Skewed Priorities

A lot of folks seem to think it's OK for our own government to mistreat its citizens and violate their Constitutional rights in an attempt to make us safer in the air. Those of us who disagree have valid reasons for disagreeing.

Let's begin with this - in an effort to NOT violate the rights or feelings of terrorists, our government violates the rights and disregards the feelings of its own citizens by the millions. In an effort to not treat terrorists with disrespect, our government disrespects its own citizenry. And in an effort to protect the American way of life - rights, freedoms, dignity and self-respect - the government TAKES AWAY our rights, freedoms, dignity and self-respect.

And in light of this, the government refuses to do the one thing that has proven capable of keeping us safer - profiling. Yeah, I've heard it all before. We need to be careful about insulting our enemies.

What ticks me the most is that our soldiers fight and die so we can be free - and then we just turn around and give up those freedoms without so much as a whimper just because some cave-dweller has some of us peeing our pants in fear! I don't know which angers me more - the people trying to kill us, or the cowards who would give in to them so readily.

Political correctness has become a suicide pact. We KNOW who is trying to kill us, but we refuse to single them out for close inspection because we might hurt someone's precious little feelings. But in refusing to profile, the government is doing harm to every American who flies. "We won't single out those who are trying to kill us. Instead, we will punish our own citizens. And if our citizens refuse to accept the punishment, we will arrest them."

How idiotic and dictatorial that is. Certainly not the mark of intelligence, nor the mark of a free country. Meanwhile the terrorists are laughing their asses off at our ignorance and foolishness. Our own government is telling us to let our fears rule our lives. Have we become a nation of cowards? Since when was it a good thing to give up our hard-earned freedoms and rights in exchange for (a false perception of) security?

If the founding fathers had decided they should give up their rights and freedoms in exchange for security, they would never have gone to war with England and we would not be a free country today. They knew what we are too spoiled to remember - that nothing is more important than freedom and human rights. Not even life, itself. They were willing to die for freedom.

Political correctness, particularly in the area of national defense or security is absolutely irresponsible, assinine and insane. We can molest our women and children with impunity and subject them to doses of radiation that is expected to kill 10 people a year, but is it wrong to single someone out for closer inspection because he fits the description of the perp? WE KNOW WHO IS TRYING TO KILL US. But rather than face him, we turn our back on him and molest our own children for fear that we might offend the bad guys.

You would be outraged if the local police, knowing a serial killer was an ethnic male in his thirties with a full beard, were to NOT look for an ethnic male in his thirties with a full beard, and instead haul in grandma and three-year olds for a line-up. Just how stupid is our government? And just how stupid are we for allowing them to run amok in the name of security?

Here is a fact - you have 4 times more chance of becoming a saint (a 20 million-to-one shot) than of finding yourself on a plane with a bomber (an 81 million-to-one shot). Is that worthy of giving up your human rights? Your dignity? Is that reason enough to allow strangers to molest our women and children, or subject them to radiation?

If you honestly think it is a good thing to give up your rights and freedoms for security, then you are the fool and coward that Benjamin Franklin was talking about when he said "Those who would give up their liberty in exchange for security deserve neither."

I cannot take my family on a plane. Because I am a man. And no man worthy of the name would ever permit his wife and children to be fondled and groped by anyone, least of all srangers. Nor would a man worth his salt subject his loved ones to dangerous radiation that even the experts say will result in some deaths. They say it's "collateral damage."

Sorry - me and mine are not "collateral". We are human beings. Human beings with dignity and self-respect. And we plan on staying that way, no matter how hard the terrorists try to kill us.

To paraphrase a famous saying, "A brave man dies but once, but a coward dies every time he goes through airport security."

But the bigger question: WHY is our government doing this, even though they know these invasive procedures are ineffective and also unconstitutional? It's simple. Lookiaround at all the intrusions of government lately. The government is growing in power. And in order for one entity to gain power, another must lose power. And we, the people, are losing power. The government wants greater control over us, our lives, our health, our money - even what we eat. The only way they can get that power is if we give it to them by willingly giving up our rights and freedoms. The government learned long ago that if we are suitably frightened, we will give up those rights and freedoms. So, it is in the best interests of the government to keep us living in fear. The greater the fear, the more power they can take in the guise of "protecting" us.

We have met the enemy - and it is us. The government we created, then empowered, then ceded our rights and freedoms to.

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