Ants and Grasshoppers

I dictated this column ten days ago when the TSA backlash was first starting. Since 9/11 I have been questioning the policies of George Bush and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. In October 2002 I had a letter published in the News-Journal predicting new airport security measures were similar to Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. Removing shoes came next, I tried to resist but after being placed on the “TSA Watch List” and threatened by TSA I ultimately acquiesced and felt alone trying to stop this intrusion. TSA demonstrated its stupidity with its policy on liquids, watching me drink a bottle of Dasani water, clear and pure; requiring its disposal because it will explode.

Several weeks ago I saw a Tampa television station dutifully reporting about a multi-jurisdictional task force at the Greyhound bus station where FHP, TSA, and Border police were checking papers and searching passengers. The week before an Atlanta television station likewise reported about a comparable task force stopping trucks inbound on I-20 to pass through full size X-ray machines, check papers, and be searched. Sadly, Americans willfully reported they were glad to experience the inconvenience and felt safer, and no one seemed to question the right of the government or the warrantless search performed in direct contradiction to the Constitution, “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.”

This issue has moved beyond the requirement for airline security. Bush’s moves after 9/11, in the name of fighting terrorism, stole freedoms from Americans, undoing over 225 years of liberty: the Patriot Act created unprecedented warrantless spying, Homeland Security employees over 200,000 with a budget of $52 billion, and the relatively unknown support of the Courts to establish “Constitution Free Zones”. While you watch your elderly mother, wife, or teenage daughter undergo an intrusive, pat-down search, ask yourself by what authority has the government asserted this right.

The current fight is about the Ant and the Grasshopper, and the general failure of Americans to understand their Constitutional rights. We, the ants, are trying to resist the government grasshopper. If we succeed, we undo years of authoritarian success by the grasshopper.