David Brownlow -- The Roving Hands of Airport Insecurity

THE ROVING HANDS OF AIRPORT INSECURITY

By David Brownlow
December 4, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

Under normal circumstances, if a strange man tried to stick his hands down my pants, one of us would end up lying on the ground bleeding. But we have entered into a world of the surreal - a world where millions of otherwise intelligent Americans are willing to stand in line and wait their turn to be groped by a complete stranger.

I'm not exactly sure how it happened. But, I certainly seem to have done something to get myself on the airlines "bad boy" list. Every time I set foot in an airport these days, I get dragged off for one of their "random" special searches - three times in a row during a recent trip.

It's not the humiliation of standing in front of the other passengers while my body is abused that bothers me the most. It's not even the indignity of getting scolded by some petty little TSA loser for answering my cell phone during the search.

What really bothers me is that they are going after the wrong guy! I'm not the one they need to worry about! The real bad guys don't look like me and they don't talk like me. Yet there I was for the third time in less than a week, standing in my socks, spread-eagled like a common criminal.

I wanted to shout, "Hey you TSA @#%*&! Yeah, you! I'm one of the good guys! Instead of searching me for weapons, you should be issuing me one!"

Of course, any outburst like that in the special search line will earn you a trip to the special search room. After a long road trip, all I really wanted to do was get home. So I kept my mouth shut and let myself be herded through the line.

These unreasonable, invasive searches make a mockery of the 5th Amendment, which specifically guarantees we should never have to submit to these indecencies without a just cause. What's in store for us next at airports? Travel papers? Blood samples? DNA tests? Body cavity checks?

It is time to stand up to the thugs who have taken over our government and put a stop to these abuses. We need to decide if there is a line in the sand we are willing to fight over, while we still can. History is littered with the corpses of those who waited too long to fight against tyranny.

Aside from the fact that these searches are illegal, a completely random search of 290 million Americans is a really dumb method of catching terrorists. Especially if guys like me keep getting snared in the same net over and over again!

Instead of relying on blind luck to keep us safe aboard airplanes, how about making sure a band of knife-wielding lunatics will never be able to crash one into a building again? Here are a couple of simple steps we could take to keep them from doing that, 1) arm the pilots, and 2) arm the rest of us.

But the purpose of these unconstitutional searches has nothing to do with catching the bad guys. As with nearly every other aspect of "homeland security," this latest attack on our rights is intended to keep us fearful and easier to control.

Our leaders have repeatedly warned (threatened) us that the next major terror attack is not a question of "if," but a question of "when." If they were really serious about trying to avoid it, they would:

* Understand that the terrorists attacked us on 9/11 not because of our goodness and freedom, but because we poke around in their business, occupy their lands and kill their people.
* Build a "West Bank" style fence along our southern border. (Cost: Less than $3 billion)
* Bring home the 500,000 American troops that are languishing in 140 of the worlds 193 countries, and let them guard the fence.
* Inspect 100% of the shipping containers that enter our ports.
* Bring some sanity back to our immigration and visa issuing policies.
* Find the bad guys who managed to sneak into our country and either kick them out, put them in jail, or kill them.
* Leave the rest of us alone.

Instead of demanding that these pro-active steps be taken to protect us, we have settled for an illusion of security - while the last few remaining shreds of our freedom are being choked right out of us.

We should heed the wisdom of an ancient Chinese Proverb, "If you keep letting strange men grope your body, strange men will keep groping your body."

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David Brownlow, an engineer, has been designing and selling industrial automation control systems since 1979. David and his wife Suzanne have four children and reside in Clackamas OR. He has been active in the pro-life movement and conservative politics for nearly 25 years. David is the 2004 Oregon Constitution Party candidate for the United States Senate. His Web-Site www.davebrownlow.com E-Mail: dave@davebrownlow.com

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