As I write this, I'm on a flight from Los Angeles to Orlando. And I've just been treated as if I were a suspected terrorist.
You heard me. I'm a well-known, recognizable person, and anybody who knows me at all knows I'm a loyal, outspoken American citizen. Yet, as I came through security at LAX, I was compelled to stand in line, take off my shoes and jacket, empty my pockets of all metal, take this computer out of my roller bag and put it in a separate tray, put it and the roller bag and my clothes onto a conveyor belt through a scanner – and even then, in my stocking feet, to show my boarding pass to a "profiler" as I came through a scanner myself!
To this TSA "profiler," I looked no different than any number of passengers who, in the last several years, have been identified and apprehended as they plotted to blow up airplanes and kill other Americans. These would-be killers weren't all Middle Easterners, though certainly some have been, causing other Middle Easterners to be suspects right along with virtually everybody else. Including me.
As if this weren't enough, when I attempt to fly home tomorrow night, I'll be subjected to the very same indignity in Orlando, also having to produce and show my driver's license or other proof of my citizenship, just to get in line and start the ordeal again!
And you know what? I'm glad about it! I don't like it, it's a terrible nuisance, it's uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing – but it's meant to save my life, to make me feel secure about the flight I'm taking. For now, it's necessary.
No matter who you are – ever try to get a check cashed without showing your ID? Try to take anything out of Costco? Rent a car? Get a loan at the bank? Or sometimes, even try to gain admittance to a crowded stadium event without producing ID and virtually proving you're an American citizen with credentials?
Friend, you know as well as I do that this is a fact of life today. Because of all the insidious, unprecedented violence and lawlessness in our own borders, we have to take unprecedented measures to spot and stop people who care nothing for our way of life – or our lives themselves.
Remember the Bob Dole commercial a few years back? He was shown in a convenience store trying to buy something, and the woman behind the counter was demanding to see his ID. He pleaded, "Look, I'm Bob Dole and I just ran for president – you know me." But the woman said, "I still have to see your ID." And as he produced it, he said, "OK, OK, Mom."
Nobody is exempt today. Every one of us needs to be ready on demand to identify ourselves as American citizens when asked.
It's not a matter of "racial profiling." It's not discrimination or prejudice. It's a matter of protection and security, national and personal. Why is that hard to understand, when it's true of everybody?
Now the governor of Arizona signs a bill confirming established law and authorizing police to question anybody they have reason to suspect of being illegal – breaking the law – and demand to see American ID. And suddenly the president, immigrant groups and a predictable array of interest groups are claiming a "violation of civil rights," when every single one of us is subjected to the same demands all the time!
The people of Arizona, by a 70 percent majority, are cheering the law – because they have been increasingly subjected to violence of all kinds, rampant drug traffic, home invasions and multiple murders of police! If Barack and Michelle Obama were still living in Chicago, or even in a neighborhood in Washington, and they were constantly and increasingly surrounded by these threats, do you think they'd be more concerned with the "civil rights" of possible suspected criminals? No, you bet your bippy they'd be loudly calling for law enforcement – not liberal, permissive, law-defeating "immigration reform."
Face it: Illegal immigration – like knowingly hiring illegals – is breaking the law. Breaking the law is a crime, no matter why it is broken. And a law not enforced is meaningless, a cruel and destructive joke.
Right now, in the Gulf of Mexico, there is a broken pipeline on the ocean floor spewing 210,000 gallons of crude oil a day into the water, destroying sea life and terribly polluting the ocean in unpredictable ways. Should something be done about it? What kind of devastation will occur before it can be stopped, and are there any limits on what must be done to stop it?
In America, somewhere between 14 and 20 million illegals have poured across our borders and insinuated themselves into our society. Yes, many have come seeking jobs and sustenance. Many are contributing in some positive ways to life around them; they are good and decent people. No question. But they've done it illegally, and knowingly, and thus are lawbreakers, criminals.
And now, way too many of these illegals are bringing drugs with them, and guns, and some vile and violent intentions. They're wreaking destruction and death, and intend to keep doing it. And with them, jihadists and terrorists seeking to destroy us and our way of life have undoubtedly infiltrated.
Like the oil spill in the Gulf, harsh and determined measures are called for, now, not after more long, drawn out debates about "immigration reform." We have laws already!
Like the Arizona governor, we need to identify and weed out illegals, especially violent and seditious ones, from our midst. I know many in the Hispanic community, which makes up about 20 percent of the state's population welcome the measures, in spite of some possible inconvenience or supposed indignity, precisely because the presence of these lawbreakers and violent criminals demeans and sullies the image and reputation – as well as the personal security – of the law-abiding and good American citizens who are Hispanic.
If I don't mind being "profiled" as a potential terrorist all the time, why should they? Be a proud American – show your ID!