Surrendering Freedom

Davon Gray’s piece (Our rights and the new realities) on November 29^th brought into focus how our Republic will die.  We will not go out in a blaze of glory but rather with a whimper as we surrender yet another right guaranteed us by our Founding Fathers in the name of an emergency.  With our First and Second Amendment rights constantly under siege, an unelected and unassailable group of Federal bureaucrats has taken away our Fourth Amendment right “to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures” at all our airports and threaten now to do the same at train stations.  The feeble protestations about safety are utterly absurd. 

Beyond this, Mr. Gray admits that profiling might help as long as we don’t look at race or religion.  Of course those appear to be the only reliable profiling criteria that would have snagged every single one of the perpetrators of aerial violence for the last three decades.  Though skin hue varies slightly all of the perpetrators have two things in common:  They were (1) swarthy or dark young males of (2) Islamic faith.  Profiling for these characteristics (the potentially most effective means of preventing the next disaster) is ruled out by Mr. Gray. 

No American has blown up or commandeered a commercial aircraft bent on mass murder.  Yet Americans make up the overwhelming majority of the people who the TSA is groping, delaying, and inconveniencing.  I would be willing to listen to TSA if they had ever caught anyone bent on stealing or blowing up an airplane – but they haven’t.  Each of the 9/11 hijackers walked through airport security to get on those four aircraft.  

The simplest and most effective way to deal with this problem would be to put in an “Express Lane” in every airport to deal with people who don’t blow up or steal airplanes.  That group encompasses virtually the entire American population.  At a minimum we could fast track aircrew, holders of American-issued black (diplomatic) and red (official) passports, and all active duty and retired US military.  We could safely throw in all active and retired policemen, firemen, DEA, FBI, Federal Marshalls, local sheriffs and EMT professionals and volunteers.  No American school teacher, plumber, businessman or woman, chef, or crossing guard has tried to steal or blow up an airplane.  A valid union card might be adequate to prove someone isn’t a nut.  The point is that there is a tiny portion of the flying population that is both suspect and readily identifiable that should be targeted for extra scrutiny – they aren’t Americans.  With that said – I would subject journalists to extra screening regardless of their country of origin. 

We shouldn’t put a happy face on the loss of sovereign American rights, we should resist.  This ain’t rocket science unless you turn it over to the government – then the readily apparent somehow becomes unfathomable and opaque.  The “new reality” is the government is taking away our rights – that needs to stop. 

Sincerely,