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Christmas 2001
OF AIRPORTS AND MIRACLES
Last week I flew for the first time since the events of September 11th. I
used to love to fly, but this may be my last time. I felt oppression in an
automated atmosphere that resembled a foreign, occupied country more than an
airport in America.
I had just spent more than three months on the road, hopping from the Bay
area in California to the hills of Kentucky, stopping several places
in-between to meet new and wonderful people who may be able to help in the
work of Making The Walls Transparent (http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke ).
The first leg of the trip home was made by plane and it was a great loss.
The airport in Oakland was packed and it took the entire
2-hour-required-early-arrival to process through. I checked two bags and
was told, "Ms. Lee, you have been selected to be searched." Of course this
offended me no end, so I explained, "Don't use the word, selected, as if I
am a finalist for a prize. This is an intrusion and something like, "You've
been targeted..." might be more appropriate!"
"We're doing this for your safety," growls the young man taking my bags to
the table. "I didn't ask for your help," I told him, "..and whether I am a
terrorist or an innocent passenger, you cannot claim to be making me safe,
when this search is certain destruction of the 4th amendment, which I depend
on for real safety, i.e. freedom!"
"GET OVER AGAINST THE WALL!" He roars, so loudly that many others turn to
look. The older lady with the plastic gloves begins to pull my clothes out
of my bag, first from the top, then from the front zipper where the tear in
the material leads right back into the area she had just searched.
"Does it make you feel bad to earn your living digging through other
people's stuff?" I asked her.
She didn't answer, just kept digging in my bag, and during the second search
upstairs, the question was worse than ignored when one of the many Orientals
who were doing the searches, stopped, stared at me, turned to the military
guard with the big gun, and turned back to stare deep into my eyes with his
hands on his hips as if to say, "One more word and I'll have HIM take you
somewhere a bit more private."
One last search was done at the aircraft, where one of the young girls
finally answered my question, "Yes, actually it does make me feel very bad."
In Reno, where I was supposed to board a non-stop, they informed me at the
last minute that they had overbooked and I'd either have to bump a lady in a
wheelchair and her companion, or take another flight around the corner. I
took the later flight, and arrived in Chicago after my luggage. I was
dismayed to find only my clothes bag chained up next to the baggage claim
office.
Southwest Airlines had 'misplaced' my most important and irreplaceable bag.
It contained prisoner letters, information on Taylor CI, all the stamps I
had saved for the Christmas mailing this year, $50 for special stationary
for the mailing that Bea had donated, and many other invaluable items.
I was crushed... I called the airlines persistently for a week after that.
Finally they quit saying it could come in on any flight, and just told me
that it was lost. They gave me a lost baggage claim letter, which had a
paragraph that listed all the items the airlines were not responsible for if
lost:
"Southwest Airlines assumes no responsibility for money, jewelry, cameras,
video and electronic equipment (including computers), silverware, precious
gems and metals, negotiable papers, securities, business documents, samples,
items intended for sale, paintings and other works of art, antiques,
collectors' items, artifacts, manuscripts, furs, irreplaceable books or
publications, and similar valuables contained in checked or unchecked
baggage."
So I say, "Perhaps it would be easier if you gave me a list of what you ARE
responsible for." She hesitated... and replied, "Clothing."
Needless to say, I still have not recovered my bag.
The last leg of my flight home had been booked on Sun Country Airlines, but
I got a call from the travel agent that Sun Country had quit the business
and that I would be sent out at 9am the next day by another method.
My host drove me the two hours to the airport, arriving at 7:10am only to
find that the 9am flight I had been told to get on had left at 7am. I
would have been left having to purchase a $400 ticket, but I did a series of
calls that began with Sun Country and ended with a fine fellow at Trans Air,
who graciously rescheduled me on Ryan Airlines flying out the next day at no
additional cost.
One little side note about the federal takeover of the airports: My ride
had left the car parked in the usual loading/unloading zone in front of the
small Minn/St Paul airport. As we emerged to reload my bags, a woman in
some kind of uniform rushed towards us. In a loud, aggressively commanding
voice she began a tirade, "Is that your car? You can't park here... Move
the car... You want problems?...Move the car...NOW!"
I look up from putting my bags in the car to respond, "We've always parked
here. The cop down there said this would be fine. We are moving 'NOW'."
She shrieks, "THAT COP HAS NO JURISDICTION... I am the only authority
here..." at which point she pulls a holder out of her back pockets, and just
like in the movies, flips this badge at us. She is a little awkward, as if
the movement is new to her, and she closes the badge very quickly, yelling,
"NOW move the car NOW before I arrest you!"
While she screamed her tirade of 'authority', we had already got the four
bags loaded and waved from the window as we drove off. Phew. If that's an
example of the 'government' making me feel safe, I want no part of it!
We drove again to the airport the next day. Another tragic loss to my work
occurred at the airport prior to checking my bags in: my laptop computer,
donated by Dr. Korn to replace my own computer that the viruses had burnt
up, simply disappeared from my side. I had it one minute with the other
bags, and before I got to the check-in counter, I looked down and it was
gone. There were so many people milling about that I have no idea what
happened to it.
As you can imagine, at this point I was sadly about to give up on the
Christmas mailing. But, without even knowing about my losses, people began
to send cards, stamps, the money to buy more stamps, replace the stationary
and get the copies made. What a blessing. I was able to send out over 750
Christmas cards and copies of the Open Letter, Christmas 2001 to the
prisoners. (http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/prison/christmas2001.html )
OF FREEDOM AND FEAR
I've now read all the interesting reactions to 'Of Airports and Miracles',
replies ranging from "I am happy to be violated that way" to "The security
measures that we are experiencing at this time are for the benefit of us all
if not for the entire world" to "you brought it on yourself" (by using my
freedom of speech at the airport, I assume). Now I'm probably going to make
some people really mad, but thank God that's provided for under the first
amendment.
I am nearly 60 years old and I can remember when, if you were not doing a
crime, you weren't stopped by cops, searched, nor arrested. You could go
your entire life without anyone digging through your things or invading your
home. Cops didn't steal your stuff back then and they had to have evidence
that you had committed a crime to hassle you and particularly to send you to
prison. Crimes then were really crimes, not choices, and children could play
out alone after dark. Presidents didn't steal elections and terrorists
weren't the talk of the year.
As the decades have gone by, I've watched laws passed, with or without the
support of the citizens, that have made all these things the norm. But I
notice that, despite all our attempts to give up our freedom in exchange for
supposed security; despite alterations and destruction of the 1st, 4th, 5th,
6th, 8th, and 13th amendments, the crime rate continues to rise, drugs
continue to flow freely, incarceration rates are higher than in any other
country, diseases have spread more widely, the highways and airways are less
safe, more accidents of all kinds are reported, new and more confusing
crimes are occurring in increasing numbers (like child murderers and
'terrorist' actions): All in all we are far less safe according to all
statistics than we were 30 years ago.
No you can't regulate morality, nor prohibit accidents, nor save our
destructive nation from the hatred that the victims of our foreign policies
feel for us, no matter how much of the constitution we ignore, nor how many
of the amendments are tossed out the window. This world can never be made
perfect through legislation, only through the spirit.
There's only one way to retain the freedom we are famous for and make our
nation more secure and that's by setting a better example, being a better
people, asking for far better leaders.
Yes, it was frightening to see our country attacked. It hurt to helplessly
watch 3000 or so civilians lose their lives on September 11th. But,
destroying the foundation of America will not prevent suicide missions from
succeeding, nor make us safe. As long as we are the plague of the world, we
will suffer the results of the hatred we breed.
Here are some examples of the violent crimes against other nations that we
are answering for.
In 1991, Daddy Bush ordered the death of 130,000 Iraqi civilians. We
cheered in the streets over that one.
American politicians provided weapons and money to Saddam Hussein, which the
Iraqi soldiers used to kill 200,000 civilians before the USA turned all our
power against Iraq.
Taliban troops supported and trained by the CIA killed 150,000 Afghan and
Russian civilians.
The USA dropped Atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki and killed 100,000
Japanese civilians.
Vietnam was the death of thousands of civilians in that country, not
counting our own young men who died needlessly.
In Panama in 1989, American troops destroyed the homes of 20,000 villagers
and massacred thousands of civilians.
Millions of children have died because of the USA embargoes on Iraq and
Cuba.
Hundreds of thousands have been brutally murdered throughout the world by
USA-sponsored civil wars and coups d'etat (Chile, Argentina, Uruguay,
Bolivia, Guatemala, El Salvador to name just a few)*.
These are just a few of the reasons we are hated enough for 'terrorists' to
attack our nation. When we are finally done following Baby Bush across the
globe, destroying everything in our wake, we will have created more hatred
for our nation, leaving ourselves more open to outside threats, while
Ashcroft and his ilk will have made us less free and more vulnerable to
control inside our own country.
Hatred, vengeance, destruction, and leaders who encourage these negative
emotions will eventually destroy all that we once stood for. If seeing the
truth makes a citizen "un-American", as Ashcroft calls it, then we are sadly
living in a country that deserves what it gets.
Our founders fought hard to establish the concept of freedom. Our
servicemen have always believed they fought valiantly to preserve it. While
the rich play monopoly, the rest of us follow blindly and obediently. And
behind the backs of our dead and wounded soldiers, we are giving away the
precious freedom we sent them to protect.
My heart and soul feels secure in the risks I must take to remain a true
free American. I understand the risks of life and am willing to take
responsibility for my own choices. I am not willing to give up my freedom
for some make-believe security fostered on us by war-mongers and terrorized
people. People who are trying to make the trade, as Thomas Jefferson said,
do not deserve freedom nor security, nor respect for that matter.
So arrest me as anti-politician, anti-war, anti-dependant on big brother if
you must, but you can never claim I am not true to the free nation I was
born in. If you tape my mouth shut and shackle me, I'll watch from my cell
as the fearful among you become slaves to your dishonest, corrupt, horrible,
hateful political choices!
I remain one more American who will never
quietly give up my country to the enemy within,
Kay Lee
1290 Overlook Terrace
Titusville, Florida 32780
321-383-3000
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Making The Walls Transparent
http://www.angelfire.com/fl3/starke
*Sources:
Justice Department Figures
Sam Smith editorial, "Internet Sightings"
Common Dreams at
http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1109-09.htm
As published in North Coast Press Winter 2001
INDEX OF OPEN LETTERS ON MAKING THE WALLS TRANSPARENT
http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/prison/kay.html
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