The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. - The Founding Fathers
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One can only wonder what George, Ben, Tom and the rest of that rabble would have thought of the TSA where their treasured Fourth Amendment was concerned. Only in our airports, atop the slippery slope, can a government agent unreasonably search a person's effects and papers without a warrant. They do this to every single person in line.
This somehow did not bother most Americans until this year, when the airport security apparatchik added "optical scanners" to their arsenal of efficiency. These full-body, big-screen X-ray vision machines have made people uncomfortable even in this high-definition Internet era.
But this is a free country, some still say, so one always has the option of not being bombarded with the equivalent of cancer-causing CT scans; one can opt for a "pat-down". Only it isn't a pat-down. It's the kind of frisking that most citizens only see on re-runs of NYPD Blue...
Except that such hands-on treatment is usually reserved for bad guys, or suspected bad guys. Not for someone who's just trying to get to a wedding in Florida. That's all a Michigan man was doing when a recent TSA "pat-down" caused his urostomy bag to break, spilling his urine all over him.
More disturbing is the selection of children to suffer this freakish anti-Bill of Rights ignonimity. Who wants to look at a little kid in full-body, big-screen X-ray vision? Worse than that, who's looking to feel up a little kid in an office just off the concourse?
All of this has caused something of a backlash. The public is, after all, a mighty and forgotten thing. We have the ability to screw things up just by acting like the sheep the authorities believe us to be. An online movement sprang up in the past week, with today being the busiest travel day of the year.
Everyone has been urged to take a pass on the optical scanner, to insist on a mild mugging from a blue-gloved security guard instead. This could potentially slow the lines down to the point where people would miss their flights, creating the kind of logistical nightmare that normally would only afflict the airlines on Sundays, Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Sojourners, you have my blessing, and the blessings of the Framers of the Constitution. Force them to reconsider their ways. And anyone who whines that "this is all for our safety", well, I would call you a slimy, un-American coward who has no place left in the land of the free and the home of the brave, so why'n't you make your next flight a one-way?
Check it out: A crime is committed every day in this country involving a car and a gun and a dead body left behind. Do we have checkpoints at every intersection and freeway exit? No, we don't.
Read it again, and please try to understand. Try to understand that your rights are being violated every time you get on an airplane. Try:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
It doesn't say, "Except..." And it sure as Hell doesn't say accept.
pH 11.24.1o
