Too Far: TSA Strip-Scanning Our Children

Does government now hold a monopoly on child pornography? Even if you would answer "no," would you agree that we have now traded liberty in the hopes of security, and received neither?

Maybe this is a better first question: Does legal = moral? This is a question that the Federal State pushes further and further into the collective faces of We The People all the time. And, We The People are reminded that the political class views laws as something for them to use against us.

Let me repeat that: against you.

Elected politicians in Washington want you to pay income taxes, while they don't bother. Why? Because government has a monopoly on theft. You cannot own a gun in Chicago, but members of the political class carry weapons. Why? Because government has a monopoly on violence. And defense. And laws are for you -- not them.

Government holds monopolies on spying and surveillance. This is why, for example, activists get arrested for taking pictures of police -- even when they are taking pictures of police doing something wrong.

Government also holds a monopolies on seemingly mundane things like domestic mail delivery (UPS), and passenger rail systems (Amtrak). But think about that a moment: government monopolies on transportation and communication. Should a single institution hold such power?

I could go on ... But now there is a more wicked example of government monopoly: child pornography.

Now, I know that may sound like a preposterous accusation to make; but let's look at the (equally preposterous) situation that We The People find ourselves in.

There are laws against child porn that will humiliate anyone who so much as possesses a picture on a hard drive -- even if they don't know that the picture is there. Teenagers have been arrested, and prosecuted, and had their names entered into government sex abuse databases for exchanging pictures with other teenagers of the same age.

That is the law. But what of the law enforcement?

At the airports, the TSA is taking "strip-scan" photos of members of the private class. Your children and my children are not exempt from this. Let me point out that you can rest assured that many members of the political class will have exceptions made for them. After all, laws are made by them to use against you and me.

And this is the problem. Members of the political class are entirely exempt from their own policies, so they have no burden. They don't feel the sting of their actions. It didn't used to be that way, until just the past 100 years. Government used to be small, and almost entirely made up of people who were elected to their posts. Today, over 95% of government is not unelected. So they don't care.

That's why, over the years, the focus of law has shifted from restraining government to enabling government. Every time Congress gets together today, they set to work empowering the Federal State, appeasing the system, and restraining We The People!

They are out of touch. They are the parasitic elite. As long as nothing changes, our liberties will be whittled away by a political class that has become irresponsibly self-serving.

So at airports, nekked photos continue being taken of adults, or elderly, of men and women -- and of children. And the pictures are being taken, ironically, by the law enforcement. And we are told, ironically, that this is being done in the name of security. I believe that most reasonable people would agree that this is not making anyone feel secure. Far from it.

In Baltimore this week, a family went to the media after their 12-year-old daughter was strip-scanned in Tampa. According to the parents, she was subjected to "an embarrassing and unhealthy scan." Her name is being withheld, but they say that she was traveling with an adult friend of the family, not her parents.

The public statement from the parents says: "Our daughter was scared and didn't understand what was happening. In essence they conducted a strip search on a 12-year-old girl without her parents present to advocate for her."

Will We The People collectively shrug? Does legal = moral? Is it ok when the man has a gun and a badge? I don't think so. Any reasonable American does not think that this can continue. We have exchanged liberty for security, and lost both. Just like Benjamin Franklin warned. But it's not too late. We can reclaim our liberty.

Let us recall the words of America's Founders:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness.

"Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

~ Declaration of Independence, adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776.

I see a time, right around the corner, where We The People will be required by duty to follow the example of the Founding Fathers; and to cast off the tyranny of incompetence that has come to define Versailles DC. Voting doesn't change a a government, when almost all of government is unaffected by elections. Only Revolution will remedy the situation.

A Revolution of charity in the face of aggression. A Revolution marked by passive resistance. A Revolution where weapons include pen and paper, and camera, and website. Everyone has a different role to play -- but everyone must. do. something.

As I see it, to do nothing is the only crime here. When government is harming our children, it is crystal clear that we have a serious problem on our hands. Anyone who cannot see that now, will never see the problem that is right before the faces of We The People.

Sources:

http://www.tampabay.com/news/transportation/airport-body-scanners-reveal-all-but-what-about-when-its-your-kid/1109659
http://www.datelinezero.com/?p=1585
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/jan/04/new-scanners-child-porn-laws