“Those that would give up their liberty for security, deserve neither liberty or security.” Benjamin Franklin
I am going to Disney World in October to see a close family member get married. It should be a joyous event and I should be looking forward to enjoying a wonderful vacation with my family in the “happiest place on earth.” Instead , every time I think about the trip, I get knots in my stomach when I remember that I will have to fly.
The first time I flew to Disney, land, at the time, I was 4 years old. There was a malfunction with the landing gear, and we ended up having to crash land . We sat in the airport for 6 hours before getting a new plane to take us. When we landed in LAX, the power was out.
I have flown a number of times since and the heights never bothered me. The fear of crashing never bothered me. I flew for the first time, by myself, when I was 15 and it never bothered me. I loved flying. I flew once since 9/11, in 2004, and while the removal of the shoes was annoying, and the sitting in the airport twiddling my thumbs for the required 2 hours before my flight was annoying, I still managed to enjoy myself. Now, I dread it.
I dread that the only way I can get on a plane, to enjoy a trip to Disney World, is if I either subject myself and my family to radiation or molestation.
People were outraged about this when it was first implemented and those of you reading this are probably thinking I am a day late and a dollar short with this commentary, but that’s kind of the whole point. People WERE outraged, and now, somehow, they aren’t. Maybe the public outcry has been silenced because of the concerns over the economy or maybe the whittling away of entitlements or income disparity or health care access or the GOP Primary battles or maybe even Anthony Weiner’s penis. Maybe it’s because “we the people” are scared of the terrorists.
Who are these terrorists? What do they do? Well, from my understanding, they hate us and they want us dead. So what? We won’t be able to end the “War on Terror” until we eradicate all the hatred from the world? Seriously? What do these terrorists do, exactly? They kill people and they sodomize people and they take away freedoms. Radiation kills people too. Inappropriate touching is the same thing we warn our children about when they are young, and now we are supposed to tell them it’s okay as long as government officials do it? I thought the legal system in this country was based upon the premise that a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. Why is it then, that every single person that passes through an airport security check is being treated as though they could be a criminal? How is that freedom?
How is it that we live in a civilized country, in the year 2011, and the only way to travel, to expand our minds, to embrace different cultures, is to either get exposed to radiation or allow someone to degrade us to the point of allowing a stranger to literally probe our bodies? How is it that those are the only two options? How DO I explain to my children that it’s okay for a stranger to touch them? How do I explain to them when they are older, that I allowed them to be exposed to radiation? Isn’t it my job as a parent to protect my children from harm? I grow my own food to avoid harmful chemicals. I slop ‘em up with sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. How do I stand by and watch my children get violated or poisoned and smile to make them think it’s okay?
How do frequent travelers do it? Honestly, I would love to know how people can go through their daily lives NOT being outraged, every single day, about these atrocities. There’s that old analogy that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will die. Are people really just accepting that this is how things are now? Because of some abstract terrorist threat? We’ve seen freedoms removed from people throughout history. We saw Mubarak shut Egyptian internet service down during the “peaceful protests” and we were outraged. We see the oppression, the removal of freedoms in Libya, and we are on the verge of going into their country to fight against the oppressive regime. And why? Because we are outraged. Yet, we continue to lose rights and freedoms in this country every single day, and instead of questioning our government and its practices, we blindly accept them, for the sake of freedom.
I am going to Disney World in October to see a close family member get married. It should be a joyous event and I should be looking forward to enjoying a wonderful vacation with my family in the “happiest place on earth.” Instead , every time I think about the trip, I get knots in my stomach when I remember that I will have to fly.
The first time I flew to Disney, land, at the time, I was 4 years old. There was a malfunction with the landing gear, and we ended up having to crash land . We sat in the airport for 6 hours before getting a new plane to take us. When we landed in LAX, the power was out.
I have flown a number of times since and the heights never bothered me. The fear of crashing never bothered me. I flew for the first time, by myself, when I was 15 and it never bothered me. I loved flying. I flew once since 9/11, in 2004, and while the removal of the shoes was annoying, and the sitting in the airport twiddling my thumbs for the required 2 hours before my flight was annoying, I still managed to enjoy myself. Now, I dread it.
I dread that the only way I can get on a plane, to enjoy a trip to Disney World, is if I either subject myself and my family to radiation or molestation.
People were outraged about this when it was first implemented and those of you reading this are probably thinking I am a day late and a dollar short with this commentary, but that’s kind of the whole point. People WERE outraged, and now, somehow, they aren’t. Maybe the public outcry has been silenced because of the concerns over the economy or maybe the whittling away of entitlements or income disparity or health care access or the GOP Primary battles or maybe even Anthony Weiner’s penis. Maybe it’s because “we the people” are scared of the terrorists.
Who are these terrorists? What do they do? Well, from my understanding, they hate us and they want us dead. So what? We won’t be able to end the “War on Terror” until we eradicate all the hatred from the world? Seriously? What do these terrorists do, exactly? They kill people and they sodomize people and they take away freedoms. Radiation kills people too. Inappropriate touching is the same thing we warn our children about when they are young, and now we are supposed to tell them it’s okay as long as government officials do it? I thought the legal system in this country was based upon the premise that a citizen is innocent until proven guilty. Why is it then, that every single person that passes through an airport security check is being treated as though they could be a criminal? How is that freedom?
How is it that we live in a civilized country, in the year 2011, and the only way to travel, to expand our minds, to embrace different cultures, is to either get exposed to radiation or allow someone to degrade us to the point of allowing a stranger to literally probe our bodies? How is it that those are the only two options? How DO I explain to my children that it’s okay for a stranger to touch them? How do I explain to them when they are older, that I allowed them to be exposed to radiation? Isn’t it my job as a parent to protect my children from harm? I grow my own food to avoid harmful chemicals. I slop ‘em up with sunscreen to prevent skin cancer. How do I stand by and watch my children get violated or poisoned and smile to make them think it’s okay?
How do frequent travelers do it? Honestly, I would love to know how people can go through their daily lives NOT being outraged, every single day, about these atrocities. There’s that old analogy that if you put a frog in boiling water, it will jump out, but if you put it in cold water and slowly bring it to a boil, the frog will die. Are people really just accepting that this is how things are now? Because of some abstract terrorist threat? We’ve seen freedoms removed from people throughout history. We saw Mubarak shut Egyptian internet service down during the “peaceful protests” and we were outraged. We see the oppression, the removal of freedoms in Libya, and we are on the verge of going into their country to fight against the oppressive regime. And why? Because we are outraged. Yet, we continue to lose rights and freedoms in this country every single day, and instead of questioning our government and its practices, we blindly accept them, for the sake of freedom.
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