Our modern times
Sep. 9th, 2006 06:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
indigo_rose99Yesterday, livingdeb told me that she didn't feel the changes of living in our modern political age. She didn't phrase it like that, of course. But I just looked at her in shock. How can she not feel the ways in which our lives are impacted?!? Does she truly not hear the words from "First they came..." trolling through her head as she goes through her days? I do.
Maybe this is a traveling thing. I travel... frequently. Not very frequently. Probably less than 50% of the time. But still enough.
I feel it every time I drive myself to my local airport. Every time I step up to an airline counter. Every time I go through security. Every time I search the web for details on what I can and cannot bring on this particular flight to this particular destination... this time. And then do it again the next day, because the rules may have changed. Every time I print out the current rules to take with me to the airport so that they will let me through. Every time I think about... What am I going to take on this trip that may be taken away from me, that would really strongly impact my life when they take it away?
They can take it all away. Any time. At any place. With no warning. In a heartbeat.
I'm sick of hearing the rhetoric. If we are so free and wonderful, why am I afraid to make this a public posting?
I feel like I should be protesting. Marching feels useless. And protesting in line at the airport sounds like a good way to get fired from my job for not arriving at my intended destination.
These things that they do to us.... Not allowing my tiny little Swiss army knife on the plane (I've pretty much stopped carrying it. And I miss it desperately.). No matches. No lighters. No box cutters. No shampoo. No conditioner. No toothpaste. No water.
If preventing me from carrying my anti-bacterial waterless soap was actually effective at stopping terrorists acts, I would like to believe that I would bear it better. But what terrorist plot against a plane has been successfully stopped at the security line at the airport? Any of them?!?! As far as I can tell, they are either stopped long before they reach the airport, or by passengers on the plane. Forcing me to check luggage (which is then lost) is simply making my life more miserable than travel alone could make it.
I am living in fear. Not of these people who blow up planes. But of my own government and the next senseless act "due to enhanced security measures" that will come into their heads. That is it: the US Government -- the new terrorists. Impacting the most people on a daily basis.
Maybe this is a traveling thing. I travel... frequently. Not very frequently. Probably less than 50% of the time. But still enough.
I feel it every time I drive myself to my local airport. Every time I step up to an airline counter. Every time I go through security. Every time I search the web for details on what I can and cannot bring on this particular flight to this particular destination... this time. And then do it again the next day, because the rules may have changed. Every time I print out the current rules to take with me to the airport so that they will let me through. Every time I think about... What am I going to take on this trip that may be taken away from me, that would really strongly impact my life when they take it away?
They can take it all away. Any time. At any place. With no warning. In a heartbeat.
I'm sick of hearing the rhetoric. If we are so free and wonderful, why am I afraid to make this a public posting?
I feel like I should be protesting. Marching feels useless. And protesting in line at the airport sounds like a good way to get fired from my job for not arriving at my intended destination.
These things that they do to us.... Not allowing my tiny little Swiss army knife on the plane (I've pretty much stopped carrying it. And I miss it desperately.). No matches. No lighters. No box cutters. No shampoo. No conditioner. No toothpaste. No water.
If preventing me from carrying my anti-bacterial waterless soap was actually effective at stopping terrorists acts, I would like to believe that I would bear it better. But what terrorist plot against a plane has been successfully stopped at the security line at the airport? Any of them?!?! As far as I can tell, they are either stopped long before they reach the airport, or by passengers on the plane. Forcing me to check luggage (which is then lost) is simply making my life more miserable than travel alone could make it.
I am living in fear. Not of these people who blow up planes. But of my own government and the next senseless act "due to enhanced security measures" that will come into their heads. That is it: the US Government -- the new terrorists. Impacting the most people on a daily basis.
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no subject
Date: 2006-09-10 10:37 pm (UTC)You should post this in a more public venue. I really agree with what you have to say.