and vague conspiracies. A world where their life is at risk every moment of every day. A world in which even a man in a suit on his way to work is a potential threat.
This is something to consider as we get ready to elect the next President. If Barack Obama becomes President, he will live in this same environment. The mere fact of such intense protection will change how he perceives the world, but it is impossible at this point to tell how. For those of you who are concerned with the excesses of the war on terror, be ready to fight to keep Obama from falling off the edge. He will live in a frightening world.
