I always felt violated when I saw that note in my luggage. What right did the federal government have to go through my baggage. Simply traveling to engage in American commerce surely isn't probable cause that surrenders your Fourth Amendment rights. I mean I had been flying about every ten days since 1997 and had no incidents that would red flag my baggage. I was a former member of the United States Army and an Eagle Scout. Yet for some reason, my bags were always opened and inspected by the TSA thugs. It was the first note that upset me, but it was the second and third that really opened my eyes to what was going on.
It didn't get any better. The humiliation of delivered by the TSA happened long before naked body scanners and pat-downs of the genitalia. At Springfield Branson National Airport, just to get home to Chicago, I stood in line and got my boarding pass only to be redirected at all passengers were to an assembly line like line with rollers. Put you bag on the rollers and push it along until it was your turn.
With a TSA agent in front of me, I was told to open my luggage in front of everyone. As the people behind me watched on, I had to quietly let this thug pull out every pair of Joe Boxers that were in my suitcase, including the pair with two aces that read "nice pair." I had to watch them go through every item in my shaving kit, and then I had to wait for my girlfriend who flew home for the holidays with me. They pulled out all her intimates and held them up to make sure nothing was hidden inside. Of course we were left to repack our bags before giving them up to the airline in hopes they would get back to O'Hare.
Why did we let it go this far? Some of these TSA inspections were humiliating enough over the past few years. We didn't stand up. We didn't fight, and that's why we are now facing these TSA agents not only going through our luggage and who knows what with what we pack, but also feeling us up.
We bought into the illusion of safety. If we have the TSA surely no terrorists would get on our flights. Yet, terrorists have gotten on flights even with new standards instituted around the world. There is something more sinister here, and its called control through fear. Government creates the fear, and we give them more control--all because we want to feel safe.
Yet, the United States government has spent a trillion dollars on the war on terror and seeking out a boogie man known as Osama bin Ladin. A trillions dollars and we aren't any safer considering the new intrusive security now happening at the airports. Think about that for a little bit. Perhaps, our government doesn't want to find Osama in order to justify increasing the power of the federal government. We have very little to show for the trillion spent on these wars, right?
What a trillion dollars has bought since 9/11 are two endless wars and a police state directed against the American people. While the feds can't seem to find bin Ladin, they have not problem finding Mr. Johnson's Johnson, which most of the time only was a hazard to society during those hormone enraged teenage years.
