I worry about terrorists. I don’t obsess, and it’s not on my mind every minute. But I think the Bush administration has set up a self-fulfilling prophesy.
So when I read Ann Jacobsen’s article in the Women’s Wall Street Journal last week, it made me nervous. Because, given the tenor of the times, I probably would have been seeing and feeling what she was seeing and feeling:
After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together, eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned, and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified.
Jacobsen’s tale is long but compelling and worth reading.
Even more worth reading (and a lot shorter) is lawyer and Stanford Ph.D. candidate Clinton Taylor’s research and analysis of the happening.
It used to be easy to tell books by their covers. Sometimes you still can. You just know that this one is sure to be a bodice-ripper.
This one is too, in it’s own way, but it’s harder to tell. (This new “romance” category with strong, brave kick-ass females and strong, brave, tender males is one I plan on writing more about.)
I’ve had doors held open for me by Goth-garbed kids and have been given the finger by guys in suits driving SUVs. You can’t tell the good guys from the bad guys any more. Or gals either for that matter.
Who knows what wickedness lurks behind the pleasant facade of a little ol’ granny.
UPDATE: For more on the fall-out from the airplane story, go here and scroll down.
UPDATE: I like Betsy Devine’s take on the whole thing, that ends with:
So, taking my own advice, I think that prosthetic shoes, etc. should not be off-limits to airport security searches. I think the rule that you can’t question more than two people of any ethnic group, if such a rule exists, is dangerous hooey. I think that questioning people about their flight plans, etc. does not violate their civil liberties. I think that people who do weird stuff on airliners should be told by flight attendants to behave themselves. I think that airline passengers who intentionally scare other airline passengers should be charged with assault.