When the Transportation Security Agency began its intrusive new airport screening procedures last fall, I was sure Americans would rise up to the privacy violations and put an end to the program in short order.
I predicted it would happen by Thanksgiving. Later I revised my prediction to Christmas.
There was palpable anger expressed by Americans for two or three months. And then it subsided.
One more nail in the coffin of American liberties.
When was the last time you saw a news report about TSA abuses?
It's yesterday's story.
A new line in the sand has been drawn for those of us concerned about protecting our most personal freedoms.
Don't think for a moment TSA has backed down. In fact, the lack of response by Congress – including new House Republicans – to the concerns of the people has all but ensured the enhanced security screenings will not only continue but become more widespread and more invasive.
And that's just the beginning.
It has not escaped Washington's attention that the American people blinked – and moved on to other concerns, tacitly accepting the nonsensical screenings that actually don't make any of us any safer in the skies.
Now they know we will accept more infringements of our rights. So be ready for them.
Meanwhile, the horrors continue in the airports on a daily and hourly basis.
Here's the latest victimization I heard about from a woman who e-mailed me:
I recently had a horrifying experience of traveling by air from Las Vegas. Of course, this required that I go through the security lanes at the airport manned by the TSA.
I was asked to go through the Whole Body Imaging device – twice. I am a breast cancer survivor. My breast is mutilated by the surgery, probably it set off an alarm for the scanner.
Next step I was ordered to get patted down by the TSA agent. At my station the agent was busy frisking a really old lady. So I got a volunteer from another station.
She slowly groped my genitals, buttocks and breasts. She pulled up my sweater so she could touch my waistline. I was sexually assaulted in front my horrified husband and a dozen other, also horrified, passengers.
Then, smiling, she asked me with the curiosity, "Is it your first time?" It triggered a memory I was to trying to suppress all these years. I was assaulted when I was a child, and a rapist asked the same question with the same curious expression on his face. I cried for hours, all flight and a day after. It was my husband's birthday we celebrated in Las Vegas. Now I hate every minute of this trip.
How is it possible that sexual assault is protected by law in this country?
Yes, how is it possible?
It's possible because we are being abused and having our senses assaulted in so many ways by government run amok, without the fundamental limitations prescribed by the Constitution and the spirit of self-governance that set America apart from other nations two centuries ago.
It's possible because we don't put our collective foot down when confronted with such abuses – other than to get angry for a while until it's time to get angry about something else.
It's possible because Americans have become like sheep being led to the slaughter.
It's possible because we have forgotten that in America the people are the masters and government the servant.
It's possible because we are a nation in crisis, without moorings, without understanding, without discernment and without a sense of right and wrong.