SimplyBlog
Summary: I’m frustrated by the current environment in U.S. society and politics that continues to restrict our freedoms. Airport security has become ridiculous, where an innocent art project gets you arrested, and people can’t take bottled water on a plane (it’s insane!). People are being violently tasered for being slightly obnoxious. In fact, I thought being obnoxious was not just a right, but practically a responsibility in a democratic society. We have to make loud objections to injustice; that’s how democracy works. Of course, all liberties need to be taken within reason, and I’m arguing that we are unreasonably restricting them. We need to have the courage to unreasonably allow liberties. Democracy requires that we take the risk of erring on the side of freedom.
The image above, and its quote, are from TIME magazine. An MIT student recently made a creative electronic display on her shirt for career day, and was arrested at the airport because security people chose to call it a bomb. Now, I can understand airport security asking about her circuit board, even pulling her aside and asking to examine something they don’t understand. But from what I understand, it didn’t contain any explosive materials. Once that was established, and her very reasonable explanation conveyed, she should have been hurried on her way to her plane. Just because she was more creative than an airport security guy doesn’t mean she should be arrested.
There are many shameful aspects to our society’s reaction to this. Topping it all is the media response that fully supports the police position, that it “turned out to be a fake bomb”. Actually, it didn’t turn out to be a fake bomb. It wasn’t a bomb. It wasn’t a fake bomb. It was a circuit board. It turned out to be an art project. Stop letting them spin it this way! It’s shocking that TIME magazine doesn’t have the editorial wherewithal to cut out the bias and instead reinforces the fascist twist.
This came the same week that a University of Florida student was tasered at a John Kerry speech for speaking slightly over his time limit for asking questions. Here, watch it on YouTube. I don’t deny the student was obnoxious, nor that he complained about being arrested. However, he obviously wasn’t dangerous. He even offered to go before they tasered him. They already had him well under their control when they decided to top it off with an extra helping of taser. Being tasered was entirely out of proportion to what he did wrong. We should be a society where institutional violence does not get carried out against people simply for going over their time limits and being a little annoying. Seriously, I’ve seen people be a lot more annoying in my lifetime, and our free society has been able to handle it a lot better than this. For example, why not everyone just sit still for a couple awkward minutes while he finishes his frenetic speech, and then it would have all been over without the police violence?
It’s very frightening that this kind of police behavior is happening in the U.S. We need to preserve our freedoms. Our freedoms are being threatened by the fact that we are so afraid that we are willing to accept extreme police behaviors and extremely unreasonable rules.
Back to the airport: our society’s fears are clearly totally out of proportion to the actual dangers out there. Driving to work is radically more dangerous than the terrorist threat at airports, yet we aren’t even responsibly addressing the risks of driving (one easy approach that doesn’t infringe liberties would be to develop the public transportation infrastructure, which has many other benefits). It’s ridiculous that every single person going into the airport has to take their shoes off -- it’s honestly demeaning to all of us -- and inconvenient -- all because of the remote, remote possibility that somebody has something unspecified in their shoes.
Personally, I’m willing to have my freedoms back. Willing to go to the airport with an efficient and dignified security check that leaves some small risks unchecked. I’m not afraid. A true democracy lets people act the way they want, carrying electronic circuit board art if they like. A true democracy gives people the liberty to discuss what they like without threatening them. A democracy allows these freedoms despite the possibility of danger. A democracy requires courage, and I’m very tired of living in a society without courage, where conservatives have been tightening security more and more, violating privacy, and suspending habeas corpus (which prevents unlawful imprisonment), a right guaranteed in the constitution. They do it because they are cowards, and they have the arrogance to believe they can take away our rights and do so responsibly. I honestly don’t trust them to do so responsibly. I honestly am seeing the news of how people are being abused by the loss of their rights. It’s got to stop.
It’s time to have courage, and have our freedoms back.
When will we get back our democracy, and the courage that goes with a free society?
Sunday, September 23, 2007
