[themartorana]

There's still a pervasive fear of being the one who let the terrorists win. It's utterly absurd, but when the DHS and FBI are saber rattling and procurement departments have the backing of all the three-letter agencies, town and city officials often show deference. People have been trained to respect authority - not entirely unjustly - but don't realize that we put them in office to be the check we can't be as average citizens.

When people say "nothing will ever be the same" this is what they're talking about.

Edit: we should respect authority, but we shouldn't bow down to it unjustly or allow it to run amok based on FUD.