A friend posted his opinion on the matter recently, and the series of reactions I observed saddens me. I saw anger, sarcasm(trolls), contempt. What was alarming though, is that by regurgitating what we absorb in the paper, radio, online, and by television, as a whole we are perhaps being diverted from reality. By repeating countering viewpoints, we avoid having consensus. By focusing on the core issue here I believe we can all agree. The constant bickering, and over-complication of this debate only further promotes the terrorist’s agenda, by injecting fear, and disagreement into our daily lives.
This is my take on the matter:
Firstly, we have the RIGHT to travel freely, without submitting to unreasonable violations of privacy.
-The supreme court asserted that all peoples have a protected RIGHT to travel freely, and however they choose. (U.S. v Guest, 383 U.S. 745 (1966), the Court noted, “It is a right that has been firmly established and repeatedly recognized.“)
-Likewise, the 4th amendment rulings are fairly clear as well. (Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967), the Supreme Court ruled that a(n improper) search occurs only when 1) a person expects privacy in the thing searched and 2) society believes that expectation is reasonable.)
So, to me it is clear that the right to travel freely is protected. The real question is whether “society” believes that the two screening choices, untested back-scatter X-ray or aggressive pat-downs violate a reasonable expectation of privacy. We are society, we have to make that decision, and let our elected officials know. We also as citizens have a duty to develop well-formed opinions in matters of the constitution, and our rights because we are the jury pool. We ultimately have the duty to make these rulings before they could even reach the supreme court.
This will be tested in the coming years in our courts and jury pools all across the country. We should all inform ourselves about our rights, and think about what level of screening is adequate without violating the rights our ancestors fought so hard for. The rights our servicemen bravely commit themselves to protecting.
I think the more we all talk about it openly without regurgitating talking points we saw on TV or heard on the radio, the less likely we all are to be victims of fear. After all, fear is the whole point of terrorism anyway.
Back in Madison. 