The U.S. And YOU ALL

Deborah Venable

05/30/02

I’ve been away for a few days – completely unplugged from the rest of the world. I have no idea what has happened recently in the remote regions of human conflict, or in the local regions of political turmoil. I believe we all have to do that every now and then to remain focused, optimistic, and relatively sane in today’s climate. While I was away from the rest of the world, I was with old friends and family – important components of my life – and we naturally fell into a discussion of old times and new times, old values and new trends, familiar common history, and predictions of future events. We called it, “solving all the world’s problems.”

I’m sure as I plug back in; the world’s problems still exist unsolved as usual. Some insights that came from my unplugged venture into reality cannot be ignored, and so I would like to explore them here in cyberspace.

Travel was a subject that came up quite naturally since some of us had to travel to and from our meeting place in Phoenix, Arizona. My family traveled in the sublime comfort of our motor home, which is the only way to go these days since I refuse to get within a ten-mile radius of any airport.

It isn’t the planes I fear but rather the affront to my citizenship as an American that would take place before and after boarding the planes. Besides, I never know when I may actually need my nail clippers, so I’d just as soon not risk having them confiscated as possible weapons that I might use to . . . what? I also have a real problem with any rationalization to accept a search of my person and my possessions because I am being considered guilty until proven innocent – not in America! If others want to forget that we have Constitutional law in this country, they are the ones that are suspect for being a clear and present danger to American citizens – not I, who would gladly step onto any plane full of passengers who had all shown up with a ticket and boarded unencumbered – as long as I was allowed to carry a means to defend myself and my fellow passengers if the need ever arose.

We have all heard the outrageous accounts of improbable passengers being detained by an abrasive “security” staff that may or may not even be made up of American citizens. Senior white citizens, from the wheel chair ridden to medal of honor winners, young white children, elderly white women with knitting needles – these are the “suspects” of the ever vigilant, multicultural security force that send young Middle Eastern men fitting the exact profile of the 911 hijackers through without a second glance. The political correctness of racial profiling, having been challenged and condemned, has not stemmed the obvious reverse profiling that takes place in airports all over the country. No logic exists in such asinine abuse of common sense! No security does either! Bending over backwards usually results in instability and eventually a huge and painful fall.

From the subject of travel, our conversation thus gravitated toward a concentration on this subject of racial profiling and how ignoring it as a tool in law enforcement and security screening will eventually lead to a disaster of unimaginable proportions. If the farce of security screening is to continue, it must include a healthy dose of racial profiling – not the reverse profiling that is now going on. The alternative, of course, is to stop stripping individuals of unalienable rights of self-defense. In other words, let it truly be every man for himself, and I’ll do my own profiling – thank you very much! Nothing else makes sense for the preservation of a relatively “safe” America.

Americans are spread out all over the world, serving their country in Military Uniform. Are they and every civilian American traveling, residing and working in those countries never “profiled”? We already know that in many cases they have been targeted for kidnap and murder, so if anyone thinks that Americans are not regularly “profiled” they are indeed naïve!

As we continued to discuss the merits and pitfalls of profiling, an observation was made which so fits the attitude that could literally save America from impending devastation and total destruction. We are unique in the entire world, and we had better remember that and nurture it – not continue to make excuses for it and be ashamed of it. The influence of the U.N. is a negative one – pure and simple. America needs an attitude of the U.S. and YOU ALL in order to preserve and reclaim our American heritage. With that attitude, not only will America be better served, but also so will the rest of the world’s “huddled masses yearning to be free”! If that is profiling – so be it!

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