Hi there, Dr. E. here, Some strongly question further erosion of our rights to privacy without the input or vote of the people by referendum. Many, regardless of political affiliation, libertarian, independent, Democrats, Republicans are enraged, especially those with children who are traveling this holiday. Here is a piece by New York City resident who travels much and minces no words. Disclosure: He is a long time friend who has in the past, during the 9-11 early days, written passionately with first witness eyes about those horrible early days of shock and horror.
ARE YOUI KIDDING
by Ned Leavitt
New York City.Are you kidding????
Federal employees in uniform touching women’s vaginas and men’s balls? And no one is saying anything? Not Obama, not Biden, not Chuck Schumer? Not the evangelical church? Not Sarah Palin? Everyone is silent????
The more I read the more outraged I feel. An article explaining that the TSA security people have not really been trained for this. Another article saying that the TSA will not get specific about how much radiation is used by the scanners. I read that the former head of homeland security has a financial interest in the scanning machines.
We have long known that the government does questionable things to minorities and terrorist suspects. Abu Ghraib, black ops, remember the high pressure fire hoses used on civil rights workers? But we have assumed that when such things came to light they would be exposed, stopped or punished. And because they happened to people who were “other” or might be enemies of the state who might blow up a plane or plant a nuke in a subway, many of us have been willing to look away.
But now the government is taking on the majority. All of us. There is a grim new democracy – no one is exempt from having their crotch grabbed in an airport. Although one wonders what would happen if someone tried to grab Sarah Palin’s crotch or Brittney Spears, or Alan Greenspan’s or our new speaker of the house, or Jessie Jackson. You can’t bring yourself to believe that Rudy Giuliani’s crotch would be subject to investigation, but theoretically it would be.
How did this happen? How did the government decide it was ok to do things that would end careers of almost anyone else in business, politics, the arts? Clearly this has been in the works for some time since so many scanners are in airports and the plan had to be to say “be scanned or be molested.” Who approved this? Who knew about it?
When the government attacks its own citizenry, it becomes dangerous. We are urged to be vigilant and let our government know if we see a lone piece of luggage or furtive behavior. But we are told we have to submit to crotch grabbing. Pay attention to this, don’t pay attention to that – even as the hand reaches up…
What alarms me is the underlying cynicism of all this. A branch of government believes it is ok to violate people’s bodies and that they will get away with it. They are protecting us from terrorism and so it’s ok. But is there any evidence this will actually protect us from terrorism? If suicide bombers are willing to have explosives implanted in their breasts to blow up a plane, how is the crotch grab going to protect that?
There is a fundamental disconnect between the government and the will of the people on this. And there is a dangerously arrogant mind set that sets all this in motion and springs it on the public with the idea that we will acquiesce and swallow this. There is an attitude of contempt for people’s rights and feelings – for people’s bodies. If asked I believe the majority would say “no, I don’t want this to be done to myself, my 6 year old child or my grandmother – and certainly not my wife.” Take your hunt for terrorism and wmd’s elsewhere.
If you are willing to build scanners of unrevealed medical danger and authorize groping, are you that far from authorizing the construction of gas chambers? Extreme thought, yes. But the same impulse is involved – a disregard, perhaps even a contempt or hatred for those you are making the target of such officially sanctioned behavior from uniformed government workers. I noticed those defending the policy on TV last night mostly spoke with little affect and little emotion in their faces – the man had his “game face” on – obviously someone whose sense of his own body was of a suit of armor, not a precious blessed organism. This is the road to fascism plain and simple.
Ned Leavitt – November 23, 2010