Blue Notes from a Red Zone

Land of the Free

America just celebrated my birthday again, with fireworks, flags, rousing speeches and a day off. It all struck a sour note this year.

The weekend before the 4th, I had the misfortune of traveling on our nation's airways. The flights were all on time, and there were no problems with the airlines, but the "security" precautions are insane, and most serve no purpose other than to remind us that we are more fearful than free these days.

For example, when I reached the part where they x-ray carry-on luggage, everything came to a grinding halt. Since my 3-year-old grandson lives with me, I keep a travel-size tube of child's sunblock in my purse, as you never know when a trip to the grocery store may involve a detour to the beach. It's one of those things that lives in your purse, forgotten until needed. It's also one of those things that sets off triple alarms at the airport.

The tube was x-rayed, opened, examined for tampering, and x-rayed again. Finally the security guard told me it seemed that the sunblock was just sunblock, but still too dangerous to take on the airplane. However, if I had a quart-size (not sandwich or gallon-sized) zip lock bag handy, I could put the sunblock in the zip lock bag, and be on my way.

This suggestion puzzled me. Why is sunblock okay when enveloped in a quart-sized zip lock bag, but lethal when dropped in a purse? Is there some element in the quart-sized bag that neutralizes flammable chemicals? Are terrorists particularly stymied when it comes to opening one specific size of zip lock bag?

Now, I do know the rationale. Having dangerous substances like sunblock or lip gloss contained in a zip lock bag lets anyone else who might choose to examine your purse further down the line know that someone earlier in the line knew you were carrying. But this rationale does not stand up, because liquids, gels and creams contained in zip-lock bags are not screened as thoroughly as my sunblock. And the probability of these items being used as terrorist supplies is remote beyond reckoning. I haven't checked recently, but at some point the number of confiscated toiletries ran into the millions, and the number of terrorist arrests or schemes foiled as a result came to exactly zero.

I find it fascinating that the government is very aggressive when it comes to harrassing citizens in the name of security, where very little is actually accomplished, but quite relaxed about security precautions that might be worthwhile, but wouldn't be noticed by the average tourist. Cargoes go unexamined, chemical plants uninspected, nuclear power plants ignored. But we are all over those flip-flops worn by toddlers.

The point of all these "security" measures seems not to enhance security, but to keep citizens reminded of all the monsters that lurk in closets. Over the last few years we have ceded extreme liberties to a government that thrives on promising safety in exchange for freedom.

A friend of mine who works in the US Department of Justice recently vented about her workplace. This is not a wild-eyed liberal like me, but a sober and deeply conservative Republican. She hated Clinton. Despite this, she considers the DOJ to be at its nadir. She feels constant pressure to use the force of law to constrict liberty and to mock justice. Colleagues who date back to the Nixon years said they had thought that was the lowest the DOJ could fall, but now they realize they had just skimmed the surface of abusing the powers of the prosecutor.

She is hardly alone in her opinion. John S. Koppel, who recently resigned, wrote an op-ed column in the Denver Post that read in part:

"The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse.

"In the course of its tenure since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Bush administration has turned the entire government (and the DOJ in particular) into a veritable Augean stable on issues such as civil rights, civil liberties, international law and basic human rights, as well as criminal prosecution and federal employment and contracting practices. It has systematically undermined the rule of law in the name of fighting terrorism, and it has sought to insulate its actions from legislative or judicial scrutiny and accountability by invoking national security at every turn, engaging in persistent fearmongering, routinely impugning the integrity and/or patriotism of its critics, and protecting its own lawbreakers. This is neither normal government conduct nor “politics as usual,” but a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate — which, in fact, I believe it eclipses."

I won't go on and on about the laundry list of civil liberties that have been altered until they are now unrecognizable, and a government that demands access to every e-mail, credit card transaction, and even US Postal mail, but won't tell you who works in the Vice President's office at your expense.

Nor will I go on about thee insanity of complaining that the RNC hasn't been keeping records of all the government official e-mails that have gone through their servers, without asking who is this government about: the people of the United States, or the rich donors to the Republican party? A government run as a partisan organizaiton by definition will not extend fair and equitable liberties to all, or even provide competent services to any.

Hope all the rest of you had a happy 4th of July. I did, of course, enjoy the company of friends and family as they came to our house for lunch, dinner, and our own private fireworks. And I'm getting ready for a personal Declaration of Independence in the 2008 elections.

posted by Lenore Wilson @ 12:00 AM