… justifying their jobs?
When I returned from a long, arduous trip of approximately 928 miles that took me more than 15 hours, I just wanted to unpack and slide into bed.
First, I ordered a pizza that I am the young ones really enjoyed.
However, when I opened my large suitcase that contained a great deal of miscellaneous materials for my three-week stay in Pennsylvania, I was troubled. That was because what I found was a mess.
I had carefully packed everything the previous night, and while any trip is going to show some wear-and-tear after changing planes and then going a few hundred miles from the airport to my final destination, this was disconcerting.
The inside showed that the clothes were just ripped apart and not placed back in a neat manner in the bag. Then I discovered a note from Big Brother that was disconcerting.
We have to do our jobs
The first leg of the trip was from Johnstown, Pa. to our nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Certainly, trying to protect the capital of the United States should be a priority. However, on this flight were a total of seven passengers.
Being the first passenger to arrive at the johnstown airport, I was able to then sit and watch the other six passengers who were about to board the plane.
Sure did not see any terroristic-looking foreign entities in our midst. However, I should have been forewarned about the nefarious character of the TSA employees who were in Johnstown.
On most flights, the bags are scanned with high-tech devices to see if any dangerous items may be contained therein. I did not see the TSA dude going through my luggage. I did, however, note that the young woman who was right behind me with her teenaged daughter had her bag searched by personnel, and she watched them do it.
From what I surmised from hearing the conversation, she hadtried to take some aerosol cans onto the plane, and the personnel justifiably removed then while she watched and tried to explain about them. It was all within earshot, though I was on my computer and was not paying a great deal of attention.
They certainly did not look like terrorists, but perhaps the bag went through the scanner and it picked up the cans.
However, I saw no scanner. This was done out in the open within clear view of others.
Not so polite to me
At least Big Brother had the decency to allow the person to watch them going through their very personal belongings. They did not have such decency with me.
Instead, I received a message on a small piece of cardboard that informed me that Big Brother suspected a white, 74-year-old man with white hair of being a deadly terrorist.
The reason is why this occurred, and it goes back to the most egregious violator of our civil rights in our lifetimes. The improperly named :Patriot Act” that was passed after Sept. 11, 2001.
Most of us are now so used to these invasions of our privacy that we accept them. But, if a high-tech sander cannot find a potential weapon that could bring down a plane, why do these people feel that they have to justify their jobs and invade our privacy?
Now, I wonder how many of those who traveled to Washington, D.C. in January to attack our nation’s capitol, the worst attack on our country since 1812, had their bags checked by TSA personnel.
Those were indeed terrorists, but I and the woman with the pretty teenaged daughter were certainly not headed to D.C. to engage in such behavior.
Nevertheless, we had our bags and our privacy rudely interrupted by TSA personnel who then placed a message from Big Brother about their doing their jobs.
Somehow, I am not impressed.
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