You have probably heard the story already about the child confined to a wheelchair because of a leg injury being patted down by the TSA at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport. If not, here is the video:
The Chicago Tribune says there really isn’t much to this story. The newspaper notes (a) the video is almost a year old; (b) the TSA has since changed the pat down procedures for children (but won’t say whether they would have done anything different with this child in light of those new procedures); and, most importantly, (c) that the child
seemed to handle the pat-down well.
And therein lies the problem. See there is something insidious about this kind of behavior – and this kind of reporting. Why, look, we’re doing it for our own good, for our own safety. Look how the child is learning to subject himself to the arbitrary and capricious behavior of a government agent. Look how cooperative they’re being so they can exercise their right to travel to Disneyland! What good citizens they are.
This is absurd.
We are training a generation of Americans to simply accept the unconstitutional behavior of government, all in the name of security. While the father did the right thing by not escalating the situation (which seems to have made the Chicago Tribune conclude there is “nothing here to see, move on”) it is the mere fact that he had to do so because of the toddler’s well being should make every parent cringe.
Now the media is complicit in the denigrating of our liberty and freedom.
We’re being trained well.
