Halls of Profit
I got on board an airplane this week. You know the drill as well as me: strip down, belts off, liquids out, pockets emptied, wait your turn, hands up at the X-ray machine, a pat down at the end. Hundreds of TSA security folks. When I got to my terminal after running this gauntlet, two more TSA wanted to see our ID’s and boarding passes once more. Most us comply complacently, but if you ask us sheep if the money and inconvenience is worth it, post Nine One One, I bet 95% would say you betcha!
I’m not one of those 95%. It’s not so much a violation of my personal privacy, all these inspections. It’s just incredible overkill on our response to perceived threats. Kids are shot up every week in our schools and I don’t see us locking down schools, setting up checkpoints and x-ray machines, maybe confiscating assault rifles. In fact, the 2nd Amendment folks resist any and all gun regulation now. I know we can’t carry penknives on a plane, but I’m amazed the ammo boyz sit still for a gun ban on airplanes. Better to have high altitude shootouts with terrorists than fly unarmed, they’d argue. Same argument for arming teachers, I guess.
The first shopping mall that’s bombed and shoppers taken hostage, you’ll see where this can lead. A full frontal assault on the bastions of capitalism, you’ll have us consumers in mega-counter response. Strip searches at Macy’s, x-ray machines at Victoria’s Secret, lie detectors at Sears, loyalty oaths at Spencer’s Gifts, proof of citizenship and credit card viability at the front entrances, language proficiency at the restrooms, profiling in the mall corridors.
It’s one thing to murder innocent schoolkids and destroy the Trade Centers — it’s quite another to kindle fear in the average shopper. Expense be damned! The bastions of commerce will be cleansed of the unholy! The deranged can shoot up our schools, but trespass on the Halls of Profit, there’s going to be some serious hell to pay — and we’ll be more than willing to pay it.
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